The photo was taken in the summer of 2000 has seen a few additions to the shack including an additional rack of equipment and a second 72 foot tower for a 2 element 40 m beam and A4 yagi. The main equipment additions are the second PC an ALPHA 87A auto-tune 2KW amp as well as a Kenwood TL-922 amplifier and the new rotor control for the new tower.

Left rack 1: Top speaker for the TS570S (bottom), my steam power PC for packet, 2m/70cm rig and a GE Phoenix for in-house telephone interfaced 2 metre rig and the TS570S at the bottom.


Rack 2: Two Heath SB200 amplifiers, GE Phoenix and TNC for packet, Tail Twister rotor controller, home brew controller with selsyn driven position indicator for the main tower rotor and my scanner at the bottom

Rack 3: Speaker for the MP, PIII 500 PC for my internet access and HTML work and the FT1000MP,

Rack 4: High power amplifier with two 3CX1200A7s in grounded grid watt meter and antenna switch and a Drake L-4B 2KW linear below. The High Voltage (5KV) power supply for the pair of 3CX1200A7s is just visible under the counter top.

All of the racks and panels were custom made by Gary Ritz of Ritz Electronics in New Dundee

The tower is a very heavy duty 80 foot self-supporting model that has a 5 foot face at the bottom and a 3 foot face at the top. There is 13 cubic metres of concrete holding it up.

The antennas top down are a 3 band 6 metre through 70cm vertical on top (at 100 feet). The yagis are on 3 inch steel mast as follows 3 element yagis for 10 and 15. The 20 metre beam is just above the tower top and the rotor is 50 feet down the tower (quite visible in the picture) On 160, 80 and 40 I use dipoles and in the back yard I also have a DX77 seven band vertical for 80-10 including the WARC bands.