I have been interested in Ham Radio since 1954 and currently hold the UK call g3rcq which I have had for 51 years. Over this lengthy time I have seen many changes and advancements in our hobby of Amateur Radio, there was a time when many did not think SSB would replace AM – or Transistors replace valves.
These past years together with my business which is directly involved in the sales of Amateur Radio equipment have given me a great deal of experience with all types of equipment and especially transceivers – I have been very fortunate to have been able to test every transceiver on the market not only today but back to 1967 when the first Japanese commercial Amateur transceivers started appearing on the UK market.
My location was especially chosen with Amateur radio in mind and you will see from the pictures that space is almost unlimited. The antennas currently in use are two 90 foot top loaded 160m verticals, 80m is covered by an 8 element vertical array – this being difficult to photograph I have shown an Eznec model – 8 directions each 45 degrees with a takeoff angle of 20 degrees – the antenna was designed by G3LNP originally for 40m and with Tony’s help I scaled it up for 80m, moving onto 40m with a 2 element Optibeam at 100 feet and a 40m four square – the higher bands are covered using a Tennadyne T10 Log Period at 70 feet. For local contacts I use a full size Carolina Windom at 70 feet and covers 160-10m.
My station transceiver is the Flagship Kenwood TS-990S, purchased recently from Martin Lynch & Sons, into an Expert 2K amplifier (Picture showing the current equipment).
The Kenwood TS-990S is just unbelievable – it is so easy to use – the controls are big – great for me with arthritic fingers – the touch screen – well you just have to try it – all the controls are in the right places – performance is staggering – no not staggering BRILLIANT – the noise reduction is the best I have ever used – Peter Hart’s words in RSGB RadCom “Second to None” I Agree Peter!!!!
Operating the Kenwood TS-990S remotely – not just transceiver but everything I can do in the shack I do remotely – that is selecting any antenna out of 5 transmit antennas and any receive out of 3 receive antennas and of course any direction – of beams on both towers and directions of the beverages and four square and 8 direction Double Apex Loop.
The Kenwood TS-990S remotely – again Kenwood come up with the answer – available FREE on the Kenwood site is a suite of programs that are SUPERB – I can control 99% of the functions of the Kenwood 990S remotely – Either by going into the server using Logmein or similar software or by controlling the Kenwood 990S from my laptop which after setting up the IP addresses and port forwarding allow almost instant direct connection to the Host PC in the shack – Using IP Sound or RemAudio you can monitor your own transmit audio and hear exactly how the Kenwood 990S transmission sounds.
Again over the years I have tried many transceivers using remote software and I can assure you that the Kenwood Suite is Excellent.
