Equipment

Over the years I have owned and used a lot of radios and associated equipment in attempting to build and improve my humble amateur radio station, predominantly on the shortwave (or HF - high frequency - bands). 

Looking back now at some of these old friends I do have a fondness for many of them that makes me wonder why I ever parted with them. Oh how lovely it would have been to have had the time, space, and means to be able to have kept all of the radios and to listen to and operate them all occasionally. 

This page lists most (though probably not all due to an aging memory) of the assorted bits and pieces purchased and used at one time or another in the G0RIF shack.

Radios:

Make & Model	Comment
Lowe HF-225	Great RX, would have another one tomorrow if I could find one.
Kenwood TS-140	My first HF transceiver. A great starter rig.
Trio TS-510	Big and ugly and only really worked on 40m. I bought a wrong 'un!
Kenwood TS-440SAT	I loved this radio. It never ever let me down. Enough said.
Yaesu FT-209R	A decent 2m handheld radio, if a little bit big.
Yaesu FT-290 Mk1	The classic! Who hasn't had one of these over the years?
Yaesu FRG-7	A classic receiver with GREAT audio. I loved listening to mine.
Icom IC-738	A joy to operate and another radio I'd gladly have back in the shack.
Alinco DJ-C1	A lovely little shirt-pocket 2m handheld.
Alinco DJ-580	A decent mid-range 2m/70cm handheld radio.
Kenwood TS-870	The radio I most regret selling. I'd have another in a heartbeat!
Yaesu FT-736R	My only 'proper' VHF/UHF radio. A good bit of kit but not great.
Tokyo Hy-Power HT-110	A basic 10m mobile/portable radio for SSB/CW, 20w rated output.
Kenwood R-2000	A lovely receiver. Mine had the VHF module. Great for HF and air band.
JRC JST-245	A true Rolls Royce of a radio. I regret selling this.
Kenwood TS-480SAT	A lovely radio in an unusual form. True Kenwood quality.
Icom IC-703	A great little radio.
Icom IC-740	A great older radio with a wonderful receiver.
Yaesu FT-901D	A genuine pleasure to operate. A true old-school ham radio classic!
Trio TR-7730	It served its purpose at the time.
Trio TR-7010	Great little SSB-only 2m rig.
Yaesu FT-897D	Capable but not great. I replaced mine with an FT-857D
Yaesu FT-857D	A good portable radio for HF (100w output), 2m and 70cm.
Icom IC-E7	Nice small 2m/70cm handheld with wideband (0.5-999.99Mhz) receive +AM
Yaesu FT-950	A radio I loved to operate that served me very well. Sorely missed.
Xiegu G90	The new breed. My first SDR radio and I'm loving it. Great internal ATU.
Hiroyasu UV-5118	Quirky little Chinese 2m/70cm handie. Seems well built and works just fine.

Radio/Computer interfaces:

Make & Model	Comment
Tigertronics SignaLink SL-1+	Worked really well with both my JST-245 and TS-480.
G3LIV Isoterm Multimode	Like the SignaLink but with added FSK RTTY capability. Great unit.
CG SB-2000 Mk1	Paired with my FT-950. CW and FSK RTTY keying capability. Top kit!
Generic USB audio interface	Tried various for laptop portable. All worked ok but subject to RFI.

Commercially bought antennas:

Make & Model	Comment
Buddistick Pro	Small package. Nice for travel/portable ops. Average, not great performance.
Par EndFedz	I have 40/20/17m models. Well built and work very well.
AmPro 20m mobile whip	Used for static-mobile/portable ops. Works well.
SOTA 3el 2m beam	Small, lightweight, portable. Nice little 2m beam antenna.
5.6m telescopic whip	Chinese alternative to MFJ-1979. M10 thread so need 3/8 adapter. Works well.

Antenna tuning/matching units:

Make & Model	Comment
SGC SG-230 Smartuner	My first automatic ATU - this unit really opened up the bands for me.
SST T-2	I've had this for many years and in the shack or portable, it just works.
Wire Antennas 49:1 unun	I have the 250w version which uses a hefty FT240-43 core.
LDG AT-100 Pro II	I used this for years but never really came to love it. Worked ok. Noisy!
Daiwa CNW-419	Another manual tuner that just worked. Nice built-in SWR/power meter.

...