G0VQY - My Shack, Radio Equipment & Antenna System

It always makes me laugh when people refer to their radio room as "The Shack". You're almost expecting to see some rundown shed full of spiders and cobwebs in the back garden. However, most of us now have our radio equipment setup in our houses, but the radio room is still always referred to as "the Shack"

My shack is located in what I refer to as my "playroom", actually this used to be my garage but since I drive a Mercedes Sprinter Van, there didn't really see much call for a double garage that I couldn't use, so in 2007 I turned it into a large room that now houses my computer equipment, radio equipment, and my 300 gallon aquarium, and of course my 46 inch flat screen television on the wall, including Panasonic surround system.

3 element steppir beam

My Radio Communications Equipment

I operate almost entirely on the HF frequencies. I particularly favour 20 and 17 m and also 10 m when conditions are good. My main HF transceiver is an ICOM 7800. I use a three element SteppIR Yagi which is located on top of a heavy duty 18 m Radio Structures mast which I got from Ron at Vinecom.co.uk. When you take into account the rotator cage and stub mast, the antenna sits at about 63 feet high when the mast is extended fully. I use a Heil Pro 40 microphone that I operate with a modified foot switch. Because of my limited hand movement I am not able to operate small switches so Waters and Stanton modified the foot switch so I can operate it using my hand. I have also got the SPE Expert 1K Automated Solid-State Linear Amplifier which I run at UK legal limit of 400 W.

2m SSB

I am not a diehard 2 m fanatic but I have got some equipment that lets me operate a modest station. I use the Trio 751E 25w multimode along with the Vine 2M9DX nine element Yagi which is attached above my SteppIR. My location on the edge of the cliffs gives me a very good takeoff for VHF and I don't normally have much of a problem working into Spain and France when conditions are favourable..

shack-photo

3 Element SteppIR + 18m HD Radio Structures Mast

3 element steppir beam

Can you see me?

Click photo to enlarge

I was sitting outside one day in the summer and I noticed a plane flying around in circles. Didn't think anything of it, then a few months later a guy knocked on my door and offered me the photograph below. Suffice to say I took him up on his reasonable offer. If you look very carefully, just in front of the white chair is me.

Keeping my antenna down during windy weather

Click photo to enlarge

During the winter time when we have fairly high winds here in Brixham, especially along the coast where I live, I tend to keep my antenna wound all the way down. Even though it's fairly low, it still seems to work quite well

ICOM 7800 HF Transceiver + 6m

icom_7800

Heil PRO40

pro40

40 M Dipole

This is my 40 m wire dipole. It is a mono band antenna that basically enables me to talk to people around the UK and also mainland Europe. It's not really much good for DX purposes, but working inter "G" stations, it is absolutely awesome. I don't have it elevated that high, probably about 30 feet, but that is all you need for the type of amateur radio operating I like doing on this band.

My QTH next to the sea

I live on the south side of Brixham overlooking the sea, my property is approximately 200 feet above sea level and about 300 feet from the edge of the cliff overlooking the rocks and beach and as you can see by the photo below is almost surrounded by water. Being so close to the sea I believe gives me that edge and helps boost signals around the world, well, that is my theory anyway

click photos to enlarge