It has been awhile and there seem to be a number of new Flex 5000 owners on here. I thought I would throw out some of my logic for orienting the F5K in the shack. The F5K has six approximately-equal sides but only two hold much interest. One has three things: the mic connector, the headphone connector, and the Blue Light Of Death (otherwise known as the power switch/indicator). The opposite side has about thirty interesting and useful things to play with. In my shack the latter side is facing forward. It makes connecting cables and making configuration changes a piece of cake.
One other advantage of this orientation is that the Blue Light Of Death illuminates the wall giving a very pleasing, high-tech, back-lit effect. I enjoy look of awe on the faces of friends who visit my semi-darkened shack and see all the components suffused in a blue glow. This effect can be heightened by having your oscilloscope displaying a rotating lissajous pattern and a large, floor-standing, mainframe tape drive rapidly switching between fast-forward and rewind. (Hmm -- I am thinking that we need a Flex-Wire-to-Tape-Drive interface so that PowerSDR can make the tape drive do cool things in response to control and signal changes on the radio. Think of it as a kinetic visualizer.) DISCLAIMER: for those of you who are humor-impaired, this message is intended to offer a practical suggestion couched in [what I probably erroneously think are] humorous terms. Seriously, I think that the Flex 5000 is the best HF Ham transceiver that one can purchase so please do not misconstrue my misplaced humor as implying that I don't like the radio even if the power indicator is a bit on the bright side. 73 de Brian, WB6RQN/J79BPL _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
