Station Description

Station details

  • Station callsign: PA3HCM (from January 1997)
  • Former callsign: PE1PTA (from November 1993)
  • License: full license, CW included
  • Operator: Ernest Neijenhuis
  • QTH: Everdingen, JO21OX
  • CQ zone: 14
  • ITU zone: 27
  • Club member of: VERON (A29 Nieuwegein), REC

Shack

An average view of my ham radio shack: radio's, wires going arround, and the desk cluttered with homebrew and experiments.
An average view of my ham radio shack: radio’s, wires going arround, and the desk cluttered with homebrew and experiments.

My shack is in a very small room, less than 2 x 4 meters. I share this room with my wife, which means I have less than 2 x 2 meter available for me and my gear.

For shortware I use my good old Icom IC-730. This radio is about 30 years old now, but still performing very well. I fixed its wellknown preamp relay issue, and replaced the broken lightbulb behind the S-meter with an LED. The radio includes a 500Hz CW-filter. I mostly operate in CW.

The IC-730 lacks support for the 160m band, so in 2013 I bought a secondhand IC-718 to fill the gap. Ok, this isn’t the best transceiver available, but it’s cheap and works for me. Inside the 718 you’ll find the optional DSP-unit and a 500Hz CW-filter.

For 144 MHz I use an Icom IC-271e, a 25 watt all-mode VHF-transceiver. And for 430 MHz I use a Condor 46, which is a modified mobile radio for professional use.

My ATV station consists of a homebrew 23cm ATV-transmitter (based on modules of PE1ACB) and an Amstrad SRX200 analog satellite tuner (for 3cm ATV reception).

You’ll find quite some homebrew gear in my shack. including 30m QRP CW-transceiver, 80m receiver, AM receiver, LC-meter, interfaces, measurement tools, etc…

Some of my other gear: Microham USB Interface II, SSB Electronics SP-2000 preamp (144MHz) with DCW2004 sequence controller, MFJ-482 memory keyer, MiniVNA, Bencher BY-1 paddle, Kent KT1 and Junker hand keys and a MFJ-949E antenna tuner/switch, computers and lots, lots, LOTS of cables (despite ham radio supposes to be a WIRELESS hobby…).

Some of my measurement equipment: Hameg HM205-2 oscilloscope, MiniVNA network analyzer, homebrew LC-meter, Dynatek multimeter.

Antennas

My 2013/2014 antenna setup for HF: monoband verticals for 10, 15, 20 and 40m; HEDZ dualband antenna for 80 and 160m.
My 2013/2014 antenna setup for HF: monoband verticals for 10, 15, 20 and 40m; HEDZ dualband antenna for 80 and 160m (click the picture to enlarge).

I have a small pole at my house, carrying a VHF/UHF vertical (for local communications) and a 10GHz LNB (to receive the local ATV repeater PI6ATV). The pole also holds a windmeter, which is part of my el-cheapo weather station.

Next to my house is a cornfield. During the winter season the local farmer allows me to “grow” HF-antennas on his field. Normally I install the antennas in November and remove then in March. These antennas are primary setup for the yearly dutch PACC contest (February), but since they are available throughout the winter I use them on a daily basis for HF QSO’s.

My future plans include a small tower antenna holding a 4 x 9 element 144MHz antenna array to do DX, meteor scatter and earth-moon-earth communications.

Last but not least: most of my antennas are homebrewn, I really love building antennas! You can find some designs in the Homebrew section of this website.