Having recently qualified I don’t have a large selection of equipment nor a lot of space in my shack, or to be more correct my office. The choice of radio was limited and ideally would be a ‘shack in a box’.

After some thought and much time looking at reviews and Youtube videos I went with a Yaesu FT-991A. This is fairly compact and provides HF, VHF and UHF coverage.

So what antennas to choose? Again, whilst my garden is not small, there are no large trees but I do have a large conifer hedge in the back so I could use a long wire for HF. In the end I went for an end fed half wave (Vibroplex EF-80-10-JR-KW) at around 65′ is a reasonable size. It runs from the chimney out to the top of a conifer at the side of the house.

The choice for VHF/UHF was easier as most of my neighbours have long poles supporting their TV aerials, a Diamond X-50 on a 22ft pole works very well.

For power I went with a Nevada Radio PS-30M power supply. This was initially really disappointing as the fan sounds like a jet taking off, when it’s triggered. After much thought I replaced the fan with a much quieter PC fan. There are also further mods on the internet to enable the fan to run slowly continuously,but I have not tried them.

I also have an Avair AV601 SWR/power meter that covers both HF and VHF/UHF.

I have replaced the 991 microphone with a Heil HM-12 with Heil CC-1-YM adaptor cable, supported on a movable arm and a foot switch for PTT.

All of this is connected with Cabinex 231 coax

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