Si tous les gars du monde is one of the first movies I ever saw. I was in elementary school and it had a profound effect on me. To become an amateur radio operator was a dream in the back of my mind, but it never came to be realized for a long time. By chance, two decades later, we ended up living next door to a retired electronics engineer who was a friend of Dominique's parents as well as a radio amateur (or "ham"), Philippe (F8QA). After a few years of hesitation, I passed the test, received my license, and was given the F5IDM call sign I have been using since then in many of the places life made me visit...

I bought my first HF transceiver from an American ham living in the Grasse area. It was an IC-701, which I used for many years. The antenna was a simple dipole, strung between the house chimney and a tree in the garden. Not the best setup, but I could work stations all over Europe! I carried it around on family vacations too, and it never failed. When we moved to Hawaii, it came with us but I brought it back at some point and used it occasionnaly from France's Dept 58 (Nièvre).

After the IC-701, I used for some time an IC735 I bought used from a local ham. I ended up using from home a K3 by Elecraft, the first rig I bought new. It is a great transceiver! Even though I liked the Icom 735, I enjoyed the K3 very much. I left it in my Hawaiian home when moving to Arizona, but I will bring it to Tucson next time I visit Hawaii!

After using a couple of second hand beams, including an A3S by Cushcraft, I currently use a hy-gain TH3-MK4 Triband HF Beam 3-Element (10, 15, 20 Meter). It is on the roof of the house on a short RT-424 tower by GlenMartin. Not very high... Hopefully, one of these days, I will install two sections of the old CFHT-Gemini weather tower which dutifully stood between the two observatories on Mauna Kea for close to three decades. I bought it on ebay when it was replaced by MKAM, the Mauna Kea Atmospheric Monitor.

I am currently using from Tucson the FT857 I use for portable operations (see below). The 735 is still around just in case. I continue to explore digital modes, which I discovered just before leaving Hawaii. WSPR is definitely interesting and a simple wire dipole using a pole on the roof and a couple of trees is enough to look at the propagation patterns with a few watts.
I installed a used Cushcraft R7 vertical antenna found at a local ham fest. It is good enough for a few QSOs. Installing a better antenna is the next project...

For years I used a DX-70 by Alinco as a portable gear, which I took in my carry-on wherever I would have to travel, mainly for work, while being able to be on the air. The DX-70 died a few years ago from too much mistreatments. I replaced it with a Yaesu FT-857, which is so far doing well!
Antenna-wise, a G5RV nicely fit in my bag, with enough rope to string it using whatever poles or trees or stones on the ground I can find around. A little MFJ tuner will match the antenna and a cigar-lighter plug will give the power from whatever car I can get. It works well and makes for an easily packed portable station. Throwing stones (wiith a light rope attached) over light poles or tree branches is alll what you need to raise an antenna... The picture on the right shows such a setup on the shore of the Saint Laurent in Sainte Anne de Sorel (Quebec, Canada).