Hardware Change Log

K5ZD/1 Hardware Change Log

Construction of a successful station doesn’t happen instantly. Continuous improvements are the key to station maturity. The list below shows the station hardware at different points along the way.

November 2023

Purchased a used C31xr and replaced the TH7DXX on the 40′ tower.

October 2022

Completed replacement of Rohn 25G tower with Rohn 45G from K1AE. Tower now has

  • 6-ele 10m at 100′
  • 2/2-ele 40m at 110’/70′
  • 4/4-ele 10m at 66’/32′

August 2022

New 7/8″ hardline pieces 245′ and 302′.

Installed Cushcraft WARC antenna fixed NE on 40′ tower.

October 2021

Took down 110′ of Rohn 45G from K1AE and got it home.  Now to find time to use it to replace the 90′ of 25G. Also bought one of his 40-2CD.

September 2021

Added Elecraft P3 to the second K3.

March 2020

Added LP100A Digital Vector RF Wattmeter with 2 sensors.  Now I can see transmit power from both radios in one place.

January 2020

Added 80m dipole between the two big towers.

February 2019

Alpha 76CA started making a bad smell when powered on. Replaced with AL-1200 from W2SC.

March 2016

Replaced WX0B SixPak with HamPlus 2x MBD-8E and AS-82F.

November 2014

Replaced the FT1000D with an Elecraft K3 (and P3 pan adapter).

Purchased an AL-1500 amplifier.

October 2013

40-2CD was intermittent.  W2GD climbed the mast and rotated the antenna so I could replace the feedpoint and coax. Problem remained. Finally tracked it to bad hardline connector at bottom of the tower.

November 2009

Purchased Elecraft K3 just before CQWW CW. A great radio!!

August 2009

One of the capacitance hats on the 40-2CD fell apart. Managed to pull the beam off the mast and reach the point on the element so I could fix it.

October 2006

40-2CD became intermittent. Had to lower the mast and work on it to find and fix the problem. Turned out to be a bad barrel connector (see picture). Now hoping I get another 12 years before I have to work on it again.

Purchased used Yaesu FT-847 so son Andrew (KB1NXJ) can enjoy his technician privileges.

September 2005

Purchased Array Solutions BP-6 band pass filters. This is the set of W3NQN filters that are all in one enclosure.

August 2004

Upgrading coax connections on 80 and 160 so they are on their own into the SixPak. Needed to do this to optimize SO2R switching.

Added W8JI mods to FT1000D. Mod to help close in strong signal response by turning off noise blanker and mod to reduce key clicks.

July 2004

Put up 5-ele 6m beam above the TH7DXX at 45′. Got transverter and amplifier working, so now QRV on 6m.

January 2004

New gamma match on 160m shunt fed tower and eliminated all cables coming off the tower above ground level. Added 32 1/4-wave radials. Antenna now works!

October 2003

Bought Downeast Microwave 6m transverter, amplifier, and beam from K2UA.

December 2002

Put up 80m 4 square hanging from 90′ tower. 8-12 radials on each element.

November 2002

Replaced Create RC5A-2 on Tower 1 with Tailtwister. Create is great rotator but direction potentiometers keep failing.

October 2002

Ran separate coax to 80m Inverted vee. No longer sharing with 20m.

Built switch to allow instant selection of South TH7 from either radio.

September 2002

Purchased FT1000D from K2RD.

July 2002

Purchased Array Solutions FM-6 band pass filter switcher. Used some ICE band pass filters that I had from WRTC-96 for 40-10 meters. Put this on the left FT-1000D.

August 2001

Moved 6-el 10m up to top of 90′ tower. Installed two 4-el Cushcraft 10m beams at 30′ and 60′. Feed all 3 antennas through WX0B stackmatch.

October 2000

Station 1 – Yaesu FT-1000D + Alpha 76CA
Station 2 – Icom IC-765 + Ameritron AL1200
Logging software WriteLog by W5XD

Tower 1 – 100′ Rohn 45G
160m elevated GP
80m inverted vee
40-2CD at 110′
205CA at 100’/50′ in upper/lower/both stack
155CA at 66’/33′ in upper/lower/both stack

Tower 2 – 90′ Rohn 25G
TH7DXX at 90′ rotary
TH7DXX at 45′ fixed NE
6-el 10m at 20′ fixed NE
(All of above can be combined through WX0B StackMatch.)
40m sloper toward West
80m elevated GP
160m shunt fed tower.

470′ Beverage to NE