About Pete’s station: all QRP, 99 percent of the time

Where I "pound brass," QRP-style. A small stuffed lobster, a door prize from Lobstercon 2010, sits atop the station to remind me how wonderful New England seafood really is!

Armchair globe-trotting happens here, when the spirit or contest schedules strike.

I designed the setup as a grab-and-go station for emergency use — just disconnect two power cables and two antenna cables, and I can grab handles on either side of the shelves and cart the whole thing off to a new location. It’s worked very nicely the last three Field Days.

Ground Floor

The “ground floor” of the station serves as the utility closet, where power is distributed from batteries on the floor or the power supply on Level 3. The power comes in via a West Mountain Radio PowerGate PG40S on the left wall to a RigRunner 4008 distribution panel out of sight on the inner right-hand panel. To the right of the PowerGate is a little meter with which I’m running some experiments on battery life. Behind it is an MFJ Battery Boost unit. To the right of the Battery Boost is a box I cooked up that allows me to have a couple of keys connected to the transceiver simultaneously. Tucked up on the underside of the shelf at the rear is a 300-watt dummy load. Look closely, and you’ll see the edges of small metal plates on either side of the right-hand upright, at the bottom. Those are the contacts for a touch-paddle  keyer, built into the shelving. A pair of white LED lights from Ikea are attached to the front underside of the bottom shelf for lighting.

Second Floor

From left to right, the second floor hosts an MFJ-901B antenna tuner. My Yasesu FT-817ND sits atop my Yaesu FT8800R 2m/70cm transceiver. To the right of that stack, my NEScaf audio filter sits atop my K1EL K12 memory keyer. The black box against the inside of the right side panel hosts the station’s light switch, as well as a circuit for keeping the LED lights happy.

Third Floor

From left to right, the third floor holds a Tokyo Hy-Power HL-45B amplifier, which I occasionally use when I’m operating as a special-event station for non-QRP events and also is available to give my 5 watts an additional kick for emergency use. To the right sits an MFJ-822 cross-needle power and SWR meter. Finally, to the right of that sits an Alinco DM-330MV power supply. Another set of white LEDs overhangs the top shelf for additional task lighting at the operating position.