John's Amateur Radio Station

John's Amateur Radio Station
Above is a view of John's amateur radio station located in one of the spare bedrooms at the rear of the house. Shown is a MFJ-9420 20-meter transceiver, a Lowe HF-150 shortwave receiver, and a variety of morse keys. A 20-meter dipole, in an inverted-vee configuration, is located just outside the bedroom window. The antenna is supported by a 16-foot piece of curtain rod which is strapped to a nearby fence post. The station operates under the callsign of VK8JC and puts out a whopping 12-watts of power. Believe it or not, with barely enough energy to illuminate a light bulb, John routinely talks to folks located throughout Australia, Japan and New Zealand. To date, his best contact was with a Spanish amateur station (callsign EA8LS) located in the Canary Islands. During this contact, the distance between stations was over 10,000 miles with locations on the opposite side of the planet...

Above is a view of John's amateur radio station located in one of the spare bedrooms at the rear of the house. Shown is a MFJ-9420 20-meter transceiver, a Lowe HF-150 shortwave receiver, and a variety of morse keys. A 20-meter dipole, in an inverted-vee configuration, is located just outside the bedroom window. The antenna is supported by a 16-foot piece of curtain rod which is strapped to a nearby fence post.

The station operates under the callsign of VK8JC and puts out a whopping 12-watts of power. Believe it or not, with barely enough energy to illuminate a light bulb, John routinely talks to folks located throughout Australia, Japan and New Zealand. To date, his best contact was with a Spanish amateur station (callsign EA8LS) located in the Canary Islands. During this contact, the distance between stations was over 10,000 miles with locations on the opposite side of the planet...

A recorded log of station contacts is kept on a nearby Compaq desktop computer. The station mascots on top of the machine keep a vigilant eye out for illegal users and nasty virus infections...

Radio contacts, also known as QSOs, are verified by exchanging personal QSL cards. Shown is a VK8JC QSL card that illustrates the rural outback of central Australia. The station location is near the Tropic of Capricorn at 23.72 degrees south latitude by 133.88 degrees east longitude (grid PG66).

Here is a picture of the station operator on a quest to find the ultimate antenna location. Unfortunately, this site in northern Scotland was already taken up by a ski lift...