Looking at 2nd hand Flex 5000A

[ZL1BBW]

I did not go any further with the purchase of the rig, it eventually sold for around $3500NZ, but frankly a piece of gear at that price that has at the best mediocre cw performance is just not for me.  I would have really expected it to handle SSB and CW well or very well for that sort of dough.

[KB2HUK]

The flex 5000A has in my opinion a fairly steep learning curve .  Things will much easier if you study a little on the flex reflectors and the Flex knowledge center .  This will be the best sounding transceiver you have ever listened to period !  I like to talk but I also like to listen to international broadcast , religious , news stations , Military traffic etc.  you will be amazed at the sound Quality and the panadapter is just fantastic .  I like mine better than my TT Orion II .  John kb2huk

[AF4RK]

I have a Flex 1500 driving a QRP linear to an Alpha 86. I built an external sidetone oscillator/open collector flex control output and works great on CW. However, having said that, there are no settings that will allow moderate speed CW with the internal keyer/sidetone. I use the Winkeyer with N1MM on another computer. The Flex 1500 has an inexpensive dual core Dell Laptop with nothing on it but Win 7 / PowerSDR. After 10 months of fiddling / learning, I have a pretty good setup on SSB/CW/Digital. Great radio for the money. Bought this because i can't afford a K3 hi! So far, NO PROBLEMS with IMD on PSK (not using the Alpha 86 on PSK  . Anyone wanting the schematic / pcb layout for the Flex CW controller, email me. I use the PCBExpress software.