Just picked up an Alinco DX-70 of eBay and it works great. Waiting for my auto-tuner to arrive before mounting in the JK.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FGqD6p1QDo

 

I see you have a shack. What antenna were you hooked up to there? And it was out of focus so I couldn't see what kind of signal you were getting on those guys? It seemed that even when nobody was talking there was quite a bit showing on the s meter.....do you have a lot of noise at your qth?

 

It was attached to a G5RV at about 30'. This was straight out of the box with an auto tuner extender (not a real tuner). Normally noise is low at my QTH but this test was just to make sure I didn't get an eBay DOA unit. Shortly after I shot this cell-video I did a factory reset and made a 59 QSO with Chicago from Nashville with 75w. Noise was much better after a few adjustments.

 

I ran a homebrew G5RV for a few years. It's not the greatest and it's not the worst. I does get you on the air.....which is a good thing....lol.

One of my fondest qsos was made using that antenna. It was the wee hours of the morning, in the middle of and Alaskan winter, and I was dxing. Conditions weren't good. I was calling cq on 40m with little response. Then I thought I heard my call sign but so very very weak. I said qrz? and again I was hearing a few letters of my call. Anyway, after what seemed like an hour, we finally made contact. He was an American living in Papua New Guinea. We could barely hear each other but we did manage to make the contact....

Glad you like the Alinco....

 

Went to a hamfest today and came home with all my money.

Nothing that looked good to me at all.

 

Yeah....sometimes the guys ask top dollar for their stuff, and other times you can find great deals. Are going to think about a good antenna for the qt, or just going to concentrate on mobile ops for now...???

Went out to the shack last night at about 11:30 to see how the bands were. Sounded like EU was starting to come in good on 15m. Heard a couple big JAs on 17m as well.

So I heard a pileup somewhere on 15m but couldn't hear the guy they were trying to get. So I started to swing the quad to the south first. It got to the south and I didn't hear them. So I started the move back around again.....and nada. My rotator froze up due south. So it's up the tower I go today.

 

Frozen in April it must be an Alaska kind of thing, we are cold but no longer freezing. Yes I am a smart ass, I hope its something simple.

I was up till 3:00 AM est playing on the radio. I did not hear any JA's but I hit HI and also heard Australia loud and clear on 20M. But my 100 watts did not make it to the outback.

Next stop is an amp, plus some additional antenna stuff.

I find the mobile fun for driving and its neat to listen to phone. But I find myself spending more time in the shack doing digital modes. So I need a good amp with good IMD performance so I can run more than 40 watts and not mess ups the bands that I am playing in.

Plus I need my extra as there were many possible dx contacts on frequencies that i am not allowed to TX on.

 

No, I shouldn't have said "frozen" (even tho it was 24 degrees this morning), I should have said "locked up". But I was able to stand on top of the tower today and with a long piece of 1x lumber, reach up and just push on the boom a little and it was able to move again. There is still something wrong and I will have to take it down and fix it one of these days. but that may not happen till all the snow is gone and I am also ready to modify my Quad as well. For now I'll just have to remember not to turn the rotator all the way to the south.

As far as the amp goes, I don't know what you want to spend. If you want to go top of the line then Acom or Alpha are about the best you can go with. A local friend just bought a Ten Tec Titan which is an extremely good amp as well, and right up there with Alpha. But Tokyo Hi-power amps are becoming very popular and seem to be very good quality. If you don't want to spend too much but want a pretty good amp for the money then look at the Ameritron. Mine is the old original AL80-A which was actually made by Ameritron. But MFJ bought Amertron a few years back. Not to say they still aren't making good amps but just not built by Ameritron anymore. The AL80-B amps are really popular.

As far as an antenna goes. I think you live on a fairly small lot? If so, and again if you want to spend some money, the StepIR antennas are really the way to go. But if you want to experience another part of the hobbie, you can always build a nice yagi. I built one....a 4 element 10m monobander years ago and it played like gangbusters.

I know you pretty much dove in head first when you got into the hobby, so that's why I mentioned some of the "higher" end gear. It's all about what a guy wants and how much he wants to spend...

 

Cool.....That's a good idea. It may be all you need. If not, 2m quads are really easy, and fun to build. They are pretty small, directional, and they provide quite a bit more gain when you point them at where you want to play. If you are interested in homebrewing it would be a a neat antenna to compare to.

Beware tho....once you are exposed to quad antennas, you'll probably want one for every band you work....

 

If at some time you do decide to homebrew, I would urge you to look into the quad. Not any harder to build than a yagi, and they are small as well. A 2 element quad works as well as, if not better, than a 3 element yagi.