I'm Sorry.
It has been a long, long time since I was QRV from my shack due to my post graduation and QRM from other things in life.
During all this, OM Shyam, 3UBR, kept nudging me to get my ticket renewed. After 6 months or so, of constant nagging, I gave in and sent off my papers to the WPC address and waited. A few weeks later, I received the renewal in my mail.
My plan was to build a receiver (My old junkbox and homebrew were gotten rid of when I was in the UK!) and then work my way up to a transceiver. I started sourcing all the parts and got back on VHF to let my old friends know that I am back.
Amidst all this, I was looking for a HF transceiver to primarily fill my shack and operate portable(when time permits). After some looking around, I landed on a Yaesu FT-100D from a very friendly and well known local op and I've been thankful to him for that. The receiver with all its bells and whistles DSP is simply better sounding than any rigs I've made in the past*.
A quick Inverted Vee cut for 40M, some Old Co-Ax and a 30A Power supply was put together on a old table, and my first contact on HF-40M was with VU2PLL, OM Shan, from Erode, with a 5-9 sent and a 5-6 received on 20W. Not bad considering my Noisy location. A Few QSO's later, I had my very first DX qso with 4S7AVR, OM Noel from Colombo for a 5-5 received.
I'm in the process of starting to build a proper shack around my FT-100D. In a few following posts(I Promise, I will be regular this time) you will see a lot of related radio accessories before I go back to radios ( MINIMA, by Farhan looks like the next big project). I will also post updates on contests and other DXing info
A special thanks to VU2NKK(OM Krish), for reminding me to get back on my blog.
73
