Flex Radio just announced it is displaying it's first newly completed Flex 1500 QRP transceiver in Orlando, Florida during the Hamcation event on February 12, 13, and 14, 2010.  I am anxious to receive my unit since it was ordered in early December, 2009 and will probably be delivered sometime in March, 2010.  Even though it is a 5 watt QRP transceiver, it will mate well with most laptops since it uses a USB port for very low power (1 Milliwatt) with SDR control and will require an external 13.6 volt supply for high power (5 Watts).  Planning on using it on PSK31 on 40 and 20 meters while portable in WV at our summer place using half wave dipoles and auto tuned square horizontal loops.  It has a connection for using an external 10 MHz reference which will present extremely good frequency stability when using transverters but then again, the transverters must also have some sort of frequency control.  Have been looking for a 10 MHz referenced 116 MHz oscillator to operate the 144 MHz transverter but have yet to find one.  Many transverters including the Elecraft line requires an input of -20 db which the 1500 will handle well.  A typical small auto or gel cell battery will handle the 5 watt power for many hours. 

Will post more information here after receiving my Flex 1500.  Am also waiting for the 144/432 transverters that fit inside the Flex 5000A and ordered the 30 watt units back in December, 2009.  If the 60 watt transverters had been ordered, it would require sending my Flex 5000A back to Texas since 60 watt units require a 13 volt power connector on the 5000A.  30 watts is sufficient for driving many amplifiers, even the Commander where 30 watts will give at least 600 watts out.  The super accurate frequency stability will give excellent results allowing all digital modes to be used as long as other operators have the same accuracy.  Information will be posted on my Flex 5000A pages concerning the new transverters.

After reading some Flex Radio forum posts, I found information about using a Yaesu microphone.  It just so happened they mentioned the Yaesu MH1 microphone which has been used for a few years with popular Yaesu transceivers.  I received a Yaesu FT847 as a retirement gift in 1999 and never used the included MH1 hand microphone since I wanted a desktop mic.  It works very well with the Flex 1500 and has the necessary RJ45 connector making it easy to disconnect in the field wen not needed since CW is my main mode of operations.