I am located about 32 miles at 290 degrees from downtown Chicago. My lot is fairly large, so I was able to install a Rohn 25, guyed tower. The tower is approx. 60' high. The entire top section was reworked by N9XJU to include 2 heavy duty thrust bearings. No vertical load is on the rotor. The Force 12 (C4XL) antenna is mounted at about the 60 foot level. Approximately 27 feet below is a Force 12 C3 Classic aimed full-time toward Europe and phased with a Dunestar 800-SM switch box.
At the very top of the mast is a 2 meter and 440MHz vertical, dedicated to APRS.

Other antennas include a 75 meter dipole at about 50 feet, 3 40 meter slopers controlled by an Ameritron remote coax switch and an 80 meter sloper (towards Europe).

The linear amplifier is Australian engineered and built by Emtron located in Sydney, Australia. This amp is built like a brick outhouse. Its heavy, all aluminum, construction allows the unit to be shipped in one carton, not 2 or 3. Four allen head fasteners hold the cover on the amplifier. Unpacking and hooking up this beauty took about 20 minutes. One is required to remove the cover and remove a rubberized cushion that was placed around the Svetlana 4CX1600B tetrode. There was absolutely ZERO damage to any part of the amplifier when I unpacked it. Its monster (Emtron designed and built) transformer sat firmly and proud on the middle of the chassis.
I decided to give my new amplifier the "Emtron Test". It is a simple procedure on the DX-2. Just remove the 4 fasteners holding the cabinet. If you have a traditionally designed metal chassis/case amp, it will take you more time as you remove the 15 or 20 screws. *** BE CAREFUL *** If you DO NOT have an Emtron, you may warp the chassis on your amp making the cover fit improperly when you go to reinstall it. Once you wrestle the cover off your amp, simply lift the amp by one corner. If you DO NOT have an Emtron, you will notice the chassis bend and torque. Now, spend the better part of a half hour getting the cover aligned and all the screws re-installed. With the Emtron, there was NO bending or warping!

The amplifier delivers full legal output on all bands. Tune up is a snap. One merely selects the band, presets the Plate and Load to factory settings, apply about 10 watts of CW drive and adjust the plate to max output. One increases the drive and re-adjusts the Plate to maximum output and adjust the Load to the recommended "2 red bars" on the Ig2 LED meter and tweak the Plate control for max Ig2 at that point and one is ready to go on the air. To decrease output, one lowers the drive.
The amp is fully protected from overdrive, hi swr, excess bias, and numerous other conditions introduced by the operator. I have transmitted into shorted and open lines, hi swr, the band switch in the wrong position and driven it with 100 watts. The results were an immediate fault detection and shutdown of the amp. A few seconds later it is ready to have another go at it. The 4CX1600B is cooled by a very solidly built two speed fan. The fan is thermostatically controlled to "kick into high gear" when the temperature rises. Under normal SSB conditions, you'll never get to experience the "high speed" of the motor. Running RTTY,AM and CW you will get the high speed as the tube warms up doing its thing.
The amplifier is designed in modules, making field replacement a snap. I had a chance to do a "fix" on the Emtron with the able assistance of the factory. The amplifier as delivered had a problem with the EBS. It was set too precise and completely "shut off" the tube between words. The results were horrible. On the air discussions with friends soon disclosed that my Emtron had a problem. Randy Sarace, KK7TV, immediately identified the problem as IMD as the tube started. This information was relayed to Emtron, and a modification, that fixed the situation was fabricated. After the "new" control board was thoroughly tested as the factory, it was Air Shipped to me. I was able to install the new controller board with the instructions included with the board. A few simple measurements and adjustments were made and the amplifier worked flawlessly. It is my understanding that the "KK7TV" modification is now standard in all production models of Emtron amps.

The panel meter on my amp is LED. One can get traditional meters, but I think you'll find the LED's a very useful addition. They give me instant readings that are useful during tune up. The soft inrush controller makes switching on the amp a quiet and uneventful experience. No thumping or twanging when turning on the amp. A wait of approximately two minutes is required before one can "pour the coals" to the amp.

I have several items in the ham shack that seem to improve reception under various conditions. Having purchased most of the Timewave DSP products, I finally ended up with the JPS, NIR-12, dual DSP noise/interference reducer. I use that about 50% of the time when the bands get super noisy or crowded. It works fine. I do not use the autonotch in the NIR-12, because I prefer the autonotch in the 1000MP. I also have a JPS ANC-4 that I use for local computer or cable company interference. It works great. I have yet to install a small external yagi to rid myself of the loud intermittent line noise I often experience.
The radio is computer controlled and works fine with DX4 windows logging program. I am able to get "live" DX cluster spotting off the internet. The computer gets frequency and band information from the radio and spots from the net to make logging a snap. I also run a Kenwood TS-440AT 24 hours a day as a "gate" for APRS. It runs on 300 baud packet on 10.151 LSB. This radio is connected to a Mac computer, which also runs 24 hours a day and a 2 meter link to 144.39..thereby providing an HF gateway to and from 2 meters.
I have a few other radios kicking around like a Kenwood TS-850AT, Alinco DX-70, Drake, and a TL-922 that I am currently installing a vacuum relay and other mods ala "Richard Measures." A pretty full junk box compliments and decorates a lot of space in the shack, as well as other places.

Well, that pretty well sums up the operation here at the house. I will add more or modify what is already posted as the spirit moves. If you desire to comment on anything you've read here, please feel free to contact me at jerry@k9gd.com