Shack quick tour

If you want to have more information regarding devices installed in my shack, please point mouse arrow onto the above picture, and select equipment you're interested in, or go below in the present page.

I operate a Japanese, Kenwood TS 440 S-AT HF (High Frequency) transceiver. AT stands for Antenna Tuner: the radio is equipped with an automatic antenna tuner working on all regular OM bands and WARC frequencies. The microphone is the standard dynamic Kenwood mike. Maximum output power is 100W PEP. Following upgrades have been carried out:

1) Optional IF-10 chipset (internal) and a home-made TTL-RS232C interface (external) able to allow remote control operations by a regular Windows based Personal Computer, equipped with an appropriate software tool.

2) one to two decimal digits frequency indication on display.

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Amateur station current is provided by a Daiwa heavy duty power supply, model PS304. It gives up to 25A @ 13,8V. It supplies DC current to all low tension devices, including HF transceiver, 2m/70cm FM transceiver, packet modem, and other non ham devices such as mobile phone battery pack charger.

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Multi Mode Data Controller is connected to both HF and VHF transceivers. I do not perform HF packet traffic, sometimes I tune into a meteorological fax station or a news agency. Second radio data port is connected to an FM, palmtop, 2 meters, Kenwood TH75 transceiver for local packet traffic @1,2kbps. Routine AX.25 BBS traffic is porformed. No 9600 optional board installed.

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Yes, it's a true, original Olivetti M24 personal desktop computer. When it arrived on the market, mid eighties, you'd need about 3000$ to buy it! Read carefully its impressive data sheet: Processor Intel XT 8086, 512 KB RAM expanded to 640, MS-DOS Operative System upgraded to version 5, CGA graphic adapter, colour monitor, 20MB Hard Disk, 5"1/4 Floppy Drive.

It's connected with MFJ TNC, and it hosts very well a terminal program TPK181 for packet operation. A further alphanumeric interface logging program is installed to perform automated log book filling.

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The amateur station is supported by a Dell Latitude CPi laptop computer. The computer is mainly used for working reasons, but some ham-related software is regularly installed and that device has been used for the develpment of the present personal web site.

The PC is equipped with a Pentium II processor, 64MB RAM memory, 6GB HD, a very large LCD screen, two PCMCIA slots fitted with a 56kbps modem and an Ethernet adapter.

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The antenna system is composed by a 6 meter high, cross-shaped, telescopic pole equipped with a Diamond HF 5 band vertical antenna and a VHF-UHF dual band antenna.

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A Daiwa Standing Wave Ratio (SWR) meter is running in my station. I can manually connect it to Kenwood TH75 144/430MHz transceiver (primary use) or to Kenwood TS440S AT short wave equipment (secondary use). Power levels up to 150W are allowed. No UHF frequencies managed.

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I built a 28V 40A power supplier to feed a homemade SSPA (Solid State Power Amplifier). At the moment the unit is ready, but t amplifier is still under construction.

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A Kenwood TH 75 is installed in a "base station" configuration. It's powered by the Daiwa supplier and its connected to the MFJ 1278 for packet tasks and to a Kenwood SMC31 handy microphone to perform local VHF/UHF traffic. An external home made selector can easily switch between two uses. The transceiver can be optionally boosted by a 45W SSPA. A further Kenwood TH77 hand held transceiver is dedicated to mobile use.

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