I have been collecting/hoarding gear for years (ask my friends). As a result there are 3 operator locations at the QTH.

1st: (pictured top right): Yaesu FT-1000MP Mark-V Field with Yaesu MD-200 and Shure PG-58 microphones using the audio chain mentioned below. GAP Hear-IT Outboard DSP. LDG AT-1000 AutoTuner. Kenwood TL-922A Amplifier. Ham-III Rotator with Idiom Press Rotor-EZ (enjoyed building that :-) ) on Tri-Ex 55' crankup tower with Mosely TA-33 Triband Yagi on HF. Kenwood TM-742A (2m/220/440) with Comet CFX-324 Triplexer into a Comet CX-333 Triband Vertical Antenna on VHF/UHF. Radio Shack Pro-2052 Scanner w discone antenna. Tigertronics Signalink, All powered through a Compaq R-5000 5kVA UPS.

2nd: (Sat/Guest) Yaesu FT-847 'Earth Station' with FC20 AutoTuner, Yaesu MD-200 Mic, Dentron DTR-1200L Amplifier. Icom PCR-1000 as 2nd Receiver. Tigertronics Signalink for digital modes. Amsat LVB SatTracker with Yaesu G5500 Az-El Rotator on a Rohn 25 48' Tower. Assorted PAL and NTSC video gear with Sony SB-V1000 Video Matrix Switcher and Blonder Tongue Modulators for Fast Scan TV. Yaesu FT-2800M and Pac-Comm Micropower-2 TNC. Another Compaq R-5000 5kVA UPS for power.

3rd: Icom 706 MkIIG HF/VHF/UHF All Mode Transceiver, Icom IC-2820 D-Star 2m/440 Transceiver with Stainless Steel Dual-Band J-Pole antenna. Dell 530 laptop with DVDongle for D-Star operation. Radio Shack Pro-2052 Scanner. All battery powered, maintained on a float charger, mounted in a flight case, with an assortment of communications programs, with remote control of the other 2 positions.

Three 160m OCF antennas plus 15-el 2m Yagi, 18-el 70cm Yagi and experimental antennas are switched around Operator positions 1 and 2 with an Alpha-Delta Pathminder 1x6 1kW Digital Coax Switch and/or an Ameritron RCS-8V 1x5 Remote Coax Switch on the Rohn tower.

The QTH is about 50 miles north of New York City. Very much country, with lots of wildlife and vegetation in the garden. Half my yard is forest with the Maple, Oak and Birch trees suitable for stringing wire antennas. The animals are White Tail Deer grazing in the garden about 50 feet from the house.

I have been experimenting more and more with antennas, so I designed & built a pneumatic antenna launcher (pictured below) for installing my home built 160m OCF antennas. The pressure tank is 4" Schedule 40 PVC rated over 300psi, fitted with a pressure gauge and 110psi pressure safety release valve and a no-return 1/8" NPT male bayonet connector for the feed from the Paintball CO2 cylinder which is mounted on a 'remote arm' with a multi-turn flow valve for filling the tank. The pressure tank is connected through a series of reducers (reduces flow resistance on discharge too) into the Rainbird 1" Sprinkler Valve. The sprinkler valve has its solenoid removed and the soleniod's pressure release port has been filled with epoxy for a permanent seal. The Manual pressure release has been drilled out threaded to receive a 90deg 1/4" NPT brass street elbow which mounts the release valve (blue lever on the sprinkler valve). The output of the sprinkler valve goes back up to a 2" male thread adapter into a threaded 180deg (2x90 elbows) fitting which accepts the threaded 2" to 2 1/2" reducer to the 2 1/2" grey barrel. The 180 deg fitting can be removed, allowing the barrel to be threaded directly to the sprinkler valve in a 'linear' configuration. The reducer at the breach of the barrels gives a 'stop' when inserting the tennis ball. Muzzle of the barrels accepts a 2 1/2" joiner which holds the Saunders bow-fishing Zip-Reel, which can hold up to 150' of brick-line, which i favour for strength, ease of use, and reliable feed when launching an antenna. An accessory 1/4" NPT to 1/8" NPT with flow valve can substitute for the CO2 feed, allowing an air compressor to charge the launcher.

Most recently, used it to install the 65' verticals for a 4-square on 80m at a friend's QTH. It launches a 16oz Tennis ball at 115MPH (radar measured), throwing it up to 600ft - more than enough to raise both arms of a 160m dipole from a single spot. Accuracy of about 6" at 100' when launching over a tree from the ground. An 80psi charge will throw a 1lb ball with brick line attached, vertically, the full 150' of the line. The line has a large loop at each end to attach the ball and antenna, respectively.

Just finished a new lighter more compact model. Works strictly from CO2, has a 1.75l Pressure Tank and a single 24" Barrel. Now working hard for its new owner, W3JK.

And a newer heavier duty model that doulbes the tank size and barrel length, operating only on compressed air.

Most recent antenna placement device is a T-Rex 600 Electric Helicopter with on-board FPV (video).  More about that in future updates.

Love the Balun Designs (balundesigns.com) Baluns! I have 2 homebuilt 160m OCFs, strung at 90deg angles. This serves me very well globally. The high one (80+ ft) has a Balun Designs 6113 6:1 balun and the 50 ft high one has a 4113e. Both 3kW power handling.

I am experimenting with building the 2m & 440 circular polarized antennas (Cheap Yagis) for the 2nd (Satellite) station, controlled by Ham Radio Deluxe. (Great job Simon Brown and Peter Halpin (SK).) Here's a pic of me up the Rohn Tower, reinstalling the freshly repainted top tower section before winter sets in. .And a view of the West side of the QTH with the Tri-Ex Crankup. Rohn is to the right behind the trees.

I have been playing with audio processing. The FT-1000MP Mk-V Field with the Transmit EDSP set to 3, and a Yaesu MD-200 Microphone is very hard to beat. But: there is not much you can't do with (top to bottom) Behrenger Ultra-DI Pro (for level matching, floating ground etc); Behrenger Virtualizer Pro (effects processor); dbx 286A (Mic Preamp/Compressor/De-Esser/Enhancer/Expander/Noise Gate); ART SC-2 2-channel Compressor/Limiter Noise Gate; BBE 462 Sonic Maximizer (Chromatic enhancer); Altec Lansing 31-band GEq; Fostex 2016 16-chan, 2-bus Line Mixer and an APC Power Conditioner/Surge Outlet Strip to power them all. Done properly, it should just sound good, natural and not overdone.

Recently built a 2.4Gig WiFi link for the County repeater site, providing internet connectivity for the Packet Netork and a D-Star repeater (amongst other things). Would like to expand it into a RACES wireless Data Network for the County Hams and Bureau of Emergency Services. Ubiquiti AirMax is looking more like the technology of choice for that, supported by Mikrotik routers (Routerboards and RouterOS). Now starting the topology analysis to see exactly what we can achieve and where we need CPE to achieve it.

I was born in the UK, then moved to Australia, then to the US. My first call was VK2YIJ. In america I started as KC2NJO (Technician) then briefly N3JO (Extra) before K2JO.

At one time, I worked as the Amateur Radio and Computer Products Manager for the Yaesu Distributor in Australia. Professionally, I am a Molecular Biologist, but spent most of the working life in General/IT Management doing Sales, Enterprise Architecture, Business Intelligence or Application Development for companies in Technology Distribution/Supply Chain. Unfortunately, Distribution, like the music industry, is dying, so I have recently moved to the Banking and Finance Industry. These days heavily involved in database servers, SQL code, networking, communications protocols, virtualization, linux systems (especially ubuntu) and open source in general.

Member of ARRL ( http://www.arrl.org ), AMSAT ( http://www.amsat.org ), IEEE (http://www.ieee.org), Association for Computing Machinery (http://www.acm.org), Project Management Institute (http://www.pmi.org).

Several years ago, whilst Finance Director of a local Ham Club, I completed its conversion from a 'Social' club to a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization and public charity. Members have always provided the equipment and personnel as first responders for both emergency communications, and also field radiological dosimetry and decontamination services, to Putnam County as part of the emergency preparedness related to the nearby Entergy Indian Point Nuclear Power Station. Recently, I designed and built new HF/VHF/UHF Analog/Digital Go-Kits, and a Solar-Powered HF/VHF-UHF Communications Trailer after receiving funding from Entergy's First Responders' Grant.

Just in case there are no openings, and, of course, to recuperate after traveling the world on HF, or for entertaining a DX visitor or two, I built the 'Travelers Rest', my version of a British Pub. Angram Pumps, Guiness Tap, Spirit Optics, horse brasses, brass rail and all. It is a long walk to the nearest British Pub from the QTH - intercontinentally speaking, so I built my own in Oak, much like the favourite local in the Yorkshire Dales. There is a slate pool table that came from the Mahopac Pool Parlour when it closed. Now, complete with snooker balls, Table 15 is available again. - But the US table has large pockets, so snooker has never been easier. Probably a good thing.

Look forward to a chat on air sometime.

73