M0BPQ equipment
As with every radio amateur I am always changing the equipment that I use, trying to make things better. The table below summarises what is available, although it has never been used all at once! One day I will have a tower.......
| Band | TRX | PA | Power | Cable | Preamp | Antenna |
| HF | IC-756Pro | Henry | 400W | RG213 | none | Inv-L or |
| 50Mhz | IC-756Pro | 3-500Z | 400W | LDF4-50 | none | 3 ele yagi |
| 70MHz | FT-847 | G4FUF mod | 60W | LDF4-50 | G4FUF | 5 el NBS |
| 144MHz | IC-756Pro + DEM tvtr | 2x4CX250B | 400W | ecoflex 15 | MGF1301 | 2x9 el DK7ZB; 2x6 el Vargarda Single 6 el at 12M AGL at home QTH, also J-pole at 14m for APRS |
| 432MHz | Elecraft K2 +XV432 | 4CX250B | 230W | LDF5-50 or Ecoflex 15 | MGF1301 | 2x13 Vargarda; 4x21 Tonna; Single 13 el permenantly installed at 13m AGL at home |
| 1296MHz | FT-847+SSB tvtr | G3WDG | 45W | LDF5-50 | Broken | 4x23 Tonna |
| 2320MHz | FT-847+HB tvtr | none | 1 (I think) | LDF5-50 | Tonna horn fed - No QSOs on this band yet! Need to box it up. |
Whilst I have been active on HF from the new QTH from May 2008, during October 2008 I finally assembled a single 6 element Vargarda yagi for 2m and another for 70cm and put them on the chimney stack at home. The VHF shack is in the loft, so I have only 6m of ecoflex 15 feeding each antenna. The 70cm yagi seems to be pretty poor - the VSWR moves all over the place depending on feedline length, but the the 2m antenna plays well. I appreciate that this is a compromise situation, but in a suburban QTH, being on the air at all is an acheivement.