W4VR Photo Album

My current radio shack in Eagle Lake. I use an Icom 756PROIII transceiver and an Icom PW-1 amplifier. The amplifier remote head sits on top of the transceiver.

The PW1 and power supply for the PROIII are located in the basement and controlled from the radio shack directly above. All antenna transmission lines are automatically switched by the PW1 via the PROIII.

View of Eagle Lake from my back yard (summer).

View of Eagle Lake from my back yard (winter).

The lake is approximately 0.5 miles wide at this location.

These are the lauchers I use to install my wire antennas in 80-foot trees. The sling shot and Zebco casting reel are Walmart items. I use a 1.5 or 2 ounce sinker with 15 pound nylon fishing line. I buy my antenna rope from Cabela's...a 1000-foot spool of parachute cord runs about $35.

40 meter 2-element wire beam. This antenna beams East-Northeast.

40 meter 3-element wire beam. This antenna beams West-Southwest. The photo shows only the driven element and reflector. The director is to the left behind the tall tree. My 80 meter dipole, which you can barely see in the photo, is connected to the same feedpoint as the 40 driven element.

160 meter inverted-L and ground screen. This antenna is 3/8-wavelengths long. The vertical section is approximately 70 feet. The ground screen consists of 50 radials; each radial is 40 to 100 feet long. The coiled-up coax is a an 11-foot piece of RG-6U, an open stub to tune out the inductive reactance component of the inverted-L. Also tied to the feedpoint is a 6 meter 3/4-wave sloping vertical which works wonders with a kilowatt.

Matching network for 2-element 17 meter collinear dipole array. The equal-length transmission lines come down to a T connector and into a 2:1 Unun to provide a match for the 50-ohm line to the shack.

Entry point for my transmission lines. These go through the basement wall and plug into the antenna jacks on the PW-1 amplifier for auto-switching.

My radio shack is off the deck with a view of the lake. Note the sliding door where the puppy exits when he makes too much noise.

My 1962 radio shack, consisting of a Gonset GR-212 receiver and a Heath DX100 AM transmitter. I still had the original transmitter, a Knight Kit T60 and Heath HG10 VFO, but was out of service at this point.

My 1963 shack. A DX100, SB10 SSB adapter, and Johnson matchbox. I did a lot of CW with a Vibroplex bug back in those days.

Here we are a few months later with re-arranged equipment on a new table my uncle Harry built for me. The lawn chair is all I could afford after spending $700 on equipment.

My 1967 shack with the addition of a Heath HA10 amplfier and Heath scope so I could check linearity of the amplifier. I finally bit the bullet and built a Heath SB100 transceiver while serving my country. Prior to this I had a National NCX-3.

This is my Washington DC radio shack while in college. Heath SB-100 and Johnson Matchbox.

W4VR and XYL Cookie at Perce Rock on the tip of Gaspe Penninsula in the Province of Quebec.

This is our puppy, Bugsey, a west highland terrier.

I took this photo of a Bull Moose a few hundred feet from my home. I estimate this guy weighed about 1200 pounds.

My boat and dock. The dock is on wheels so it can be pulled in during the winter months. The boat is a 17' Princecraft Bass fishing boat with a Johnson 50 HP motor.