I am lucky to have a dedicated room in the house which I can call my shack (slang for radio room). The shack’s main HF-radio is a ICOM IC-7610 transceiver for HF and a Kent paddle. Running the standard 100 watts from the ICOM.
Antenna’s
Due to the fact that we live in a terraced house with not a very large garden, there are limited antenna possibilities. 2 Old chimneys offer a solution and the random lengths of wires give me some possibilities on HF. That’s why I choose for the ICOM AH-4 antenna coupler. 10 meters of open feed-wire into a dipole of 2×13 meters of wire at approximately 13 meters (43 feet) above sea level gives me the possibilities to be able to work from 160m up to 10m band.
For VHF/UHF-antenna’s I don’t have many options other then a simple vertical. I use a Diamond X-6000 vertical tri-band antenna. This vertical can also do 23cm which comes in handy sometimes.
Shack VHF/UHF
For 2 meter and 70cm in the shack I use a Kenwood TM-D710 radio.
I don’t do much DXing on VHF/UHF due to the restricted antenna situation. Mostly local repeater stuff and a little APRS.
holiday equipment
When we go on holiday I usually take a HF-radio with me. This is my first SDR-radio, an ICOM IC-7300. I was one of the first in the Netherlands to buy this radio and I am still in love with it.
As a holiday antenna I always take a Full Size Delta-loop for 40 meters with me. A great antenna that unfortunately I cannot set up at home because of its size. I use a Spider-beam mast as main support for this antenna. But I can use the Spider-beam mast for some kind of random vertical antenna as well. You can find many posts of our holiday trips on this blog too.