After 38 years ive finally buckled

Ive been licensed since 1988 for over 38 years,  in my entire time on the air i have never owned an amplifer, ive been tempted many times but just never took the plunge, ive been frustrated in pileups and sometimes its taken  hours or days  to work rare Dxpeditions, I normally get there in the end but after hitting the big 60 this year I thought I would finally bit the bullet and purchase one.

I had looked at new ones but the price these days is astronomical so decided to look into the second hand market, it was either going to be an Acom 1000 or an Expert 1K-FA, both have been on my radar for many years, just as luck would have it I was chatting to Andy G4KNO a few weeks back, we were both on the same team on one of the  WRTC station build  days, he happened to mention he had a 1K-FA that he was considering selling as he had upgraded to the 1.5K so forward on a few weeks and I dropped Andy a message to see if he was still thinking of selling and as luck would have it he was so we agreed a price and I took a nice drive up to Suffolk to Andys to pick the Amplifier up

So thats where I am, its not in line yet, its been sat in its case for the last couple of weeks as when I got home I realised I had no room on my shack desk for it, so over the next couple of weeks Im going to build a new slightly larger shack deskt and this beauty will finally be in place.

ZC4MK Update

Was a bit concerned that my license hadnt come through but all is now resolved and ZC4MK issued for another 12 months, very much looking forward to my trip in November for 8 days as per my post below this, what did astound me was looking on Clublog Most wanted, for North America overall ZC4 was number 50 but even more astounding was for North America West Coast ZC4 was number 19, it would be nice to get some west coast openings during my trip, more info on my previous post.

Im still looking for a radio to take with me, so if you have preferably a K3 or a K3S failing that an IC-7300 for sale pop me a message.

Lastly I am already looking at dates for next year,  but I have already booked dates for the end of march next year, I will be operating from my usual Melanda Beach at Avdimou location and will be there over CQ WW WPX.