Shack Equipment History

How It Started

Like a lot of hams, my first radio was a Baofeng UV-5R. Cheap, indestructible, and ugly in the best possible way. It got me on the local 2m repeater and made my first QSOs happen. I still have it, and it still works — the UV-5R is the cockroach of amateur radio.

Going Digital

The jump that changed my operating was DMR. Once you hear what a properly configured digital mode sounds like — crystal clear audio, no hiss, no squelch tails — it's hard to go back. The AnyTone AT-D878UVII Plus is where I landed, and it's the best HT I've touched. The codeplug flexibility, GPS, Bluetooth, and dual-band DMR/analog capability in one radio is genuinely impressive engineering. It's the primary rig.

I run it connected to a Pi-Link for DMR talkgroup access — a Raspberry Pi running a hotspot that links me into the DMR network from anywhere. This is what makes DMR practical when you're not near a local repeater covering the right talkgroups. The combination of the AnyTone and Pi-Link effectively makes the whole DMR network available from my desk.

Current Radios

• AnyTone AT-D878UVII Plus — primary HT, DMR/analog dual band, GPS
• Radtel RT-880 — dual band HT, wide receiver coverage, backup/scanning
• Baofeng UV-5R — the classic starter rig, EmComm backup, loaner for VE sessions
• Pi-Link — DMR hotspot for talkgroup access independent of local repeater coverage

What's Next

No HF in the shack yet — that's the natural next frontier. The General upgrade unlocks the HF privileges, and at that point the antenna situation becomes the interesting problem to solve. A modest wire antenna and an entry-level HF transceiver would open up 20m FT8 and SSB DX, which is a completely different operating experience than VHF/UHF.

The Pi-Link experience has also made me curious about other digital infrastructure — Allstar nodes, APRS iGating, and eventually running a full DMR hotspot on a better platform. The software-defined side of amateur radio is a deep rabbit hole.