My Equipment
This page lets me put a very brief list of what it is I'm operating to make all those awesome QSOs. Along with the list, I do have a few musings included — it is entirely possible I could be wrong about some things... we're all learning. Also, this list is quite incomplete.My main setup (in my house) is:
- Icom IC-756 Pro III - it's an older radio (depending on what you consider older), but it has an excellent display and a phenomenal internal tuner.
- Inverted L-sloper (on an extended painter's pole) - seriously, it's just really high-quality wire (silver tinned copper) that could easily be mistaken for speaker wire. It works on nearly everything I want to work; due to its proximity to my house (and therefore bedroom), I do have to reduce power when working certain modes or bands.
- A new AFCI circuit breaker from Eaton - because older ones are not exactly friendly to amateur radio (or other types of radio in some circumstances). It took me a little while to figure out what was going wrong at my house every time I transmitted, but fortunately for me, other hams had discovered this particular problem. See this page: RFI to Arc-Fault Circuit Interrupters or this YouTube video: RFI Trips GFCI Breakers... Fortunately, Eaton was kind enough to send me a new one as soon as I contacted them. All I had to do was say, "I'm a ham radio operator and I just installed an anten....." and the kind lady on the other side of the phone interrupted me with, "I need to send you a new arc fault interrupter." Apparently, they know about the problem.
My mobile setup:
My Daily Driver
- Icom IC-5100A - This radio was an "upgrade" on my 2730, as I wanted my new car to have D-Star capability and also I wanted to be able to use the nearest repeater function when I travel. This thing rocks when it comes to traveling as I can be in the middle of nowhere and simply use the function and find a local repeater to talk on (provided that I have loaded the radio with repeaters, which I usually keep a couple SD cards in my car).
- Diamond antenna - not sure of the specific model at the moment. I need to go look at the car to figure it out and then I can put that here. This antenna is on a mag mount for temporary purposes as I have a "better" antenna to be used in the near future.
The camping/offroad/$1 vehicle
- Icom IC-2730A - I had a hard time picking a mobile radio. I went back and forth on the subject, seriously considering some others, like a Kenwood that had "built-in" APRS. None of the radios that had features that I though I had to have actually worked as I thought they would after reading more about them. I settled on this radio because of its dual-watch, dual-listen, dual-do-anything-you-want-basically design. It's really two dual-mode VHF/UHF rigs in one that share some stuff. I can control volume, squelch, frequency, VFO/memory selection on each side of the radio independently. If someone asked me what I think a good mobile radio would be, this would be the only one I would recommend. It is superb. * see under things I want below
- Nagoya NMO-200A - using a lip-mount on the Montero's rear hatch. It seems to work just fine with some reported picket fencing depending on my location and speed of travel.
My Daily Driver
- Icom IC-5100A - This radio was an "upgrade" on my 2730, as I wanted my new car to have D-Star capability and also I wanted to be able to use the nearest repeater function when I travel. This thing rocks when it comes to traveling as I can be in the middle of nowhere and simply use the function and find a local repeater to talk on (provided that I have loaded the radio with repeaters, which I usually keep a couple SD cards in my car).
- Diamond antenna - not sure of the specific model at the moment. I need to go look at the car to figure it out and then I can put that here. This antenna is on a mag mount for temporary purposes as I have a "better" antenna to be used in the near future.
The camping/offroad/$1 vehicle
- Icom IC-2730A - I had a hard time picking a mobile radio. I went back and forth on the subject, seriously considering some others, like a Kenwood that had "built-in" APRS. None of the radios that had features that I though I had to have actually worked as I thought they would after reading more about them. I settled on this radio because of its dual-watch, dual-listen, dual-do-anything-you-want-basically design. It's really two dual-mode VHF/UHF rigs in one that share some stuff. I can control volume, squelch, frequency, VFO/memory selection on each side of the radio independently. If someone asked me what I think a good mobile radio would be, this would be the only one I would recommend. It is superb. * see under things I want below
- Nagoya NMO-200A - using a lip-mount on the Montero's rear hatch. It seems to work just fine with some reported picket fencing depending on my location and speed of travel.
Things I want (eventually):
- Icom IC-7300 Mk II - the 7300 is just a workhorse, plain and simple. Its built-in USB interface and real-time waterfall make this hard to beat. I enjoy operating the one we use when our radio club makes the annual trip to Paradise. And from what I've found, no one has complained in any sort of way that the Mk II is inferior to the OG 7300. That being said, I, like everyone else in the amateur radio community want one of these radios.
- * An item that doesn't seem to exist - when mentioning my mobile radio, I did say the 2730A is the only one I'd recommend. That's partially because Icom doesn't make a radio with every feature I want. I wish they made an Icom 2730 with an APRS TNC built in. It doesn't make sense to me that this isn't a thing already — my Anytone HT has this feature. Come on, Icom, get on this already! (I did find that the Icom ID-5100A seems to have built-in GPS but it uses that for DPRS. I want/need APRS so it can be useful no matter if there are any D-Star repeaters around or not.)
Website is ©2023-2026 Steven Lemuel Williamson. Some images are copyrighted by S. Lemuel Williamson Photography.
