Amateur Radio Station
DL1GKC
Dr. Christian Keller
76829 Landau/Pfalz
Germany
Locator: JN49BE 49°11'41" N, 8°06'22" O
Club (DOK): A48
Radio Amateur since 1986
Member of German Radio Club (DARC)
Relais: 145.700 DB0XK (Kalmit) 438.950 DB0UX (Durlach)
>> Click on images or click on links to enlarge <<
In the Shack
Station:
Rigs: Yaesu FT-2000 (HF) and Yaesu FT-7800E (VHF/UHF)
PA: Yaesu FL-2100Z RF Linear Amplifier with solid 750 W
Antenna Tuner: Palstar AT1KP; Bencher YA-1 Low Pass Filter
Mics: Headset ED5 SW (HF), Yaesu MD1 (HF), Icom SM-6 (VHF/UHF)
Morse Key: Electronic Memory Keyer ETM-8C
Radio-PC: Dell Optiplex GX150, Pentium III, 512 KB RAM, 20 GB HDD
PC-Interface: 2 x AS-FC4
Monitor: 8'' TFT 4:3 Touchscreen VGA
Software: MixW 2.19; Logger32; AGWTracker; UIview32; Download: MixW to Logger32
Antennas:
HF:
Cushcraft MA5B 5 Band Mini Beam; RAK Heavy Duty Alfaspid Rotor
Trap Dipole for 80/40 m (Diamond W-735)
Fritzel Groundplane GPA30 for 20/15/10 m
Homemade up and outer Verticals for 20 and 17m
For DX on 40 m, homemade up and outer Vertical on 12 m GFK fiberglass tower
VHF/UHF:
Diamond X-50
4 Element portable Yagi antenna
Yaesu FT-2k, Palstar AT1KP Tuner MA5B Beam on Top Building from backside
Portable Equipment:
Rigs: Yaesu FT-857D with DXpedition Pack and RadioBox; Yaesu VX-7R
Antenna: Vertical Up and Outer 10m fed with parallel lead and 4:1 balun
Antenna: Buddistick Vertical
Operator trying to crack pile-up A short break from QSOing Portable Equipment near Ifezheim
Station Equipment and previous rigs:
Over the years I have enjoyed a number of transceivers. My first transceiver was a Yaesu FT-107M which can be seen on my first QSL card. The rig was a working horse for nearly 20 years, and you can expect a great receiver if you get one second hand. Coming originally from Yaesu as radio company, I then changed for a couple of months to Kenwood, which I also liked very much. First I sticked with the fabelous TS-930SAT that has outstanding receiver qualities, followed by the very compact and already CAT-controlled DSP transceiver TS-570D. Since the filter options of the TS-570 were rather rudimentary in extreme situations that requird to blend out noise and QRM, I decided to give the Yaesu FT-2000 (100 W version) a try as my new working horse. That being said, I like this transceiver very much. It is easy to handle and provides a variety of filter and other options that are able to deal with the current crowed band situations.
Yaesu FT-2000 Late in the shack Cushcraft MA5B 5 Band Beam
Vertical antennas very often pick up a lot of random noise from surrounding urbanations and electronic installations that result in a significant increase in the basic noise level of the radio. In order to blend out noise and being able to specifically focus the HF energy transmitted from the antenna in one particular direction, I decided to give the Cushcraft Mini Beam MA5B a try, which has been positively tested and used by a number of hams. It is important to note that this is a comprimise beam with rather small bandwidth on the bands but with still efficient f/b ratio. One cannot expect miracles but given the dimensions of only 5.2 m (17.1 ft) element length and 2.2 m (7.3 ft) boom length it fits extremly well in nearly every garden or on the top of a building. On 10, 15, and 20 m the beam works as 2 element yagi, whereas on 12 and 17 m WARC bands the antenna works as rotary dipole. The antenna is turned by a heavy Alfaspid RAK rotor, one of the best and also affordable heavy duty rotors on the market.This rotor is sufficient to bear further massive HF antenna projects of nearly every size and weight.
Click to see my previous toys:
Further information at www.qrz.com/dl1gkc email: dl1gkc(a)darc.de Echolink: DL1GKC-L: Node 72511 APRS