The shack in France - new for 2012, updated 2017

With the move to France from the Channel Island of Jersey, radio was put on hold for a while initially because we lived in a flat but latterly just through being too busy to actually sort out aerials and the like. Well at long last things have mostly come together, the new callsign F4VPJ has been issued as I have a permanent address and the rigs are all here and have 'taken root' so to speak!

The intention had been to have two radio shacks. I work from home half of my time so one of the requirements was that the 'home office' should have radios in it, initial incarnation above and in its current form below with the FT1000MP Mk.V for HF and the Icom IC-251E and IC-451E pair for VHF and UHF operation on SSB and FM. Beaming south west from here covers most of France and down into the Alps and Italy so hopefully the occasional 'lift' and sporadic E should be interesting on occasions!

The 'office' - the inside shack

The commercial quality cable gland (ex Airtel??!) for all the co-ax and the earth into the indoor shack.

The indoor main radio 'stack' for all bands HF to UHF plus the 'backup' shack in my rolltop desk which now houses the FT-857d and its power supply plus various other bits and bobs!

(Yes that is a picture of the operator and his folks taken 'a lot of years ago'!!).

The office and shack as it now stands, (the rolltop desk is behind the chair).

The 'shed'!

The other part of the masterplan HAD been to have a permanent external shack, workshop and 'fiddle room' for radio operations as well as the all important 'tinkering' that is always needed! Cold and damp conditions have predicated against pursuing this so the plans have changed and the radios thinned down a little but at least everything is in easy reach.