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Station Construction

After receiving my FCC Amateur Radio General Class license in July, 2012, I began constructing the KJ6YVT radio station.  The initial intent was to rapidly construct an operational high frequency station with which to begin my self-education in the mysterious realm of radio frequency currents, radio wave propagation, and associated arcanea, as well as make contact with other like-minded radio operators throughout the world.  The photographs above show the first equipment installed at KJ6YVT.

I chose the iCOM IC-7800 transceiver as the heart of the station, because of its superior specifications.  Of particular importance was the ability to implement diversity reception enabled by the IC-7800's dual receivers.  Diversity reception greatly aids in overcoming atmospherically induced signal fading not possible via any other technology.  You may read more about this transceiver by clicking the Radios link below.

Desiring operation on several important high frequency amateur bands, I chose to construct a parallel, multi-band, half-wave, dipole antenna.  I wanted to learn about antenna tuning, transmission line issues, and related matters, so I felt that researching and building the first antenna myself would provide me with some insightful information.  Site restrictions dictated sub-optimal antenna orientation with the broadside of the dipole facing south south ease and north north west.  While this orientation provides increased gain toward the Pacific, South America, and South Africa, it has reduced gain in the great-circle direction of Europe to the north east.  You may read more about this and other antennas in use at the KJ6YVT station by clicking the Antennas below.

The second contact I made after receiving my FCC license, while operating on a dipole strung on the carpet on the second floor, was with John  Maguire, W1CDO.  At the time, John was sitting in a tavern in Klamath Falls, Oregon, sipping a glass of Merlot while operating his radio station located in Roswell, New Mexico, via his iPhone.  John is an interesting person, and I took a few clues from his sagacious and insightful station implementations in planning my course of KJ6YVT station construction. 

Having a professional background in computer automation, I particularly found the prospect of constructing a radio station in which all the equipment was integrated and operable through computer software of interest.  Having the option to operate the KJ6YVT station remotely was icing on the cake.  You can read more about my plans for computer automating on the Computer Automation page.

 

 

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Hits: [an error occurred while processing this directive] Date of last edit: June 06, 2013 14:47:53 -0700
© Copyright: L. Dighera, 2012; All Rights Reserved: LDighera@att.net