Chasers: Show us your Station

Here is my station

Antennes MA5B, 2x15 Doublet, 4el 6M, 5el 4M
Running 200W from K3 Expert

11 Likes

Who cares about the K3 when there’s an HP8566 and other toys! :slight_smile:

That’s a nice looking shack Karel, thanks for posting.

A change in my shack this week - replacing two 19" square screen monitors with a 27" Samsung HD widescreen TV which will allow an HDMI connection from a PC - see pic below. The ex-corporate HP Compaq PC I bought for £150 last month (TNX - bought via the Mr SOTAbeams G3CWI Fleamarket website) didn’t have an HDMI port - its a good PC though - i3 processor and Windows 7 with 250 GB SSD, 16 MB RAM and 6 USB ports. So I bought a VGA to HDMI converter from a seller on the usual auction site for £6 and the Compaq PC now powers the TV/monitor. Can’t see me watching TV in the shack though, too much else of interest in the cave!

73 Phil

5 Likes


If this convers, fine…if not it’s a Wouxun KG-UV3D With a 19" Diamond antenna.
I bet I get more miles chasing than some of you do on your excursions. Trying to get into the right place can be a challenge. Sometimes I find a two-inch window to Tx/Rx, and when the wind blows your antenna out of the window…it’s a whole bunch of fun!!!
That’s why we do this!!!

1 Like

Hello,

up in the thread my former shack is shown.

This summer I had time to reorganize it giving using more space. The equipment is the same as described before but now it is a pleasure to sit and ran the radio on this tidy table (unless I have any ongoing project that makes it much more crowded, which happens often, hi)

73 de Ignacio

7 Likes


My actual shack, powered by poder supply or solar pannel. Leds are powered by solar pannel.

8 Likes

How about a graphics card? That would allow you to add more monitors as and when you feel the need; all of them running at 4K if need be.
73 Matt

1 Like

I just relocated my station and setted up more 2 antennas.



Both vertical for 20/40m bands.

73 de Eyran 4X4-2238.

6 Likes

Chasing activity from ON4FI was almost nihil last month. Don’t worry I am in good health just moved to a new QTH an apartment in the center of TIENEN. I love the new QTH with all its comfort in the town center. Downside is of course the limited or no possibility for ham radio antennas. But as you can see the HP measuring corner is almost in place. I hope to be qrv soon again with a IC7100 in the car so you will here me soon /P or /M [https://photos.app.goo.gl/ENNPcXAtCERxV8KG9] hps to post soon pictures of my mobile shack 73 Karel ON4FI

4 Likes

Hi Karel,
Do you still keep your previous QTH with all the great antennas you had or you got rid of everything?
Should you still keep them, have you considered setting up a remote station?
I went through a similar change when we moved from the QTH in the village, where I had a good radio station, to a rental appartment in the city center. I initially installed an endfed wire in the balcony, but one day the QRM became unbearable and I setup a remote station with an Icom-706. I initially had it with one single antenna and later I included a remote antenna switch letting me select up to 4 different antennas I have in my rural QTH. Later I also included an automatic antenna tunner, which I can command from the IC-706 front panel. This is how it looks like in these days:
This is what I have with me at the rental appartment:

This is what I have at the QTH in the village:

This is me chasing a Northamerican activator on 20m CW a few weeks ago:

Cheers,

Guru

5 Likes

Perhaps this is why I’m not going crazy yet. I have a wife (N5NHC) and three dogs, and I enjoy being home with them. And in between stuff, I’ve been doing some chasing. Over 400 points in March. This is the main station:

I have a pretty large room (blessed to have a wife who allows radio in the house).

The main operating desk, over the years it has evolved into a comfortable ergonomic design.

At night, sometimes you don’t need a lot of light just for chatting with friends.

I do enjoy older radios, especially antique receivers. The dog is my constant companion, whatever I am doing, she is with me.

And what is a hamshack without a work bench?

That’s it. If I have chased you, and it was not S2S, this is the station I was using.

Vy73 – Mike – KD5KC – El Paso, TX.

7 Likes

Wow, great to see so many cool chaser stations!

I started chasing with my home station. However, it is optimized for DXing, so I’m not always able to hear stateside SOTA. Current home version looks like this:

Yes, there’s a few amps ;-), but I chase SOTA at 100W or less (DX is a different story!). K3 is the primary rig, FT-1000D is the backup. Palstar tuner is used for high power. Antennas are a SteppIR DB18e on a HyGain crank-up, and an HF2V (primarily for 80M, but sometimes 60M). No trees and small lot size limits antenna options.

About 2 years ago, I set up a remote station at my cabin in NW WI, where I have an OCF about 35-40’ up. I configured a Pelican-style box to hold the control gear so I can easily carry and set up to operate from anywhere there is internet available. This is my primary chasing station now. Pictures below (also on my QRZ page):

From left to right, the bottom contains:

  • Begali Traveler paddles, already mounted, connected and ready to use.
  • Sennheiser portable headphones in a zippered case
  • Control head for TS-480 (the “guts” reside at the remote site)
  • TS-480 mic
  • A yellow wire used to prevent the top of the case from flopping completely flat
  • A Winbook 8" tablet with USB to ethernet adapter.
  • RemoteRig Control box
  • A small bluetooth keyboard (inserted between the right side of the case and the Control box).

From top to bottom, the case top contains:

  • A Vonets ethernet to wireless adapter
  • An ethernet to ethernet adapter
  • A power strip with an on/off rocker switch to power the Control box, Winbook and Vonets
  • A small envelope with essential documentation

73 Paula k9ir

4 Likes

Hello to all, my station:


IC-7600, IC-7000, TS-570D, Expert 1k-Fa
Paddles: Magpad, Bencher, Hi-Mond, ETM-50
Straight key spanish army
The aluminum:

Cushcraf X7, A50-6s, D3W

4 Likes

Hi Guru,

tnx for all the info. I got rid of all the antennas at the old QTH… Same here local QRM is very high indeed. I first concentrate on /M or /P operation and take some more time in homebrew equipment. It is part of the hobby I neglected…and as you know caching takes lot’s of time hi. May be I can set up my Flex6400 in another location. we will see later. First stay healthy 73 Karel

2 Likes

Pretty modest station – KX3, Bencher paddles and the aerial I can run either as a 40m dipole or as a top-loaded vertical. It plays well both ways. I use a loading coil for 160m. TR7 is a backup rig that I’m getting ready to sell.

Edit: I run most of my QSOs 5W. I’ll push it to 10W if I just can’t get through but feel a need to. :wink:

The KX3 is the first brand-new rig I’ve ever bought, in almost 30 years of ham radio. Field rig is a second-hand KX2.

I usually use a laptop for logging/keying during contests.

73, Jim KK0U

3 Likes

UK/RT320 always portable @ 30 watts-ants EFHW,Dipole, HW vertical

2 Likes

I had a compulsion to put an antenna up a couple of weeks ago. I asked on the G-QRP reflector regarding the best solution and as I had suspected all along, there was no solution to my specific requirements, a single band 20m dipole was the best that I could do.

I home brewed a small QRP balun and dipole centre. I’ve just managed to squeeze the dipole between the back wall of my garden and the wall on the house. Using my small step ladders I put up the ends of the dipole as high as I could reach, which is about 3m up. The dipole centre is unsupported.

I’ve been trying to achieve at least one CW QSO a day, I almost managed it last week except I ended up doing a 14 hour shift at work on Wednesday.

I haven’t managed to hear any SOTA activators yet as understandably there aren’t many activations taking place and those that are seem to be out of my 20m skip. I’ve had fun chasing some special event and contest stations though.
Today I worked Dave Sumner K1ZZ during the RSGB Hope QSO Party, which was nice as it was my first NA contact with the new antenna and I met Dave at the RSGB Convention in October.

My shack is mainly a space to hang out and build my QRP projects.

I’ve been using Mountain Topper rigs on 20m CW

73, Colin

6 Likes

Hello and greetings all, here is my shack with me. Antennas are - 80/40 Inv V dipoles and 5 band Hex Beam that I built with parts imported from KIO in the USA.

Great to see what others are using.

73 de Geoff vk3sq

2 Likes

Reliable strong signal from you Geoff when I am out activating.
Compton

1 Like

I used some of my stay at home time to build a new shelf above the new shack desk. This is the cleanest the shack has been, and given my habits, won’t last long.

I have a Raspberry Pi 4 feeding the monitor in the center with SOTA and POTA spots.

The main radio now is a Yaesu FT-1000MP. For VHF and UHF there is a Yaesu 7900 under the monitor.

The Rohn 25 tower is at 49’6" and has a Cushcraft A4S tri-bander as well as a Tram 1481 vertical VHF antenna. This does really well on simplex through the Denver area. There are a few dipoles hanging off the tower. An OCFD runs from the tower to a tree in the front yard for 40 meters.

My YL, Annette, KA0JKZ likes me to decorate the tower for the seasons.

Mark
N0MTN


4 Likes