It's Been a Long Time

I recently returned to amateur radio after nearly a 10 year break. A lot has changed, and as far as I can see, mostly for the best.

Meet the twins, and my trusty (or should that be rusty) FT-227.

I found the FT-227 on eBay; it had no audio and the tx was faulty. These transceivers were top of their class when I was first licensed in '79 so I thought it worth a punt. £30 later it was mine; I will go through the '227 story later.

I picked up the IC-202 from Martin's emporium in the early 90's and never let it go. Okay it only does SSB and CW and puts out 3watts PEP but don't be fooled. These are great fun to operate and like the '227 easy to fix. I couldn't leave the 202 on its own, and I wanted something for 6 Meters so the IC-502 seemed ideal.

This 502 is a recent addition. I found this ancient model in Hong Kong. Again 3 watts PEP but it produces a fairly clean output and it drives a PA.
It still has the protective plastic over the front, unbelievable? Its so un-touched that I'm now agonising whether to open it up and do the band spread mod?

So that’s the VHF kit. 20 years ago it would have seemed a bit lightweight, but in those days I only ran VHF/UHF so I had nothing better to spend my pennies on.

When I get round to it I will cover the rest of the shack, HF equipment, RTTY and of course the aerials.

73 Rex (G8UBJ)