About our equipment

Besides the well-known FT 847 and FT 1000 MP we utilize an older Czech transceiver TXR 210 (Snezka). Although it's over 10 years old it's got an excelent RF performance, better then the new FT 847. Especially in the contests its better stop band, IP and AGC do a very good job.

A 10 years old Czech made 2m TXR 210 and David, OK1RK at the 144 MHz operation stand. He looks sad, because there was no response to his CQ-call at the moment and OK1KIM had more QSOs than we did.

For the 144 MHz operation we are using a home made 120 W solid state driver with the MOSFET MRF 141 and a PA with the Czech tube RE 041 XL. It gives about 1 HP (750W) RF PWR in peak into the 75 Ohm load. An additional 2 X-tal filter can be connected to the RX way on 144MHz. A single antenna made according to the KLM17LBX design has a length over 10.5m . A 75 ohm very robust aluminium coax-cable (originally designed for the cable TV) is used for the feeding.

On 432 MHz we usually run an FT 847 and a PA with the older Russian tube GI 14B (similar to the well-known GS31). It yields about the same RF power as the 144 MHz PA does. The feeding is 75 ohms as well. The 432MHz antenna is a home made 33 el. Yagi (almost 8 meters long) according to the K1FO design, but tuned for 75 Ohms. On receiver front end we utilize a preamp with the MGF 1502, 0.6 dB NF. Our sigs can usually be read very well in the western part of Europe. You can check out our signals on 70 cm band recorded by G4LIP ,QRB 806 km, during the 2nd Subregional Contest 2000 here.

A look at the 432 MHz operation stand - PA with the peak wattmeter, 75 Ohm feeding cable and part of the single K1FO 33 el. Yagi

Both 144 and 432 operation are checked by home brewed RF Wattmeters with peak detectors and professional directional couplers.

Our 1296 MHz rig is still relatively poor. Either the TXR 210 or an old FT 290 R as a driver, plus transverter by DB6NT, with only about 18 W RF. Because the 23cms antenna is mounted to the same mast as the 70 cm aerial, we choose a wide horizontal beam collinear antenna. This small antenna with 6 full wave radiators has a very wide radiation angle with the gain only about 14 dB.

Small collinear antenna for 23 cm band below the 70 cm Yagi

This antenna (beside the low power) is the most limiting factor on 1296 MHz we currently have for our DX traffic. We hope that a bigger dish and an about 1/2 HP PA will be available in the near future.

OK2KKW club station operates also an UHF beacon OK0EP, built by OK1VPZ and put in the operation in 1982.