N1TJC

I use a Yaesu FT-2980 (like the 2900 but with 5 more watts of power) connected to a home made 2 meter gorund plane in my attic. I have an MFJ-4230MVP (25A continuous, 30A peak) for power. If I need to check the SWR, I grab my MFJ-812B, a 2m/220MHz SWR/wattmeter. My dad and I planning on going to the MIT ham exams on July 18 to get my General and Extra licenses and for him to get his Technician (and probably General) licenses. For HF, we've ordered an Icom IC-7300 and supplies to get a 40/20/10/6m fan dipole in the air. The tuner will be an LDG Z-100PLUS.

I also have 2 Baofeng handhelds, one with a Nagoya 320A and the other with a SignalStick on 2m and 440 MHz. If I want to listen to the air bands or the police in my area, I have a Uniden BC125AT scanner (about $100 new) that I bought "Used - Very Good" from Amazon for only $65!

To make my ground plane, I used the instructions from http://www.hamuniverse.com/2metergp.html with an SO-239 UHF female connector and some 12AWG Romex house wire. In the future, I might make either a better version of this or maybe just a better antenna altogether.

I built a simple stand for it with 10 feet of 3/4" PVC pipe and a 4 - way tee. The "mast" is about three feet high going into a hole driled into the top of the tee. The stabilizer pipes are about 18" long. I routed the feedline through the pipe by drilling a hole into it and enlarging the hole with a dremel (which was very messy).