NK7Z Equipment used

Station information for NK7Z can be found below.

 Operating Position:

Operating Position

NK7Z Equipment used:

NK7Z Equipment used: right hand can get to any location, radio, amp, keyer, mouse with minimum movement.  Mouse is moved out of the way when doing CW.  Headphones are on hanger on the left of the operating position.  See the blow by blow description of the shack rebuild for the K3 here.

Signal Flow:

As can be seen, most of the signal flow is normal, when you see “Control Voltages”, this could mean keying data, PTT data, relay control signals moved down coax, etc.  The audio feeding the computer is for digital modes.  You will also see control voltages, this is PTT for the 756 PRO III.

Operating Position

The Ham Shack:

Amp is on right, computer monitor for two computers is in center on left.  The monitor is a 23 inch, arm adjustable LCD.  Not visible behind operating desk is the ground bus.  A 1/4 inch, by 1/2 inch copper bar runs along the rear top of the desk, and along the vertical portion of the back.  All devices are grounded to this bus.  The ground bus is in turn grounded via two cables, to a single ground rod, used for the house electrical ground.  The blue device above the monitor is a steam engine which my father and I rebuilt when I was around 13 years old…  I am now 60 years old…  It is quite old, and it works!

Vibroplex

Vibroplex Iambic Paddle:

I use this for CW.  I almost never use MiXW as the keyer for CW.  Love this key, it is heavy enough to not move, and light enough to work well.  The Plexiglas cover keeps dust out of it so the keyer is always working well.

ALS-1306 (Front)

ALS-1306:

I love this amplifier, the auto tune feature follows the K3 around, and the tuner will tune almost instantly.  Band-switches now take about 15 seconds.

LoTW verified contacts:

LoTW verified contacts

Full List of Equipment

Transmitter/Receiver:

• Elecraft
  • Fully tricked out K3
  • MARS Mod
  • Powerwerx SS-30DV (Power Supply)
  • Heil Pro Plus Headphones
• Icom 706 MK2G
• Yaesu FT-900 (mobile)
• Yeasu FT-817ND (RFI Hunting)
• Icom: 2720H 144/220/440 MHz
• Kenwood: TH-F6A

Antenna Control Equipment:

• Ameritron RCS-4, remote coax switch, see my review here.
• Ameritron AWM-30 Wattmeter

Amplifier:

• ALS-1306

Antenna:

• Gap Challenger, ground mounted
• Gap Mono band for 30 Meters
• B&W BWD-90
• Tarheel HP-100A (mobile)
• Hustler stick

CW:

• Vibroplex Iambic Deluxe paddles
• Internal Keyer in Elecraft K3, or MixW using DTR for keying.

Computers:

• Black Box, home brew dual core Pentium, 3 GHz.
  • 4 GB RAM
  • Linux, Debian
• Dell single core 3 GHz.
  • 2 GB RAM
  • Windows 7, dual booted to Debian Linux
• Raspberry Pi
  • Control of FT-817ND, and Elecraft K3
  • In house DX Cluster/NTP Server #1

• MFJ-259 Antenna Analyzer
• MFJ-856, Handheld RFI Locating antenna and receive
• Tektronix 2230 Scope
• Tektronix Signal Generator
• ATTA Spectrum Analyzer
• Midnight Science, Ultrasonic Listening Device, Ultra RX-2, for RFI trackdown