N1RWJ
My shack
This is the current shape of my radio setup: the home station, portable HF kits, antennas, logging habits, and operating workflows behind the field notes on this site.
Station
Home station
Radio
Elecraft K4D at the desk for home operating, contest practice, CW work, and experiments that benefit from a stable station.
Antenna
DX Commander Expedition, usually treated as the known-good home vertical when I want repeatable 20-meter performance.
Operating position
A practical bench for listening, logging, debugging RF problems, and keeping the station easy to reconfigure.
Field
Portable kit
Field radios
Elecraft KX2 and KX3 for portable HF, POTA activations, quick experiments, and lightweight setups.
Antennas
Whips and wire antennas depending on the park, available supports, wind, time, and how much setup friction the outing can tolerate.
Logging
Portable logging is treated as part of the station: simple enough to use in the field, detailed enough to reconstruct what happened later.
Practice
Operating focus
- CW practice and getting more comfortable at real on-air speeds.
- POTA activations, especially repeatable field workflows around Rhode Island parks.
- Antenna and station experiments that produce notes worth finding again.
- Contest weekends used as dense practice, not only as score-chasing.