QST: Blog Of K3RRR

Ham Radio On The Cheap: 2014 Edition

Looking at what I consider to be a barebones ham shack setup, that strikes a balance between cost, utility, and minimizing frustrations of getting on the HF …
Video Rating: 3 / 5

August 9, 2014/1 Comment/by

1 reply

Mike Parks says:
August 9, 2014 at 2:04 PM

Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

General Info – K3RRR

Connect On Twitter!
Subscribe On YouTube!

-.- …– .-. .-. .-.
K3RRR.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Visit My Web Site
@K3TripleR ~~~~~~~~~~~ Follow Me On Twitter
YouTube.com/K3RRR ~~~~ Check Out My Videos
-.- …– .-. .-. .-.

Name, QTH, Grid:

My name is Robert and I currently live in Killeen Texas about 40 miles north of Austin in EM11db.

Grid Map shows my location and the other 26 hams in my sub grid. Click for bigger photo.

Rigs / Antennas / Etc.:

Here’s a list of my very modest station at Kilo Three Triple R with links to pages with more information about many of the items (coming soon!):

Home Station: Icom 9700 for Satellites and D-Star and VHF/UHF. Icom 7300 for all things HF including mostly FT8! Icom 705 for HF, DSTAR, portable and mobile operations.
Antennas on HF: 135′ EFHW antenna – 80m through 10m at 40′. 65′ EFHW antenna – 40m through 10m at 35′. 6m dipole at 17’made from leftover BuddiPole parts
VHF / UHF / Beyond: Diamond D-130 Discone antenna with 25-1300 MHz coverage at 20′.
Satellite Antenna Array: AMSAT LEO Pack 16 element 436 MHz 436CP16 and 8 element 144 MHz 2MCP8A with AZ / EL Yaesu G-5500 computerized rotator with Fox Delta ST-2 controller.
Antenna for Portable Satellite: Handheld Elk 2M/440L5 Dual-band Log Periodic antenna (used with ICOM 705, Kenwood TH-D74a or BaoFeng UV-5R.)
Mobile Station: For HF, my Icom 705 has shared custody between my Subaru Forster SUV and my home shack. This gives me all mode / all bands 160m – 70cm mobile rig as needed that includes D-STAR, touch screen and waterfall. HF antenna is a 40-10m Wolf River Coils Silver Bullet Mini with a Diamond dual-band antenna for VHF/UHF. I also use my Kenwood TH-D74a which does surprising well as a mobile radio using the same Diamond dual band antenna – with the added benefit of also having DSTAR and APRS. Likewise, I use my Anytone 878 UV Plus DMR radio. The mobile setup also includes a dedicated mobile openSPOT3 hotspot for DMR that allows transcoded operations for any of the three radios – I am usually on the AMSAT, WW 91 or Nationwide talkgroups on DMR and for D-STAR where I usually hang out on 30C or 1C.
HT: Kenwood TH-D74a added to the shack for 144, 220 and 440 amateur bands D-Star, broadband receive, etc. / Anytone 878 UV Plus radio and a BaoFeng UV-5R (3 of them with 2 in the Faraday Cage.) 136-174/400-480 MHz Dual-Band – BaoFeng is mostly for monitoring and throwaway high-risk operations.
Other: Dual LDG Z-11 Pro II Autotuner for both home QTH EFHWs – And Elecraft T-1 for portable operations with my ICOM 705. I am also the happy owner of the amazing Joplin Amateur Radio Club Antenna Launcher.
SDRs: SDRplay RSP2 and Three NooElec RTL2832U USB Sticks – used with the wideband Diamond discone antenna.
Computers: Main Computer: Homebrew Eight Core, 16 Thread i9-11900 @ 5.3GHz / 64 GB RAM — Ham Radio Computer: Six Core, 12 Thread i7-8700 @ 3.7GHz / 48 GB RAM— Triple monitors: Main 65″ LG 4K HDTV with dual 43″ 4K Sceptre HDTV – Apple iPad Pro.
Software: Windows 10 x64 / PstRotator for Sat Tracking, Rotator control and rig control / Ham Radio Deluxe / Digital Master 780 / HRD Logbook / WSJT-X for FT8 with JTAlert / UZ7HO Soundmodem Software Packet-Radio TNC, etc. / UISS for ISS and APRS contacts / etc. etc. etc.

Interests:

Everything! Including my Wonderful Wife Jan (absolutely my #1 favorite way to spend my time), digital photography, mountain hiking, sailing, biking, scuba diving, computers, writing, helping startup companies start and stay started and, of course, for fifty-nine years, ham radio!

Previous Calls:

WN4LEJ – Novice
WA4YFH – General
WB5KFI – Advanced
KD5SB – Advanced
AA5FR – Extra

New From K3RRR! – Five Year Life

Don't Start ANY Relationship, New Job or Career Before Answering These Pivotal 82 Questions About You!

#1 Amazon Bestseller In Job Hunting!
#1 Amazon Bestseller In Personal Transformation!

Are you someone who is facing major life changes such as: students and graduates; those who are dating, marrying or divorcing; those who are job hunting, have lost their job, changing careers or starting their own business; those who are seeking personal transformation or who are re-evaluating their lives for a variety of other reasons?

The book FIVE YEAR LIFE is a short, simplified motivational guide and workbook to help you quickly identify your own personal, career and relationship life goals.

By answering the book’s easy 82 question quiz, you can help ensure that your multiple goals are consistent and compatible for all aspects of your life along with the multiple goals of wives, husbands and significant others.

FIVE YEAR LIFE helps readers avoid wasting weeks, months or even years of their lives traipsing down dead-end paths caused by goal incompatibilities.

FIVE YEAR LIFE is now available at Amazon in both Paperback and Kindle formats - Click the book cover to order today!

New From K3RRR!

Efficient Love - Find Your Happily Ever After - Efficiently!

Amazon #1 Bestseller!

Efficient Love helps readers efficiently discover and affirm what they really want in a partner, efficiently attract Hero or Heroine candidates, and efficiently evaluate those candidates' Happily Ever After potential

Efficient Love is an easy-to-read, thought-provoking and often-humorous guide that will have you completely rethinking almost everything you thought you already knew - about both your own Quest for Love and the traits of your ideal Hero or Heroine!

This #1 Bestseller is immediately available at Amazon for the Kindle for only $8.97 - Click the book cover to go to Amazon!!

Don't have a Kindle? Get the free reader for your PC, Mac or smart phone by clicking FREE. Easier to read than Acrobat!

New From K3RRR!

101 Pivotal Questions About Your Startup Company

Before you are ready to produce a meaningful business plan for your startup or emerging company, you need to have thought through a series of pivotal issues in order to end up with a realistic plan for implementation.

Get "101 Pivotal Questions About Your Startup Company" today - so you can start knowing your answers by tomorrow.

The future of your new company depends on your answers.

Now Available at Amazon for the Kindle - Click the book cover to order!

Don't have a Kindle? Get the free reader for your PC, Mac or smart phone by clicking FREE. Easier to read than Acrobat!

Seen Any Bad Links, Missing Photos, Typos, Etc.?

I'm in the process of migrating my old AA5FR.com site to this new site to reflect my new K3RRR.com call sign. As I go through the process, I am also developing several new pages that describe my current antennas and other things of interest such as EMP threats.

If you see any problems with bad links, bad grammar, missing photos, typos, any stupid errors, etc., I would greatly appreciate your reporting those to me so I can fix them ASAP.

Also, any other thoughts, ideas, etc. are also always appreciated!

Just click on my eyeballs below!

73 de Robert

Ham Radio On The Cheap: 2014 Edition

Leave a Reply

Leave a Reply to Mike Parks Cancel reply

Pages Of Interest

Recent Posts

Pages

Categories

Archive

You might also like