Amateur radio station

A slang term often used for an amateur station's location is the shack, named after the small enclosures added to the upperworks of naval ships to hold early radio equipment and batteries.

This is the most common form of amateur radio station, and can be found in homes, schools, and some public buildings.

Fixed stations are generally powered from the AC mains electrical supply available in the building.

Some equipment in fixed stations may run off low voltage DC instead of AC, and require a separate power supply.

Some fixed stations are equipped with auxiliary sources of power, such as electrical generators or batteries for use in emergencies.

It may be much smaller than transceivers designed for fixed station use, to facilitate installation under a seat or in a trunk, and it may feature a detachable control head that can be mounted in a separate location from the rest of the radio.

A rover station is often designed to be operated by a passenger in the vehicle rather than the driver, and may include multiple transceivers, transverters, directional antennas, and a laptop computer to log contacts made.

When in international waters, these stations are operated under the regulatory authority of the flag under which the vessel is registered.

Equipment that does not weigh very much, or that can be broken down for shipment or transportation in luggage is especially popular with amateur radio operators travelling on DX-peditions.

The control equipment is responsible for transmitting the repeater station's call sign at regular intervals.

Another type of software is that required to control a receiver (or transceiver) without a front panel provided.

Examples of this are the Kenwood TS-B2000 and the Ten-Tec Pegasus; both transceivers are sold with PC software to provide the human interface for operation.

These ports are useful for satellite-tracking frequency control (Doppler tuning), station logging, digital operation, internet and special-needs accessibility.

In many cases, the software adds improved or extra functions and features beyond that provided by the original design.