With the addition of an Ameritron AL-80B, a linear RF amp, at bottom of photo, the station is now capable of a kilowatt. Well it would be if, A) I had a tuner capable of handling a kilowatt, a dummy load, ditto, and the balls to really cut it loose on my random wire or G5RV Jr.

Also to note in the photo: the pine board project remains in the shack to the left. The idea is to integrate it with the amp. To do that, a relay line must be added to key the amp.

Not quite in the photo, but almost, to the far left: the Heil communication headset. One of the rare times I went all out and got “the best.” Makes a big difference in the audibility of weak stations. Add the key switch and the mic, and I’m hearing better and, reportedly, sounding quite good.

The stack of tuners in the photo will be reduced by one. I’ll sell or find another use for the Versa Tuner II. I may need to upgrade the Versa Tuner III also, but I doubt I’m gonna get an actual kilowatt of anything through the antennae that I currently have up.

One interesting observation: adding gear invariably has me re-thinking not just the directly-impacted existing kit, but also, in an ergonomic and functional way, the whole shack. Adding the amp forced an examination of the tuners and the RF grounding system. Amplifying the pine board rig has gotten me reviewing the connections to the Heath VFO, and the CW keyers. The Arduino Mega driven K3NG keyer will serve to sequence switching of the pine board rig to the amp and Kenwood receiver. Getting back into programming the keyer has me looking at the kit keyer, keyer switching, and CW ops in general.

What an absorbing hobby!