Welcome to 3rd Planet Solar & the shack of KC9ON
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Crystals
QRP Accessory Kits
Components
DIY Homebrew
CCK Kits*** What’s New ***
| 2021-03-31 |
*** BACK IN STOCK *** |
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| 2021-03-21 |
CW Morse Scout KeyAvailable assembled or easy to build kit. |
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| 2021-02-02 |
HW-8-TR solid state T/R relay replacement board |
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2020-09-28 |
NEW HC49/U Crystal Frequencies |
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2020-09-28 |
Kanga UK Sudden-2 40M Receiver – Through hole version |
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What’s 3rd Planet Solar all about? Check it out in the About section.
A few pictures of the shack:
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| Once in a lifetime event – The bench is clean! | 2016 Shack Upgrade | The happy trio – HW-8, CALF, and 3CPO |
The gear consists of an Icom IC-725 and MFJ 949D tuner/meter as the primary HF station with a Bencher and 3CPO for CW. The old TRAC keyer still works but mostly retired now. The main antenna is a simple 40M bowtie dipole which works pretty good on all bands. Lately my Heathkit HW-8 has taken center stage pretty much replacing the IC-725. Since my first HW-8 there is now a HW-7 and another HW-8 for camping.
The 2M primary station is an IC-251H with killer audio and RF output. For Satellite and ISS work a Yaesu FT-290RII and Kantronics KAM fills the bill. Yes, you can work the Space Station on just a watt or two and a simple vertical antenna!
When home-brewing and repairing we also use some fairly older equipment. Heathkit IG-1271 signal generator, B&K 512MHz frequency counter, Philips 100MHz scope, Autek WM-1 RF/SWR meter, Heathkit IM-1210 DMM, Ramsey COM3 service monitor, Bird Wattmeter (that I always want more slugs for!), a few handheld DMM’s, my Digital Dummy Load, bench vise, and of course a Tenma solder reworks station.
Not pictured of more old equipment I pull off the shelf from time to time to play with. A Kenwood TS-520 (under restoration), TS-530, Heathkit HW-16, HW-7, 2nd HW-8, HW-101 (under restoration), and my first rig an old Hallicrafters HT-17 (also under restoration).
Thanks for stopping by and 73!
John kc9on