I have reached one of my dreams

In this section I provide a description of my radiating system.

In autumn 2008 I have reached one of my dreams: to have my own shack at home.

After years of having operated ham radio portable, or in temporary installations during summer time, I upgraded my license for having a fixed installation at home.

When I had no fixed installation I used to see astonished the amazing pictures of other’s ham installation… Sometimes, I do believe, they are too much, more than necessary. Shacks crowded with an unfinished number of equipment. Ok, in the end it’s up to anybody’s wishes...

I opted for a complete and compact equipment with the aim of covering the following targets:

- Operate HF bands from 40 to 6 meter, omnidirectional.

- Operate V-UHF local repeaters Vertical polarization, omnidirectional.

- To be able to operate occasionally V-UHF directional or special configurations for testing trials.

To do so, I have prepared the following set-up:

Rigs:

- Yaesu FT-900: fixed HF all band station. Phone and CW.

- Yaesu FT-100D: fixed V-UHF station. Secondary HF station and 6 meter. Phone.

- Yaesu FT-857: all band & mode Back-up and Portable rig, ready in a transport bag.

- HF antenna Tuner MFJ-945 E

- Switching Power supply Telecom AV-5045 NF, 40 Amps continuous source. Light & portable.

- Iambic CW keyer. Ariston (Barcelona).

- Small HF transistor Amplifier RM KL-400.

Antennas:

- Eco Antenne Windom dipole 20 m. long for HF 40 to 10 meter. Eventually it’s also performing

on 6 meter !

- V-UHF Vertical Diamond NR 770 (1/2 lambda).

- Several homebrewed antennas for HF & V-UHF for field operation: Moxon beams, Yagi

beams, Circularly polarized antennas... See more details in the other sections of the web.

All these rigs have been put together into a neat PC bureau, and I tried to keep all wiring as hidden as possible.

Windom & V-UHF aerial The mini-shack

Concerning Coaxial cables installation, I decided having two coaxial down from the roof:

a) RG-213: devoted for HF.

b) Ecoflex-10: devoted for V-UHF or for an alternative use in special situations. I choose a better coaxial for these bands with low looses.

To have the chance to break the line in case of a thunder storm in my city, I’ve put in the window an airtight box, typically used for electrical installations. The two coaxial cables are ended there and there are two female-female connectors to make a bridge and continue the line towards the rigs.

In case of long holidays or if weather is getting bad and there’s a risk of thunder strike, I can open the box and remove the connectors, thus breaking the line.

The coaxial cables left outside home are secured until the roof by means of PVC tubes and Nylon ties.

The Cables are put inside these PVC pipes to protect them against weather and the sun UV ageing.

Ok, a Windom antenna is not the perfect antenna… but so far I’ve enjoyed a lot. I’m quite surprised with its results, taking into account it’s only 3,5 meters over the flat metal-covered roof of my apartment.

Even being at the bottom of the sunspot cycle it took me about 2 years to work 100 DXCC entities running 100 watts, doing a sporadic use of my system.

There are important benefits meanwhile:

- Hidden from the street. No sight of a long antenna is visible and my neighbourhood is kept in calm.

- I’m not worried if there’s a high speed wind.

- Low cost installation.

- Maintenance free. No misadjustments.

- Fast tuning with my manual Tuner.

- The Windom provides much multiple radiation lobes when compared to a conventional Dipole enabling more chances to get contact with different entities.

A shack is something that varies from time to time as you develop new amateur radio modes, or try new devices… At the moment I think I’ll stay to get the best out of it.