Took years of work and saving up and selling some older gear not using anymore but I believe I got the last radio and amp I'll ever own. With the new gear I also got a new desk and updated computers with 24 inch screens.
The main radio is a Kenwood TS890S HF/6M radio. I kept my Kenwood TS590SG which is being used as a sub-receiver to the 890. Kenwood really thought that through where a 590 can be easily converted to a sub-receiver by using a null DB-9 cable along with a RCA patch cable from the RX out and RX in jacks between the 2 radio's to transfer VFO and other data between the radio's.
To operate the sub-receiver like during a split frequency DX pile up, Simply turn on the RX antenna out button on the 890 and have the 590 RX antenna in button selected. Then put the 890 in split mode and the VFO data on the TX side of the 890 is sent to the 590. I can then set the split variation from either radio. The great thing is that the 590 will completely mute while on TX from the 890. This setup lets me listen to the callers on the split TX frequency which is very useful especially when DX stations work 5 to 10 up or more so I can tell which split frequency he is currently picking callers from. There are other uses for a sub-receiver too.
To assist in monitoring both receivers during split I prefer to use headphones and a small format Behringer XENEX-502S mixer and send audio from both radio's ACC ports to the mixer. This lets me use headphones into the mixer where both radio's audio levels can be controlled along with a Pan control to place each signal into the right or left ears or stereo for simplex monitoring.
The new amplifier is the Expert 1.3k 1300 watt HF amplifier. This amp is great providing near legal limit power and accepts 2 radio inputs with interface cables so band data and ALC is automatically controlled. This works great because I set each radio at 100 watts then use the amps 3 power levels control the radio's output for the correct drive level to achieve the desired power output from the amp. I can always still back down the radio power if needed. The amp also has computer interface and remote software so I can remote it from the desktop and never touch the amp.
Some other new gear is a LP-100A Digital Vector RF Watt-meter for accurate power measurements and to calibrate my other meters to. This also has software so I can monitor it on the computer screen, Nice!
For more eye candy to the radio, I added the LDG MC-990 meters so I have real needle meters that mirror the radio's meter. With dual meter windows, only 1 is an S meter during receive because the 890 has no sub receiver but on TX, 1 meter is for ALC while the other is configured to monitor the radio's compressor level, love this!
No upgraded shack is complete without an updated antenna! I went with the Mosley MP-33 NW which is a 5 band 4 element beam. It's 3 elements on 10,15, and 20 meters while 12 and 17m is a rotatable dipole. I went with the best feedline for this setup which is 70 ft of 1/2 inch Heliax from the antenna to a ground rod mounted poly-phaser and 15 ft of 3/8 inch superflex Heliax from the other end of the poly-phaser to go inside the shack for easier flexabilty to the shack tuner.
Unfortunately because of my HOA rules, I cant have the antenna more than 5 ft above the roof line so it works just fine on the upper bands but the performance will suffer some on 20 meters being to low to the ground. Next year I"ll sneak it up a couple of feet!
Here are some pics
The main radio is a Kenwood TS890S HF/6M radio. I kept my Kenwood TS590SG which is being used as a sub-receiver to the 890. Kenwood really thought that through where a 590 can be easily converted to a sub-receiver by using a null DB-9 cable along with a RCA patch cable from the RX out and RX in jacks between the 2 radio's to transfer VFO and other data between the radio's.
To operate the sub-receiver like during a split frequency DX pile up, Simply turn on the RX antenna out button on the 890 and have the 590 RX antenna in button selected. Then put the 890 in split mode and the VFO data on the TX side of the 890 is sent to the 590. I can then set the split variation from either radio. The great thing is that the 590 will completely mute while on TX from the 890. This setup lets me listen to the callers on the split TX frequency which is very useful especially when DX stations work 5 to 10 up or more so I can tell which split frequency he is currently picking callers from. There are other uses for a sub-receiver too.
To assist in monitoring both receivers during split I prefer to use headphones and a small format Behringer XENEX-502S mixer and send audio from both radio's ACC ports to the mixer. This lets me use headphones into the mixer where both radio's audio levels can be controlled along with a Pan control to place each signal into the right or left ears or stereo for simplex monitoring.
The new amplifier is the Expert 1.3k 1300 watt HF amplifier. This amp is great providing near legal limit power and accepts 2 radio inputs with interface cables so band data and ALC is automatically controlled. This works great because I set each radio at 100 watts then use the amps 3 power levels control the radio's output for the correct drive level to achieve the desired power output from the amp. I can always still back down the radio power if needed. The amp also has computer interface and remote software so I can remote it from the desktop and never touch the amp.
Some other new gear is a LP-100A Digital Vector RF Watt-meter for accurate power measurements and to calibrate my other meters to. This also has software so I can monitor it on the computer screen, Nice!
For more eye candy to the radio, I added the LDG MC-990 meters so I have real needle meters that mirror the radio's meter. With dual meter windows, only 1 is an S meter during receive because the 890 has no sub receiver but on TX, 1 meter is for ALC while the other is configured to monitor the radio's compressor level, love this!
No upgraded shack is complete without an updated antenna! I went with the Mosley MP-33 NW which is a 5 band 4 element beam. It's 3 elements on 10,15, and 20 meters while 12 and 17m is a rotatable dipole. I went with the best feedline for this setup which is 70 ft of 1/2 inch Heliax from the antenna to a ground rod mounted poly-phaser and 15 ft of 3/8 inch superflex Heliax from the other end of the poly-phaser to go inside the shack for easier flexabilty to the shack tuner.
Unfortunately because of my HOA rules, I cant have the antenna more than 5 ft above the roof line so it works just fine on the upper bands but the performance will suffer some on 20 meters being to low to the ground. Next year I"ll sneak it up a couple of feet!
Here are some pics
