Just getting into amateur radio in last few years.   Looking forward to it as one of my retirement hobbies.  Technician 2014.  General 2016.  Extra Jan 2017.   Other hobbies include Corvettes, computers, home automation, IOT, and bicycling. Fairfax County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).  CERT 88.  Fairfax Fire and Rescue Battalion 403 area.  Getting involved with ARES.  I live outside Washington DC.  Someday - sorry to think about - this may become very important. Not bitten by contesting bug.  Perhaps over time. Radios I have so far - below.  This is just a start.  Thinking of a nice SDR sometime in the future.  The Flex brand looks interesting and perhaps a good one to start to build on for the kind of thing I am interested in. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ICOM IC-7100 for base.   ICOM SM-50 Microphone. Antenna for 2M/70CM is a Diamond X510HDM.  17' antenna on a 40' mast. Antenna for 80, 40, 20, 17, 12, 10, 6 meters is a Buckmaster OCF Dipole. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ICOM ID-5100 for mobile.  Using a Diamond SG7500 antenna. ICOM ID-51 for handheld. D-STAR on all three radios. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Retired Air Force in computer career fields in 1997.  Did aircraft data link testing and systems development for command and control systems.  Work since 1997 has been as a contractor on large computer systems for government agencies in DOD and DHS, such as FEMA.