KC4HW
Alabama Contest Group - Alabama QSO Party

This station definitely under construction (rev: Apr 10th, 2013).

Great place to ponder!
Fadette, Alabama
Geneva County - EM71fb

The purpose of this station is to have FUN in CW, PH and RY contests. I am NO super op by any means and especially not on CW, but I am sure that I can have some FUN with this station.

DXing is secondary source of fun!

Rag chewing is always a possibility!

  • Computer/Interface: Running a Win7/32 computer as the main station system. Added a Rosewill RC-305e (PCI-Express) 4-port Comm Card. This gave a number of serial ports for Com1, Com2, Com3, Com4 and Com5. Here is the rundown:
    • Com1 is included on the computer main board. W3YY FSK/CW/PTT Interface for the FT2000D, MMTTY for decode.
    • Com2 Another W3YY FSK/CW interface for the FT1000D. Built another--but did have a bit of trouble with it working with the FT-1000D. See this link for more information: PTT/CW/FSK Transistor Interface. Use MMTTY for the RTTY decoding.
    • Com3 rig control for the FT2000D, a direct connection between the radio and the computer.
    • Com4 rig control for the FT1000D via a homebrewed RS-232 interface.
    • Com5 not used at this time.
    • I also have a WKUSB Keyer that I am planning on using with this setup, so that I can switch the CW keying between each radio. Although I am NOT a SO2R CW op. I barely can handle one radio in CW...hi..
    • Acquired a DX Doubler in a trade recently, so will try to get that up and running as well.
    • Will be adding audio break out box and switching in the future.
    • Secondary Computer: Added another computer for the VHF station and to run some of the other products. More information will be forthcoming about this setup.
  • Software:
    • Use Writelog as my contest logger. I have been using it since 1995. I have tried other loggers and there are several very good quality packages out there, but I keep coming back to Writelog, old habits are hard to break!

  • Miscellaneous

  • .
    Station Description

  • HF Rigs:
    • Yaesu FT-2000D
    • Yaesu FT-1000D
  • VHF Station:
    • Kenwood TR-751A for 2m.
    • Yaesu FT-2000D for 6m.

  • HF Amplifier:
    • Ten Tec Centurion
    • Drake L4B (This is a future project)

    Operating position

  • Tower 1: 70' Rohn 25

    • Cushcraft 104CD at 78' (rotatable) and a homebrew 4L10m (built the same as the Cushcarft) at 39' fixed to Europe. Have both of these stacked with a Array Solutions Stack Match.

    • Also a Hy-Gain 155CA @ 71'

    • 80m Dipole at 65'

  • Tower 2: 107' Rohn 45

    • Picture above is the Cushcraft 40-2D @ 118' and the Hy-Gain 204BA @ 108'
      • Have another Hy-Gain 204BA that is fixed at 64'. Just need to put the Array Solutions Stack Match in and run the coax.
      • Have installed an 80m Inverted Vee at 100'.
      • A 30m delta loop one of these days.

    • Tower 3: 42' Alumminum
      • Homebrew 5L 6m beam @ 48' thanks to Tom/K4ZGB.
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