G4NSJ – My amateur ham radio equipment

An audio message:

 

Here is some of my radio gear. I’ve not listed everything as it would take up too much space, and become boring!

4 metres 2 metres 70cms equipment.

My main 2 metre – 70cms rig is the AnyTone AT-778UV. There’s an interesting video about scanning CTCSS tones on the Anytone here. The Baojie BJ-218 runs 25 Watts and is for mobile use. The Baofeng GT-3 handheld is for keeping in my pocket! The Baofeng UV-5R is another little gem.  You can scan for CTCSS tones on the Baofeng, see video here. For some reason, I have two UV-5R radios! The Alinco DR-605 is old but it’s a reliable radio which I use in the workshop. It’s on a 10 element 70cms Yagi aimed at the Isle of Wight repeater. The Anytone AT5189 is my 4 metre radio. It runs 25 Watts into a Sirio CX 4-68 vertical aerial.

Yaesu FT290R:

Below is my FT290R which I’ve just acquired. See details here.

Pictured below on the left is my TYT MD UV380 DMR FM handheld radio. I’m getting to grips with operating through digital repeaters.

HF Equipment

The Kenwood TS-570D is the main shack radio. In fact, I have two TS-570D transceivers. One is solely for short wave listening. The Alinco DX-SR8 is mainly for long and medium wave DX, from 30kHz up. It also acts as a standby HF rig. The AnyTone AT5555 is an all mode radio covering 25 to 30 MHz. This is a nice little radio and it’s usually tuned to one of the many 10 metre beacons or it’s monitoring 29.600 FM or our local 10 metre repeater. GB3CQ.

The 6 metre band:

I use my Icom 7300 on 50MHz but, for continuous monitoring and local chats, I use my old Alinco DX70 shown below.

ICOM IC-7300

This is the newest addition to the shack, and I am very pleased with it. The photos below shows the IC-7300 tuned to one of the 5MHz frequencies.

 

UPDATE: 29th June 2022

I’ve bought a three way coax switch. I wouldn’t use any type of switch at UHF frequencies but the one below is only used to connect the Icom IC-7300 to HF, 6m, or 4m. The losses at these frequencies are negligible. The two way switch at the top switches the 4m aerial to a separate FM only radio.

 

 

My WS. No. 19 works well, after a lot of repairs, but I need to build a power supply. The Pye PCR2 receiver also works well and is used for general listening. I sold the  R1155 receiver. When the CB radio bursts into life, it’s an indication that 10 metres is open. The Marconi CR100 is a lovely old communications receiver from the 1940s. The Eddystone 910/1 is a nice comms receiver that I use mainly on the HF broadcast bands.

Other random stuff:

The CAP. CO. ATU is balanced and uses two lovely variable capacitors and a roller coaster inductor. It covers 1 to 30mHz. My trusty old KW107 covers 80 to 10 metres. Sorry about the naff quality photo. The home brew ATU on the piece of wood is for matching end-fed wire aerials. The far right piece of wood ATU is simple but probably the most useful. Don’t be deceived by looks!

My SEM TranZmatch is a useful standby ATU. I use it mainly on the various communications receivers. Marconi power meter model TF-1152A/1. 50 ohms 25 Watts. Frequency coverage, up to 500mHz. A very useful piece of kit. The home brew RF ammeter is great for end-fed wire aerials.

Below is my Diamond SX-100 SWR meter and my Ajax A25 marine radiotelephone. Sadly, the receiver front end has problems. One day, I’ll get round to sorting it out.