I mentioned in an earlier post that I’ve ordered a PSK-20 kit from Small Wonder Labs, which will be the first HF transceiver I will have owned. This past weekend, I remembered the fact that I was missing necessary equipment to get it going once it’s successfully assembled. Two basic pieces of equipment that are required to be able to use any transceiver are a power supply and an appropriate antenna. Before this weekend, I owned neither of those. I live a [somewhat convenient] hour away from Ham Radio Outlet‘s New Hampshire location, and because I had never been to an HRO store before, I decided to pay the folks at HRO a visit.

The store itself is exactly how I pictured it’d be: countless books, magazines, antennas, coax cables, accessories, and (of course) radios adorning every visible surface of a small but respectable retail space, along with a decent number of hams checking out the merchandise. I was expecting the store to be much less busy than it was…it’s good to know that there are so many hams in the area!

Before entering the store, I had already done some research on both the power supply and antenna to purchase to get my station going. The user-written equipment reviews on eHam.net were a great resource for this. My main consideration for the equipment was that it I wanted it to be as cheap as possible while still being functional and useful, and a “good investment” for my station.

Power Supply

The PSK-20 kit calls for a DC power supply that can supply 12-15 volts at 1 amp. The only things resembling power supplies that I already had laying around my apartment are wallwarts, which wouldn’t be acceptable even if I had one that was rated for the required voltage/current. From what I understand, most wallwarts aren’t regulated, and they tend to produce noisy power. So, buying a legitimate desktop power supply was in order. I ended up buying an Astron RS-4A 13.8 volt DC power supply since it was rated to be more than capable of powering the transceiver, and was relatively inexpensive.

A view of the rear panel of the Astron RS-4A power supply

A copy of a professionally-drafted schematic came in the box, which itself included originally-hand-written part changes. I thought that was entertaining.

Antenna

As its name implies, the PSK-20 is a 20 meter transceiver kit, so I needed to buy a 20 meter antenna to use with it. Even now, I’m not sure if I made the right choice, but I guess time will tell. My initial research left two contenders to choose from, the Ham Stick whip from Lakeview and the “End-Fedz” end-fed half-wave dipole from PAR Electronics. Both antennas have overwhelmingly positive user reviews on eHam.net. End-Fedz antennas appear to be handmade to order, with high build quality, but end the end I went with the Ham Stick for two main reasons:

  1. Price. The End-Fedz antenna was just about double the price of the Ham Stick.
  2. Portability. I’ll primarily be operating from inside my 3rd-floor apartment, and the End-Fedz 20m antenna seems to basically be a 33 foot long wire. Although the End-Fedz antenna is half-wave (as opposed to the Ham Stick,) I doubt I would have gotten good performance from it by laying it across the length of the apartment on the ground. The Ham Stick (at ~7 feet long when assembled) could be mounted on the railing of my apartment balcony, but the same is not true for the End-Fedz.

The End-Fedz antenna seemed like the superior product, but the Ham Stick seemed to fit my situation better, so I picked one up at HRO.

Ham Stick 20m Antenna

The end of the Ham Stick 20m antenna, in its original packaging

I also thought about how and where I would mount the antenna. I ended up impulse purchasing the Ham Stick dipole kit at HRO, which is basically a large piece of metal with holes in it, a threaded hole for the antenna, and an SO-239 connector, which makes me wonder why it cost a somewhat hefty $24.95. I bought the dipole kit hoping that it would allow me to easily mount the single Ham Stick whip antenna to the railing of my apartment’s balcony, even if it’s only while I’m actively using the antenna. If it doesn’t work out like I’m envisioning, I can still buy another Ham Stick in the future and use the dipole kit for its intended purpose of mating two Ham Sticks into a dipole configuration.

Ham Stick Dipole Kit

Ham Stick Dipole Kit, to be hopefully used as a mount for a single Ham Stick whip

…and that’s the tale of how I splurged during my first visit to HRO. I said on Twitter that I believe that that store needs a slogan: “HRO: Where Your Wallet Goes to Die.” Seriously though, I had a great experience there, the salespeople were helpful, and I got the equipment I needed.

Now, the only missing piece is the radio!