Welcome to Amateur Radio Station W5QI.

NOTE: This picture taken long time ago

Now I am old and wrinkled LOL

That Ugly Mug above belongs to the Operator at W5QI's house. I was first licensed in 1951 as a Novice with the call sign of WN5ARI. Later I upgraded to W5ARI. Then I went through the following calls. WA6DWE (do we enlist), WB7AEF (After Every Female), KA7W (Kissing All 7 Women) and now W5QI (Quite Intelligent).I have been pretty active all those years, missed a few months due to some work projects when I was younger. I have always been interested in both voice and CW And when Digital stuff came along, I jumped in both feet and still enjoy it. I have had a variety of radio's over the years. And for the most part I have been lucky enough to afford the latest technology radios. Recently, after several months of reading and studying and reading and asking and studying and reading. I drove down to Austin, Texas and bought a Flex 3000 At the time I purchased it, I was running several Icom's and having fun with them.

Well, basically I plugged in the Flex radio, followed the directions and loaded firmware and a program to run the radio (PowerSDR) and what do you know this picture of a radio pops up on screen. Good looking radio at that Noticed it had a button on the top left hand side of the screen that said "START". So I used the mouse and clicked on that button and BINGO . Sound is coming out of the speakers, loud and clear It was WWV My heart thumping, I used the mouse and set the frequency at 7.195.000 Mhz and all of my friends popped out of the speakers, LOUDER and CLEARER than I have ever heard them before

This is my Flex Radio Screen, I am sitting at 7.195Mhz where I am at most of the time. N6AQ did the art work on this skin for me

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There is my good looking BLUE Flex Radio The old Icom Pro III is sitting on top of it. Poor Old Icom, must feel pretty isolated and lonely by now. It sure does NOT get much use any longer. Some one asked me. "What happens if the computer blows up" I said " I will fix it just like I had the Icom fixed when it blew up " See that picture of my last grandson on top of the Icom ? Notice how he looks so much like me (NOTE: IC-756 is turned on only to show light in the panel.

My Flex radio in action above. This is how it looks when I am doing digital radio, I have DM-780 up and running and the radio normally is in the background without being seen. It does a WONDERFUL job on Digi-Radio

Pre-SDR Days Radio's with Knobs and Dials. All that gear is now gone, The Mic, and key, plus the

mouse is all that is left

My trusty Ameritron AL-80A This is most likely what you will hear me operating. Only 1000 watts output, but I don't mind QRP now and again. Of course with my illegal dipole antenna up 22 feet, I will be LOUD ! Ah, you can also see my trusty coffee cup that you will hear me talking about getting it filled back up, and of course my bencher paddle there when you hear me ID in CW. Broke my famous coffee mug :-( New Antenna up, 160 meter loop up 25 feet

Big Burtha as she is know all over the world under the F2 layer. She was born back in the 70's when I was having fun building amplifiers. Burtha has a 4000 volt 3 amp Power Supply, she only drops 170 volts at legal limit. She is no longer a young thing. But after some minor health problems, (replaced her rectifier and filters) she came back like a youngster until she fell down and sprained her hip We are waiting for that to heal By the way, her heart consists of two Eimac 3-500's and are her very own orignal parts. Late breaking News Big Burtha is back up and running, she has a new bias supply and is humming like prior. GLRA (Great Little Radio Amp) . Normally now, when you hear me and I am on Big Burtha, most likely I will be tuned up to less than 10,000 watts PEP. It works so nice and cool now :-) New arrival in Ham Shack. A pristine Henry 2K-3 is in line and operating, a sweet amplifer, quiet and powerful ! Photo's later

Big Berth has a new home, she is in New Mexico at N5SDO's casa

RF deck shots, This Deck will do 160 meters very well.

Lambda Power Supply, Brute Force 0-20vdc @ 35 amp with OVP. My ACER computer that runs the whole works.

Mobile Antenna

Mobile antenna, Coil is from Hi-Q, bottom section is from a BB3 screwdriver so it will tune the coil in motion, Works very well, The top whip now is a 9 Foot stainless steel whip

Spent 33 years flying as a crop duster pilot, this airplane was the last one I flew prior to quiting after my heart decided not to be nice to me !! When I first started flying this airplane, it had a large 650 HP radial engine, a P&W 1340 Now it has a Garrett Turbo Prop which is a much better power plant, more power, less weight