The N3RO station above is very different from the station pictured on the "home" page taken around 1990. Although much of the equipment is still in operation, such as the entire Kenwood TS-820s equipment line, new station equipment includes a laptop computer that marries RF technology with the newer digital / internet technology (ECHOLINK). This allows me to operate not only on the HF bands as in the past, but use internet linking technology coupled with 2 meter RF to bring worldwide communications to me where-ever I may be: around the house, outside walking in the neighborhood, mobiling in my vehicle or connected to my home base station through my downtown Frederick office computer. This "go anywhere" flexibility was no where to be seen in the "home" page station picture. If I wanted to "operate" my ham radio it required me to go sit at the desk where the ham equipment was located. Today, I am able to access the same level of worldwide communications from just about anywhere, as noted above.
Below is a picture of the N3RO station in 2010. It is operational on all HF bands from 160 meters up through 10 meters ( mostly SSB and CW ). It also is fully functional on 6 and 2 meter FM and SSB as well as 1 1/4 meter UHF frequencies. For additional information on my antennas, click on the Antennas page. To see more detail on my Echolink system, just click on the Echolink page ( above left ).
After getting the 706mark2G working with a new LDG AT-100pro2 autotuner, I decided to bring my 1976 TS-820s line of equipment back into service with the new LONGWIRE antenna. The TS-820s line included the SM-220 station monitor scope with the panoramic display showing band activity, the outboard VFO-820, the manual AT-200 antenna tuner and the matching SP-820 filter speaker. The AT-200 manual tuner gave the TS-820s a nice 1:1 SWR match and the 820s responded with 110 watts output from its matched pair of 6146B finals. Below you can see 40 meter band activity displayed on the SM-220 scope as the TS-820s operates on 40 meters.
Below Rick, N3RO, works 40 meter CW:
It would have been difficult to envision today's world of ham radio back in the late 50's and early 60's when SSB was just becoming popular, FM repeaters were largely unknown to the general ham population and substituting the ionosphere with an internet linking system wasn't even dreamed of yet. Although I have seen technology change dramatically over the last 50 years, one thing hasn't changed - the magic of ham to ham, person to person communication. That is the one constant that keeps me coming back for more, every single day.