My first wideband receiver was the Icom PCR-1000
which is a 10kHz to 1.3GHz scanner , all-mode (AM/FM/WFM/CW/SSB).
It has a great set of bandwith filters (2.8/6/15/50kHz). Most
useful is the 50kHz filter which can be used for several types of wideband
FM decoding such as APT / pocsag (minicall) / ACARS
(aviation data) etc.
I still use it for this kind of decoding , and as a spectrum
analyzer , hooked up to the
10.7MHz IF output on the R-8500 receiver.
...but my main radio today is the Icom R8500
, a 0.1MHz to 2GHz receiver and I love it very much,
it's a great piece of hardware, expensive maybe - but has
everything I demand of a receiver, I won't trade away quality and feel just to
save a few bucks.
For 0-30MHz I use a 30meter (~100') longwire antenna with a magnetic balun, a
15meter Windom,and a couple of E-H's,
for
local reception (0.03-1GHz) I use an active antenna , a Dressler
ARA-2000
which is a very good
VHF/UHF scanner antenna.
I recently also purchased an E-H antenna for 20M and I've
built one for 40M and another for 20m ,
and I'm truly impressed with the reception they provide, the
design really does work!
Below are a couple of my previous satellite dishes...
This is the 1.5meter dish with a 3 turn helical feed which I used to test
Inmarsat reception with.
Inmarsat is used for
satellite telephonecalls (1535-1545MHz) with analogue audio in the clear.
In the future (when I have room for 2 dishes) I will use this
dish for a permanent Meteosat station (1691MHz),
as I have all the hardware just lying here for no other purpose
than collecting dust.
This
was my 1.8 meter dish, it had a dual feedhorn
for 1.42 & 1.6 GHz, (hydrogen and hydroxyl lines)
two
ultra low-noise
amplifiers (<0.3dB NF) from DownEast
Microwave , mounted directly on the feedhorn,
and I used two line amplifiers (0.8-2GHz)
from Swedish Microwave to pump the signal thru
about 20 meters
of H-1000 low-loss coax to my R-8500. Selection of which feed
to use is done by a manual RF switch mounted
inside next to the radio. (This feedhorn is now mounted on the 10' dish instead)
The 19" box I've built the
R8500 and two PCR-1000 units into, the unit on top of the R8500 is a Yaesu
FRT-7700
antenna matching unit for shortwave reception.
I don't use the internal speakers at all , they are connected
to 2 computers instead (for decoding/recording purposes).
Finally my 3 meter (10') dish is up and running using 1420
and 1665 bands, no sun-noise or milkyway
driftscans so far, will be posted asap.
Took some time but now it's finally up!
Block diagram of the current system.
Most indoor parts are assembled in this dedicated 19" rack...
Vintage Radio / Renovation
Projects
my DRAKE radios, TR-4, T-4XC, R4B,
R4C
