What with all these hills and mountains around here, I thought about something small to take on my hikes. #397 arrived today....a lovely little toy!

I also received an Alexloop antenna. I had the privelege of meeting Alex a few years ago at Freidrichshafen...a very nice and decent chap!

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I really wanted to have something that was alot more reliable for contacting back home. So I plumpt for another D-Star radio.

After a little reading I decided on the ID-5100. I took advantage of a good offer and got all the add-ons so I should be OK for a while.

 

Even the Mrs. is impressed with the clarity of audio! "I can understand them all" she says :)

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New addition to the family.....the P3 Panadapter.

Extremely easy to put together from kit form and much nicer than giving up real estate on the pc monitor.

....and altogether

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All change!

I took receipt of a K3 kit which I enjoyed piecing together. I got as many modules as I thought suited my actual and future needs.

Here are some of the build pictures....

I was really surprised at how easy it all went together. In fact, the only part that slowed me down was putting the sub-receiver in. That was a little fiddly as you have to be careful of the small coax cables and aligning with two small PCBs. Powering on for the first time is a "heart in mouth" moment....but, due to the very methodical build process and well written guide, I didn't have any unwanted surprises when I pressed the ON button! The build took approx 10hrs.

I have to say.....it is a beautiful radio :)

....and the final layout

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I was first licensed in 1985 as G1MJR and obtained my full call, G0IFL, in 1987. After many years travelling around (from Germany to Wales, to Saudi Arabia to Qatar and then on to Sth Korea) I now find myself living in Switzerland in the Kanton of Zurich. The town is called Glattfelden, a small retreat in a valley where radio signals fly over head and only fog rolls in, but I have noticed quite a few ham antennae prominently dotted about the place so there must be some life here :)

I have recently started to use an Anan100D which has made the Flex5000A a second radio. What a great toy! The FT767GX, a stalwart for over 20 years, has been passed on to my son who recently got his Intermediate licence (2E0FCH - well done Adam). The radio is connected to a 5 band Cobwebb. Compromise is the name of the game here :(