VA2UTC-Operating Position & Antenna

Many have asked me what kind of antenna I am using along with the rig. On Facebook I do have a picture taken with my cell phone of the TS120S on as my profile picture. For my birthday I got a great gift an iTouch. This iPod has a video and still picture function on it and I had a bit of a light bulb moment and thought hey why not snap some photographs of the station.

I took a number of photos of the station ops position and the antenna. First off the ops position as you can see in the first photo I have the laptop and next to it sits the radio. The next shot is of the back of the radio, note the connections, left to right radio to tuner antenna to tuner. You can also see the grounding line. The next photos are of the end fed Zepp. The first shows the antenna coming out of the bedroom window, it is followed by a shot of the pole that is tied to the balcony and the last is of the other end which is hooked on to the clothes line. The antenna is 22.8 meters in length the radiator is 15.24 meters, in feet 25 for coax and 50 for the radiator.






Hopefully by the summer the radio will have a companion, a new Yaseau FT450SAT and the antenna should be raised up higher. As for the ground system because I am on the second floor of the duplex I will probably be going with an artificial ground and may also include a meter to ensure that the system is matched to a 1:1 ratio. For the VHF UHF bands I have a ground plane antenna plus a simple antenna given to me by VE2ESP that I can use. The second is a steel quarter wave antenna that can be clamped on to a rail. Most likely I will be using that antenna for portal ops and installing the ground plane as the main VHF UHF radio. I have not decided on the radio for this part of the station yet. I also plan on replacing the table for a desk set. All together the project should run me about 2k. This will include radios grounding and the new table, I hope. For now the simple operating position is working very well and I am pleased with how the TS120S is holding up.

So there you have it a complete run down of the VA2UTC ops position with a revised look at what is in store for the future. Hope to see you on the bands especially on Feb 5 as the BSCC contest is scheduled to run. Last year I worked the test under VE2MAB, and by the way we got an award for our efforts. This year I will be doing the test as VA2UTC SOAB. (single Op All Band). The 24 hour test is sponsored by the Black Sea Contest Club and the exchange is call signal report and zone. See you on the bands.

73 Cliff VA2UTC.