In 2005 we remodeled our kitchen.   Rather that discard the old cabinets I thought they could be used to make a decent home office/ham shack.  To bring some of the cabinets down to desk level took some modification.   The result is shown above.  The room previously had a hot tub installed in the floor which we hadn't used in years.  The new location yields a great view across the valley to the east.

The equipment as of January 2007

I decided is was time for a new toy to go with the new shack.   I received the FTDX-9000 Contest in August 2005.  I can never have too many bells and whistles.  I choose to go with the Contest model because I liked the idea of using a larger external monitor and it allowed some larger controls on the rig.   Compared to the "D" model, it also had two extra analog meters which I find useful.  I have added all the features of the "D" model to the rig except for the internal monitor.  I have been very happy with the rig although it has had some minor bugs.   (It is was back at Yaesu for updates in December 2006 and most of the bugs were eliminated or improved.)  The receiver hears better than any other radio I have used.  The noise floor is very low.  I immediately noticed an appreciable improvement on copying weak RTTY signals.  The rig is complex and takes some learning to use.  Many complaints about the rig have come from people who haven't learned how to properly use the features.  Some of the knobs that would have once controlled potentiometers are now in effect rotary switches that select different algorithms.  It takes a momentary pause for the algorithm to function.  One of the features that caught my interest was the ability to run the rig with full duplex capability.  More about that later.  The rig is shown below with the MD-200 microphone.  I am not into hi-fi audio but I do like to receive good audio reports.  Although the internal speakers in the FTDX-9000 are not bad, I added the matching SP-9000 speaker in January 2007.  I am happy with the improved sound.

A shot of the external monitor is shown below.  There are several different screens of information that can be displayed but this is my favorite, the dual bandscope.  There are several variations on the way the bandscope can be set up and displayed.  Another display that is very useful (particularly when using the manual notch, contour or DSP functions) is the audio scope.

I sold my Alpha 89 on Ebay in early 2004 and bought a new Alpha 87A in March 2004.  I made the change because I do a lot of RTTY contesting and the automatic tune feature was useful to me.  The Alpha 87A is a good amplifier to use with the FTDX-9000.   It is easily driven to full legal power, not much more than 50 watts required, and quickly follows band changes of the FTDX.  It can nearly be ignored when operating.   This is important to me when I am tired during a contest.  One thing to remember is to not run more than about 100 watts through the amplifier even if it is turned off.  The pin diodes are subject to failure if you do so.   Therefore, I set the menu in the FTDX so that the rig will not put out more than 100 watts.  If you want to run full output from the transceiver than you are well advised to switch around the amplifier.

I still use the Hal DXP38 as one way of running FSK.  When contesting I run the DXP38 and a computer program (MMTTY run within Writelog) simultaneously.  The software is probably a bit better but under some conditions the DXP38 does the better job.

The Alpha Power 4510 is a very nice wattmeter.  It can display forward, reflected or delivered (forward minus reflected) power on the digital display.   It can display forward, reflected or SWR on the analog meter.  Ranges can be selected manually or automatically.  It can display peak power.  SWR will read the same regardless of power level.  For me, it is very useful to watch the SWR to see if anything is changing with my yagi.  I have a problem with the traps in the yagi and this lets me know if anything is starting to change.  The meter will interface with the computer if desired.

The meter I have is special to me.  I won it at the W9DXCC convention in Elk Grove, IL in September 2006.  The meter was donated by Alpha Power and had only been used on the 3Y0X DXpedition.  Some of the members of the DXpedition were at the convention and signed the owners manual for me.  Actually, I already owned a 4510, but sold that one on Ebay.

Recently I have tried to carefully document information on my equipment and station set up.  Examples are shown below of a simple computer to rig interface and a box that helps control what receive antenna is being used and what audio stream is being fed to the computer.

Below is a diagram that shows how my station is configured.   I recently decided I wanted to have the duplex capability of the FTDX9000 available if I chose to use it.  I wanted to be able to run high power using either VFO without having to have two amplifiers, I didn't want to invest in band filters and I didn't want to invest in more antennas .  This has been accomplished.  The band data available from the FTDX is always the transmit frequency regardless of which VFO is controlling the transmit frequency.  The Top Ten Band Decoder automatically selects the proper TX antenna (I only have 2 transmitting antennas) and could also select the proper band pass filters if I was using them.  The Alpha 87A samples the rf from the transceiver and automatically retunes in milliseconds.  A wide variation of receive antenna selection is available including using the TX antenna on the second VFO when the rig is not transmitting.  During TX it automatically switches to another receive antenna.  The receive antenna being used is always connected through an ICE (Industrial Communications Engineers, LTD) rf limiter/receiver protector.  This is certainly not the best or most sophisticated duplex or SO2R setup but it fulfills my needs at this time.

I bought the FT-897 at the 2003 Dayton Hamfest.  I mainly bought it to use as a portable rig.  In my case, that means taking it out to the gazebo in the back yard and operating from there.  I have a coax run to the gazebo but I do not have rotor control available.  The rig is equipped with filters, ac power supply and antenna tuner.  It is also the only rig I have for VHF use.  However, it is rare for me to operate on VHF.  For a period of time the FT-897 was my only backup rig.   I was forced to use it before I had the FTDX-9000 and while my FT-1000MP Mark V was being repaired.  I ran the 2004 WAEDC RTTY contest using AFSK and about 70 watts out.   I actually won North America, single operator, low power using this set up.  I think it is a good versatile little rig.

Shown below is my vertical antenna for 80 meters which I erected in 2004.  It is a 1/4 wave, Model AS80-FS from Array Solutions.  It is approximately 70 feet tall, 4" OD aluminum tubing at the bottom stepping down to 3/8" OD tubing at the top.  I have 120 approximately 70 foot radials buried just under the surface of the grass.  I built a mechanism to mount on the rear of my lawn tractor to dig the trench and lay the wire in place.  Still, it took a few days to install all the radials.  I was not satisfied with the radial plate that came with the antenna so I made my own out of a 36" square of .093" thick copper.  The radial wires are #18 bare copper attached to the radial plate with stainless steel hardware.  It is possible to tilt the antenna down if needed.  I decided to shield the lower section of the antenna in case an animal or person should come in contact with the antenna while I was transmitting.   A piece of 4" PVC drain pipe is a perfect fit over the bottom section of the vertical.  I fabricated a polycarbonate (Lexan) shield around the base.  We (xyl and I) decided to paint the lower 20 feet green to better blend in with the surroundings.   The antenna has been a good improvement for working DX on 80 meters.  Previously I only had wire antennas on 80.  I do use a beverage or other receiving antenna at times.

In 2003 I converted the Mosley PRO-95 to a PRO-96.  This added 40 meters (3 elements) to the trap yagi.  Although, I am sure this is not the ideal solution for a 40 meter beam it has been a great improvement over the wire antennas I have had.  An arial view (circa 2000) of the PRO-95 is shown below left.  The PRO-96 is shown below right.

My tower (US Towers HDX-555) has a tilt fixture.  I have homebrewed a power drive for both the telescoping and tilting of the tower.   It is powered and nicely controlled using a 1/2" variable speed electric drill.  The polycarbonate safety shield was removed for the photo below.  I can operate the unit with remote control.  If you look closely at the photo you can see a rod behind the drill chuck that prevents the drill from spinning.

The problem with tilting a tower with an antenna that has a 36' boom and 41' elements is that you can not get it close to the ground unless you have first climbed the tower and rotated the antenna such that the elements are in a vertical orientation.  In my case that is not possible because the house is in the way.   I believe I have developed a rather elegant solution to the problem.  A mechanism is shown below that allows the antenna to swing away from the tower as the tower is lowered.  The mechanism is controlled by a pair of gravity operated latches.   More information is available on the "PATENT" page.