K8GU/3 Silver Spring

I’ve moved…here is the new QTH.

This is a photo of my modest station.  I used to run a pair of Kenwood TS-930‘s.  I still have one—it has PIEXX digital board upgrade, the Inrad roofing filter (which makes a pretty big difference), and cascaded Inrad 400-Hz CW filters, plus cascaded Inrad 2.1-kHz SSB filters.

I replaced the other 930 with an Elecraft K3/100 in August 2012.  I have a very basic configuration of the K3, with just a 400-Hz 8-pole roofing filter in addition to the stock 2.7-kHz 5-pole.  It also has the KXV3A RF I/O module for transverters, RX antennas, and panadpaters.  I have one of the custom 700-Hz 8-pole filters on-order.  SO2R audio switching is handled by a YCCC SO2R+.  Antenna/filter switching is a KK1L band-decoder/relay driver driving a modified W9RE (the original by W9RE himself) 2×6 relay box.  The filters are homebrew W3NQN units.  I also have on-loan from KB9UWU an Ameritron AL-80B (1x 3-500Z) amplifier which gives me 600 or so watts of power when needed.

On VHF, I have the Elecraft K144XV 2-meter module in my K3 driving a Mirage B3016 to about 100 watts, as well as a loaner FT-736R that I use on 222 (barefoot) and 432 (with a Mirage D1010 amp for about 100 watts).

This is a tidy summary of everything:

Band Radio Power Antenna
160 TS-930S and K3/100 100 W Rebuilding
80 TS-930S and K3/100 100 W 1/4-wave / RG-8X
40 TS-930S and K3/100 100 W Dipole at 35 ft NW/SE / RG-58
30 TS-930S and K3/100 100 W Rebuilding
20 TS-930S and K3/100 100 W G3TXQ broadband Hex beam at 30 ft / LDF4-50
17 TS-930S and K3/100 100 W G3TXQ broadband Hex beam at 30 ft / LDF4-50
15 TS-930S and K3/100 100 W G3TXQ broadband Hex beam at 30 ft / LDF4-50
12 TS-930S and K3/100 100 W G3TXQ broadband Hex beam at 30 ft / LDF4-50
10 TS-930S and K3/100 100 W G3TXQ broadband Hex beam at 30 ft / LDF4-50
6 K3/100 100 W G3TXQ broadband Hex beam at 30 ft / LDF4-50
2 K3+K144XV+brick 100 W 9-el Yagi at 27 ft / LMR-600
1.25 FT-736R 35 W Rebuilding (11-el K1FO)
0.70 FT-736R+brick 100 W Rebuilding (17-el K1FO w/ mast-mount LNA)

The computer is a Pentium D 3.0 GHz (1 GB RAM; dual-boot Linux and Windows XP).

And, if you read this far…this is what it looks like behind the nice organized operating table…I put the “wire” in “wireless.”  The device in the center is the W9RE switchbox.  The black cables that go up and to the left of the picture actually connect to antenna ports at my entrance panel and don’t always live where they are now.