The “shack” is part of the office for Webdesign Matters combined with a semi-mancave. The ham radio equipment consists of a Yaesu FT2000D (new in August 2009) along with the FT2000 speaker and a Heil Pro-Set Plus headset. There is also a Heil HM10 boom mike. Missing is an elderly Heathkit SB220 linear amplifier, but I do hope to get another amplifier up and running again soon. There is also an MFJ 989D antenna tuner. Normally I use the Heil HM10 boom mic switched to the HC5 cartridge.

The computer I use is an HP Z2 G4 Workstation, I7-8700K CPU, 32GB of memory, 512GB SSD, and Quadro P2000 graphics.

Presently there two antennas here. One is a simple quarter wave vertical for 20mx with two elevated and tuned (to 14.2MHz) radials. It also has a small ground system of lengths of copper mesh lying on the ground. The second antenna is another vertical, a 12 metre (40ft) vertical dipole, centre fed with 200 Ω ladder line.  It covers 80m through to 10m using the MFJ 989D tuner and is about ½ to 1 S point better on 20mx than the quarter wave vertical. Both antennas are using fibreglass poles for support, the12m (40ft) one is guyed 3 ways but the ¼ λ is freestanding

In the pipeline is a magnetic loop antenna which I’m building as time permits. It is 91.5 cm (36 inches) in diameter using 12.5mm (1/2 inch) copper tubing and mainly to be used on 20m and higher bands. Early tests prove it works; it tunes well with a 1:0 to 1 SWR and a very narrow bandwidth. Presently I am building the remote tuning unit and will then use a Yaesu rotator to turn it with. 

In the past couple of weeks we’ve been active on WSPR for the first time, but we are plagued with a very high power line noise level. I’m only receiving WSPR stations at about the rate of 1 for every 10 that can hear me! I’m now busy looking at how to improve the S/N ratio. I knew it was noisy, but it took WSPR to point out just how noisy it is. Here, from WSPRnet is an example of how poorly I can hear:

ZL4KF
Hearing: F4EVC, DL6NL, DL5MGR, PD1BB, DK1CC, DC1SN, DK4NL, DL1TFI, DL4LL, BX6ABC, PA3ARI, OZ2JBR
Heard by: PD1BB, VK4HRE, F5HNK, KL3RR, VK5HW, NH6V, DK4NL, DL0PF, DL1ECN-1, DK1BL/2, OZ2JBR, DL4RU, VK5KJP/1, DL4EAI, DF8OE, F4KKF, DL2ZZ, HB9HXZ, F4EVC, IZ6QQTRX, CT7APU, DD6UBW, DG7SFI-2, VK5KJP, DB0NT, SM7IUN, DD5XX, DK1CC, HB9VQQ/KE, PI4THT, ZL2005SWL, VK7JJ, HB9VQQ/RW3, DK8FT/B, HB9GZW, PE0MJX, AI6VN/KH6, DC1RDB, OE3GBB/Q2, F4VTQ, SM7KHA, DP0POL, DK8FT, VK5QI, IK0XFA, ON5KQ, OE3GBB, PD0OHW, DJ2DS-1, DC5AL-R, DJ2DS-2, DL4ZBE, OE9TAV, HB9VQQ/KS, OE9GHV, HB9VQQ, IW3HBX, I0UVN, DL1ECN-8, HB9AZT, PA0LSB, VK5WA, DK7DE, DO1DBS, DF5VL, DF7PNX, LX1LC, VK3CMZ, HB9DSE, DG3SDK, DARCT13, VK5ARG, DK6UG, EA8BFK, F6KGL

This was on 20 meters using 5W at about 1900z, just after sunrise on 2nd April 2025. It’s the same on all bands so I have a lot of catching up to do!