At first a regular mouse made for word processing and general computer use was used with my Flex Radio until one day while shopping at a Best Buy store, a strange looking mouse was on display connected to a PC where anyone could try it out with some sort of action game.  Well, guess what, all of a sudden it hit me that it would work with my Flex Radio software.  After taking it home and connecting it, I couldn't believe how smooth it was to swiftly go from one screen to the other since we use two 22 inch LG monitors.  The software was very comprehensive , allowing each button and the track ball to be adjusted as to speed and other uses and soon had it programmed to my needs.  Just as when learning a new musical instrument, it took some practice but soon was able to give a quick flip of my right thumb to jump to my number 1 monitor where my nGENLOG program and MixW software were located, then jump back to the panadapter screen.   It's not necessary to place the mouse on any surface and sometimes place it on my right leg to alleviate strain on the right elbow and wrist.  Dragging the main panadapter screen made for easy placement of stations, both CW and SSB.  Now I see why gamers would use this great tool and am still learning some of it's features.  Even though it uses a USB connection, there is no change in computer latency which proves how well a QUAD 4 processor runs Flex Radio gear.

It usually takes considerable room to install an amateur radio station in a comfortable spot somewhere in the house.  An attempt was made to have the ham shack in the basement along with my test gear but without being able to look out a window, the test gear remained while moving all radio gear to our den which was only being used for our main computer, piano and our good friend "Rudy" who is our male Cockatiel bird who has freedom to leave his cage when he likes to land on our shoulder.  He soon picked up the sounds of Morse code and sometimes will give out a fast "CQ".  Routing coaxial cables, especially the weather sealed RG11 75 ohm cable can be difficult but bringing them up inside a wall to a patch panel under the operating bench makes it easy to route to each radio.  Repairs can later easily be made to replace any drywall in the event we may have to sell this house and move to Canada to get away from Hussein Obama's dictatorship.   A good ground system was installed using a 1/2 inch copper pipe behind the operating position with short wires for grounding the gear.  The copper pipe was not only connected to the cold water pipes but a good outside ground as well.  Coaxial lines can be switched off in the basement, also being routed to use the antennas on the work bench if needed. 

At first, separate computers were used, one for PSK31, another for satellite operations using my trusty Yaesu FT-847 and a PC for general browsing and paying monthly bills.  Now with an HP QUAD 4 64 bit PC, am able to run multiple software using  dual 22 inch monitors to view MixW for digital modes along with nGENLOG logging and NOVA for satellite tracking.  Using Windows Vista Ultimate gives great screen definition and being able to download fancy gadjets such as worldwide clocks.  Flex Radio at his time will not work with Windows 7 until SDR software is changed.

Update--in March 2009, Flex Radio made available their new signed drivers to work with Windows Vista 64 bit computers.  Needless to say, the Flex 5000A now runs perfectly along with logging software and uses only 25 % of the computers resources even while running N3FJP logging and MixW digital software.

The extra receiver RX-2 inside the 5000A (Here is a great video how to install the RX2) is being used for dual diversity reception which works like a charm, being able to hear a station on one antenna while it may fade away on the other.  A 210 foot horizontal loop antenna is used only for reception with 53 feet on each leg and tuned by a remote SGC-237 antenna tuner located in the garden shed.  Flex Radio will soon be coming out with 144 and 432 transverters which will sit inside the unit since it's software already incorporates any possible configuration in antenna in/out and supports timed sequencing for external amplifiers, pre amps etc.  However, the 5000A with it's many switching possibilities can run any transverter, either in straight mode or split receive/transmit which I am doing at this time with an Elecraft XV144 transverter.  The transverter is only as stable and accurate as it's internal oscillator but the FLEX5000A is connected to a very accurate GPS 10 MHz reference (Z3801A) using 28 MHz as the I.F. and driving the transverter with -20 Db from the Flex Radio.  A 150 watt amplifier is situated in the remote shed connected to a single Cushcraft 13 element beam and Yaesu G550 rotator which also moves my satellite antennas on 144, 440 and 2.4 GHz.

Even though I seldom use voice modes, finding a good microphone wasn't difficult since I had bought the Heritage Studio type during a Hamfest a few years ago.  The Flex 5000A accepts a balanced microphone input but had to place the Heritage microphone back to it's original balanced output.  The Heil company had placed one side of the microphone directly to ground, with a capacitor in series with the other line.  It had been altered to work with ICOM transceivers so by removing the capacitor and soldering the other line back onto the mic's output, it was ready to go.  The Heritage mic had such low output that an external audio preamp/noise gate was necessary.  I already had a W2IHY 8 band unit which was used at one time on my FT-847 and soon had it wired for the Heritage mic.  The Flex software has a 10 band receive and transmit equalizer but by using the W2IHY unit, I then had exceptional audio.  See the thumbnail below that shows the Heritage microphone opened up.

One of the greatest features having the Flex 5000A is the ability to feed it a 10 MHz reference which I already have in the basement from a GPS receive unit, the Z3801A which I describe on another page.  The 5000A has a BNC input for this reference with the internal 500 MHz oscillator locked to the 10 MHz.  With any internal transverters in the future also locked to this reference, just imagine the possibilities when having extreme accuracy on the VHF/UHF and microwave bands such as, making a schedule on 144.210000 Mhz.