spend my money!

[Redeye]

Theoretically, of course. Just interested in seeing how others would spend 2-3k on a shack. Obviously 2k would be better than 3k.

Here's the deal. New "Extra" here with zero/nada Base equipment (currently mobil only with an FT-857D). With a budget of 2-3k, what would "you" purchase to setup "your" hypothetical base shack? Rig? Antennas? power supply? Tuner? Coax? etc. etc.

Thanks for your input.

Scott

 

[trucker]

Well, with that kind of budget and hopefully living somewhere that is antenna friendly, I would first look at installing the best HF antenna system that I could. A tower around 60-90 feet and a decent beam for 20-10 meters along with a good rotor and good quality coax. Then, I'd be sure there were at least one yard arm on the tower near the top, but, below the rotor. I would have build an inverted V for 80 & 40 meters and attach it to the yard arm. (with weather resistant rope and a good pulley to haul it up and down). Once that was going, I'd look to see what I had left and start looking at rigs in that price range. OR, if there was not that much left, I would pick up an inexpensive used HF rig (from someone that would let me test it out first) and start saving for whatever rig struck my fancy!!!!
That's MY idea of a setup...........had just that at one time, 80' tower, with TH6DXX beam, two 11 element Cushcraft 2 meter beams stacked above that at 90 feet. And a nice yard arm with pulley and rope (weather resistant) that I used to pull up all my low band antennas that I played with.
Moved a few years ago, and now, I'm too old to be messing with that sort of setup.
(I'd do a 60' tower with hazer system if I could afford it and afford to have it installed)
So, I use a 132' dipole fed with 450 ohm ladder line and manual tuner(MFJ 986) all at
30'. And I have a 4BTV that a friend gave me, that I'm still working on. And over all, I'm still having fun!! DX'ing is a lot different with this setup! Oh, and I do mobile HF as well. THAT is fun!! Both in my pickup and the 18 wheeler I drive.
trucker

 

[office888]

Theoretically, of course. Just interested in seeing how others would spend 2-3k on a shack. Obviously 2k would be better than 3k.

Here's the deal. New "Extra" here with zero/nada Base equipment (currently mobil only with an FT-857D). With a budget of 2-3k, what would "you" purchase to setup "your" hypothetical base shack? Rig? Antennas? power supply? Tuner? Coax? etc. etc.

Thanks for your input.

Scott

$2-$3k?

kW+ manual antenna tuner
100 ft tower
600 ohm ladder line fed 160m dipole
LMR400 to a Diamond X30A (2m/70cm) off the side of the tower
Beverage antenna towards Europe

Maybe shunt feed the tower too for 160/80/40m.

 

[Robb]

The Kenwood TS-2000 will cover everything between 160m to 440mhz.
A lightly used one for $1k should cover that.

Antennas and coax for all the freq you want to work. If you have a lot of property; then a 10-80m dipole should be easy on the pocketbook. Getting a used MFJ-259B antenna analyzer will make it easy for you to build any antenna you need and keep the ones you have up to snuff. Getting your antennas working optimal will be pivotal for your station's usefulness and success.

A MFJ-945E antenna tuner should be used, and isn't going to break the bank. Don't expect the built-in tuners in Ham rigs to carry the weight. Use an external one, as they will be far more flexible and ultimately more dependable.

A 30-40 amp power supply will be more than enough.
Buy a new Diamond 40 amp supply and have some supply head room to keep it cool.

Keep the rest of the money in reserve so that you can use it for other needed installation expenses. Such as guy rope, antenna masting, ladder line, balun, grounding braid, coax, etc . . .

 

[W5LZ]

For the amount you have to 'play' with, I think 'Robb' has the right idea, find a good transceiver that covers all, or almost all of what you may think you want to cover. I say 'almost all' you want to cover cuz you certainly don't have to do everything all at one time. Depending on what you think you can live with, brand, capabilities, etc, a nice new radio is going to eat up that 2 - 3K pretty quickly. So, sort of 'wait' on a tower, beam, etc. They are certainly nice to have, but also certainly not a requirement (or 'normal', when you stop and think about it). Why 'splurge' while not knowing what you want to do yet?
Something to think about is that I am a Kenwood fan. Guess what kind of radio I'd recommend! I'm also a fan of the HF bands in particular. Just all kinds of possibilities on them. I also like the VHF/UHF bands, but they just have different capabilities/possibilities. How can you possibly know what you will like 'best' until you try them? THEN do some 'splurging'. (It's gonna take a while to save up for that 'splurging' so use that time to figure out what you wanna do.)
So, look around, see what's available, and give it a shot.
- 'Doc

 

[Moleculo]

I don't know what your antenna restrictions are, so I won't make recommendations on that.

If you like the idea of an HF only rig, I would take a hard look at the Elecraft K3. You get an awful lot of features for the price and you get a top notch receiver. The auto-tuner option is one of the best built-in tuners I've ever used. Another nice thing about that rig is that you can pick and choose the extras that you want and build it up slowly over time.

 

[jazzsinger]

i'd forget shiny all singing/dancing radios, put at least half of your spending money into antenna/s / tower / coax.

buy any radio you want with the rest, no matter what radio you choose, if you skimp on the antenna system it will be disappointing to pure sh!t, much better to start with a good antenna system, then just about any radio will perform.

if you just want bragging rights, go buy the dearest transceiver you can find and use an A99 like many do, it won't get you many exotic contacts, but it might impress the few knobheads around your town that can hear you and are easily impressed.

it will also give you loads of knobs you can twiddle if that's your thing, but a good antenna system will save you 99% of that needless knob twiddling.


many will disagree with me but i'm only being honest, anyone that knows anything about radio knows the radio is only as good as the antenna system you plug it into, and NOTHING will ever change that.

 

[Blue Jay]

You can have the best radio made but with poor antenna system you WILL NOT be a happy radio man. Put the bulk of your funds into a good antenna system!

 

[Redeye]

Thanks all. Looking at both the FT-950 and TS-2000X for rigs. Now for antennas. I live in a subdivision on a 3/4 acre lot. It would be in the backyard where my shop is. Roofline crest is about 20 ft up off the ground. I also have 8 trees that top out about 40ft or so. Decisions, decisions.

 

[office888]

Thanks all. Looking at both the FT-950 and TS-2000X for rigs. Now for antennas. I live in a subdivision on a 3/4 acre lot. It would be in the backyard where my shop is. Roofline crest is about 20 ft up off the ground. I also have 8 trees that top out about 40ft or so. Decisions, decisions.

Drop $1k on a used free-standing Rohn tower, digging a hole, rebar, and concrete. You should be able to get to at least 40 ft with that.

That's one thing I regret with my station. I wish I spent more money on my tower. 40ft of Rohn tower in my case gets me above the "bowl" I'm in, but that's about it.

I would much rather have 60 or 80 ft...

 

[W5LZ]

Towers

What no one seems to think about is that the purchase price is really only about half of the cost to get the thing into good shape and standing up.
If you are going to buy a tower, have you thought about making that tower an antenna too? The 'HT18' comes to mind for me! Still the same thing about 'additional costs' involved, but you end up with a VERY nice multi-band vertical antenna.
All in all, I think I'd do a lot of thinking about those trees, as in hanging antennas from them. Hey, they're there already, 40 feet or so is a usable height for almost all antennas (didn't say best, just usable), and they are -free-.
FT-950 or TS-2000X? I'm biased toward Kenwood, but I think I have a very good reason(s) for that. Neither is the 'best' all-n-one radio in the world. Each has potential problems. The TS-2000 has been around for something like 10 years, most of it's 'problems' have already been found and cured. The FT-950 is still 'new', so it's 'problems' haven't all been found/cured yet. You -might- get to be a participant in that! (But that's the 'worst case'.)
Have fun!
- 'Doc

 

[W1MSG]

Seems like everyone has a beam and tower fetish I have a 135 foot OCF wire flat top at 25 feet and have worked over 40 countries and over 300 DX contacts. All since I upgraded to General last August.

Personally I would add an amp to the set up, a good used 1k AL-80B will cost ya just under a $1000.

I am all about the audio, I have a Flex SDR-1000 that will only be replaced by a Flex 5000. I also have a New TS-2000 that's an awesome radio as well and does all my satellite work. Anyway everyone will have their own idea of a perfect set up.

 

[Robb]

Going back to this tower business here for a moment.
Lets's remember that the budget here is of importance.

Putting in a 60 ft tower isn't going to be cheap. Tower alone is gonna be ~$100/10 ft. To support it properly, digging a trench and pouring in a couple yards of concrete with rebar reinforcement is going to be ~$1k. Then a Ham beam - anywhere from ~$350 to ~$2k - or more. A rotor will be another ~$400. Then coax, grounding rods, and misc hardware - another $300. I've looked into this before - BTW.

Sooooo . . . a 60 ft tower with a mid grade beam and all the fixins to make it work should be around ~$2500 or more.

Nah; I think a well placed and well adjusted 10-80m dipole (along with home brew 6m and 2m antennas) will make it simple, inexpensive, and effective for the budget mentioned here . . .

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

When discussing towers there is a HUGE difference, both in cost and erection, between a free standing tower and a guyed or bracketed tower.Something like Rohn 25G is relatively cheap especially used and can be either guyed or bolted to the eve of a house and requires only a couple cubic FEET of concrete as a base. A free standing tower of similar height will cost several times more and will require several cubic YARDS of concrete but will allow for a simpler erection of antenna as there is no building or guy wires to get in the way. When looking at used towers be VERY careful and inspect ir closely for any rust especially if the legs are tubular. There may be rust on the inside that is not visible. Personally I think a good tower and antenna are a good investment in the hobby. Wire antennas work well but can't compare to a yagi on a tower especially when there is QRM on the band. The best benefit of a yagi is not so much the extra gain but the ability to reject unwanted stations. I know when I am trying to work Africa and the band is also open to the USA it helps that when beaming to Africa it puts the USA in a null off to the side. I can't ever recall not being able to hear a station on the yagi that I could hear on a wire antenna of any type. There are many times however when the converse was true. Right now I am chomping at the bit waiting for my new tower to be shipped. I have ordered a 64 foot Trylon Titan T-500 tower and have a new Explorer 14 with 40m kit waiting to be mounted at the top as well as antennas for 12/17m and 6m.The old yagi was beaten to death in a wind/ice storm and the existing tower is getting rusty and will not handle my proposed antenna upgrades anyway. The last 2 years of just wire antennas have been enough. I want my rotatable antennas back again.

 

[office888]

Going back to this tower business here for a moment.
Lets's remember that the budget here is of importance.

Putting in a 60 ft tower isn't going to be cheap. Tower alone is gonna be ~$100/10 ft. To support it properly, digging a trench and pouring in a couple yards of concrete with rebar reinforcement is going to be ~$1k. Then a Ham beam - anywhere from ~$350 to ~$2k - or more. A rotor will be another ~$400. Then coax, grounding rods, and misc hardware - another $300. I've looked into this before - BTW.

Sooooo . . . a 60 ft tower with a mid grade beam and all the fixins to make it work should be around ~$2500 or more.

Nah; I think a well placed and well adjusted 10-80m dipole (along with home brew 6m and 2m antennas) will make it simple, inexpensive, and effective for the budget mentioned here . . .

Used Rohn AX tower, 40 ft = $125
Paint = ~$80
Bolts, nuts, etc = ~$20
Homemade ginpole = ~$10 (10 ft pipe with pulley welded on, cheap rope)
Hole = Free, shovels are great.
Concrete = ~$150 u-cart.
Grounding = ~$50

As said, you don't need a yagi on top at first. Just use it as a dipole support.

Maybe shunt feed the whole thing for AWESOME DX performance on 160/80/40...assuming you lay radials.