A Very Unique HF and 2M SSB/CW Station

Original Setup - Assembled April 2004
w/ IC-3PA Added March 2012
(Above)

Click on images for expanded view

Updated Setup - Assembled January 2023
(Below)

A Very Unique HF (& 2M) Station
Updated 18-April-2026

Shown here is a fully operational 10 through 80 meter and 2 meter SSB/CW station, dating from the late 1970's. Let's start off on the left side of my original setup pictured above. That is a very desirable ICOM IC-202S 2-meter SSB/CW transceiver. I say 'desirable' because even after 40+ years this little 2-meter SSB/CW rig is most often searched for as an IF radio for microwave operations. The IC-202 series has a very stable frequency tuning VXO (Variable Crystal Oscillator) to provide a 200KHz bandspread with 2-3 watts of power output. It was designed to cover 144.000 to 144.400MHz in two segments out of the box and allowed for an additional two segments using the proper crystals. Since it does not use any form of digital synthesizer it is also a very RF clean radio in both receive and transmit, i.e. no PLL phase noise.

Now about the 10-80M HF part of the story. Well that little box that sits second from the top of the stack is an HF transverter. As hams, we are most often used to transverters that upconvert from lower frequencies to higher frequencies. Albeit this is true if you've been a ham for at least twenty years as transverters are becoming a thing of the past, except perhaps for those into microwave operations. That little box above the power supplies is a Tokyo Hy-Power HX-240 VHF to HF transverter. Yes, it converts a 2 meter transceiver down to all the pre-WARC HF bands. The antenna connection on the back of the IC-202S connects to a like connector on the back of the HX-240. Your HF antenna attaches to another connector on the back of the same transverter. That's all there is. Sensed RF controls if the received signal is to be converted from HF up to 2 meters or if the transmitted signal is to be downconverted to HF and amplified. It even provides a rather hefty HF 50 watts SSB/CW output. The Kenwood PS-30 power supply is needed to power the whole HX-240, as even though the transceiver and transverter are physically small, you can't get 50 watts of RF without it drawing a bit of current at 12VDC. The little ICOM IC-3PA was a a latter addition and powers just the IC-202S. The 3PA was designed to operate some of the early ICOM 2M FM radios in the 1970's. They made a version called the IC-3PS (see update below) that was made exclusively for the IC-202/402/502 series radios. A taller unit that had a built in Linear VHF power amplifier (Optional Model IC-20L 10W for 2 meters) and a little slide out mount to hold the rig toward one side. The IC-3PS did not have all the circuit protection lights on the front like this 3PA model. When I do see a 3PS for sale they still seem to bring a premium price due to their rarity.

I also added the RF Concepts 2-23 amplifier to the stack, on top, that amplifies the IC-202S 2 meter SSB signal from 2watts to 30 watts output when used for 2M SSB/CW work (No longer used - See Below).

During one of my first trial runs I made contact with a fellow in Japan on 15 meters. How appropriate as all these items are Japanese made. The HX-240 transverter was reportedly sold in the USA in the 1992-93 time frame. Mine has an operating manual written in Japanese only. Tokyo Hy-Power was bought by the Chinese company BaoFeng in 2015, so essentially they no longer exist. I bought mine off eBay many years back and they remain rare.

Update: 23-January-2022

As you can see in the updated picture above, I did find the full ICOM IC-3PS setup. This updated setup uses an IC-202A transceiver now. The IC-202A is the Japanese version of the IC-202S and this current setup was purchased out of Japan. They both share the same specifications, except the color used for the front panel labeling. The IC-202A uses the same light yellow lettering as the original IC-202. As can be seen the IC-202S used a light blue lettering.

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