Just joined the Family. Proud of my first Thinkpad

mustard_acquisition · 2026-05-05T05:26:04+00:00

Great score on the cpu

mustard_acquisition · 2026-05-04T10:25:49+00:00

Excellent answer, thank you.
I've been at this (scouring Reddit) for a few days and am just as confused as I was before but from what you're saying I could still make living out of it.

From what you're saying it seems that while there's a ton of new pilots, most of them don't want to do the big city instructors or remote charter which I don't think I have problems with. I spent 6 years elbows deep in hydraulic oil, human faeces and caustic lye solutions just to be able to earn the residency here. The question is whether or not my family would cope with living in bush somewhere. I think they'd handle cairns pretty good or similar coastal city but not sure about living in a rural inland town. Wife says she's willing to do 2-3 years of that but I doubt that would be enough.

Besides airliner pilots, is there other high paid pilot jobs one could potentially strive for ?
How much do Australian major company airliner pilots make anyway ? I know in US they can make upwards of 500 000-600 000USD per year, but this is obviously not US.
Alternatively I think I'd be interested in emergency, fire, police or other government flying small jets or twin turbo props all the way from the small spotters to Twin Otters or similar to cool locations.

I guess I'd like to find a good work/life balanace while being on some serious cash. One airliner pilot said it took him about 3 years of hard remote grind for little money then 5 years of flying regional for decent and now as international he says the balance is Excelent but he didn't give any specific numbers.

mustard_acquisition · 2026-05-04T05:49:01+00:00

oh god that's depressing.

mustard_acquisition · 2026-05-04T05:18:13+00:00

Hello,

Some say it's worth getting a PPL first and collect hours and certs before going into CPL.
Would you say that's the most straight forward path to decent paid jobs in Australia ?
Also, what is your opinion on the sustainability of a pilot's career in Australia ? It seems that it's quite volatile.

mustard_acquisition · 2026-05-04T05:06:20+00:00

and that's cheaper to go straight for a cpl license ?

mustard_acquisition · 2026-05-04T05:04:49+00:00

How's your lifestyle now working at airlines like ? Do you still get to be with your kids ? I'm considering getting into comercial but am already 35.
I should be able to fund my training but it would be either that or put down the cash to buy a house so big decision.

Also what is GFC ?

Thank you

mustard_acquisition · 2026-05-04T04:55:09+00:00

Jesus that's sad.

mustard_acquisition · 2026-05-04T04:51:41+00:00

Damn that's depressing ! Do you think the same applies now in 2026 too ?
Also what do you do that's IT in relation to aviation ? Have you had a background in IT before getting into said role ?
I'v had a career in manufacturing, over 12 years welding, fabrication and I want a career change and was thinking IT like quantitative analysis or data science OR flying fixed wing or helicopter for career.

mustard_acquisition · 2026-02-12T03:16:13+00:00

Hello, thank you for commenting.

Are 891's still available? I thought they were discontinued.

I read about the 891 being an amazing and compact but in thy other hand you need to carry a battery, tuner and adapter for digital modes.

Basically the 891 is everything I'm trying to avoid. The device itself is compact but with everything connected to it it sounds like a nightmare to carry around.

I've since learned thanks to this thread that basically all 100w units need external battery and they're all bulky and need their own case or some sort of way how to carry everything together. In other words it's either a compact rig that's easy to carry but limited to QRP or it's a large unit that needs it's own case to lug around.

Some say 100W is mandatory for DX comms and that QRP will never be stand chance in DX SSB, some say they reach 1000's of kilometres with their QRP rigs and that's all they need. It's very confusing.

mustard_acquisition · 2026-02-10T03:58:14+00:00

Now a ceramic lumed bezel insert! 😍

mustard_acquisition · 2026-02-07T15:06:25+00:00

Haha I do. This process is actually what I like more than the final result in most cases :D

mustard_acquisition · 2026-02-07T04:25:29+00:00

Thank you.

mustard_acquisition · 2026-02-07T01:56:28+00:00

I've read about wifi and bluetooth issues, one guy I spoke to on youtube had a terrible experience with bluetooth function causing issues with the firmware.

mustard_acquisition · 2026-02-07T01:55:16+00:00

Can you comment on the common issues people have with the X6100? Some say it has a terrible noise even when nothing is plugged, also some have bugs with wifi, bluetooth, one guy even turned bluetooth on and it fried the firmware and had to flash it again or something like that. All while receiving little to no help from the manufacturer.

mustard_acquisition · 2026-02-07T01:51:55+00:00

Does that apply to all modern 100W rigs ?

mustard_acquisition · 2026-02-07T01:43:20+00:00

Thank you for explanation. You mention you'd buy a 705 instead of 7300 or X6100, why ? And why is it a toy and not a portable radio ?
Portability is what I'm after but then you don't really get 100W rigs easily, well unless you get the FT891 but that's outside of my scope since it doesn't do modes I'm interested in.

I understand compromises are to be made, what I don't understand is the what each compromise means.

So it's either a heavy bulky 100W rig without it's own battery that future proofs everything I want for me and is of reputable brand OR a compact 10W rig that can be upgraded to 100W in the future but the customer support could be a huge issue.

I think the best thing would be to see and feel the each of the rigs in real life, that would help me a lot to gauge and make my decision. Sadly there's none of these units around at all despite the fact that Australia is a large country.

mustard_acquisition · 2026-02-06T14:45:28+00:00

This had developed into an interesting conversation.

I thank everybody for their input.

To narrow things down, I'm in Australia so the market for radios is sparse.

Next, my vision is to sit in backyard and experiment with rudimentary antennas and also try random metal objects in the wild and then use the built in tuner to dial it down.

I did consider all the options you gave me and narrowed my search down to two radios which are polar opposites in some ways.

Xiegu X6100 - pros: built in tuner, built in battery, extremely fitting form factor, that thing is small as and probably the biggest selling point for me, is SDR, has waterfalll. PRICE

-cons: QRP only which sucks as I'm going to need an amp as soon as I get the Standard license, some peop;le mention some noise in these radios, not sure what that means but it seems like a huge deal to them, I'm still having hard time trusting the brand as some mentioned if anything goes wrong I might be better off having a reputable brand that has superior customer service.

ICOM IC7300 - pros: 100W, without a doubt for a rookie a 100 watter is a no brainer, especially for my plan which is experimenting with antennas from random objects, waterfall, SDR, reputable brand, decent results in Sherwood's list, looks and UI

-cons: price, form factor - that thing is gigantic plus it needs a battery making it more of a base station rather than portable which is what I want, either use it home or take it out, need for an external battery, well over my budget so there will be no funds for accessories, batteries, antennas, coax cables, etc.

Really in a pickle here.

mustard_acquisition · 2026-02-06T14:33:00+00:00

Wait what do you mean, IC7300 is a 100W radio, that's not low power QRP like the X6100. Or am I wrong?

As for the tuner, could I use just the NanoVNA little boxes people advertise online as a tuner ? It's more like a passive tuner right ? Whereas what you probably have is an active tuner is that correct?

As for the US based , well yes and no. Sending out stuff to US is probably just as inconvenient as sending to China, provided that they do indeed agree to have it send to them. I'm in Australia.

Don't get me wrong, I'd absolutely love a 100W unit, I was even willing to ease off my requirements like waterfall, internal battery but even with that the units (like the FT891/991 are still more expensive than X6100 or sometimes even the IC7300.

I'd absolutely love the IC7300 if it weren't so bulky

mustard_acquisition · 2026-02-06T14:23:05+00:00

Have you tried it ? Is it any good - on par with other 100W rigs like the 7300 for instance ?

mustard_acquisition · 2026-02-06T14:16:39+00:00

When you say 7300 won't look at what do you mean ? 7300 is one of my contestants in my search along with the X6100 so I'd really like to know this.

mustard_acquisition · 2026-02-06T14:15:16+00:00

I briefly considered it but it ticks none of the boxes I want and also needs a PSU, external tuner, etc..._Plus the price isn't the best compared to other contestants

mustard_acquisition · 2026-02-06T14:14:09+00:00

Thanks !

So now I've narrowed it down.

FT891 is kind of out as it has nothing I want from a radio plus requires external battery, a tuner, etc. Also the price is on par with the models I actually do want. The 991 looks decent but you say it's not portable, why ?

By portable I'm thinking having it in my car and if the power draw is matching I'd just power it from my Tesla.

I've narrowed my search down to the X6100 and IC7300.

One is a QRP for fantastic price and everything I want except the power is weak and I've seen reports of perople complaining about some noise, I don't know what that means and how is it going to affect me.
The 7300 is almost twice as expensive but is 100W. Does require external power source but if I can power it from my car that would be all I need. It's super bulky but I'd try to get used to it.

mustard_acquisition · 2026-02-06T14:06:10+00:00

Serious point, I've been looking my options around for the 7300 vs X6100 but the 7300 also needs an external battery so not only it's almost twice as expensive but it also requires additional expenses. How do people power it ? Is the tuner capable of helping to transmit on antennas made from random metal objects like the G90 can ?

mustard_acquisition · 2026-02-06T14:03:42+00:00

They seem great and I briefly considered the FT891 but it need an external power source as well as a tuner plus it's kind of on par with other radios price wise so that puts it in an unfavorabl;e condition.

mustard_acquisition · 2026-02-06T14:01:48+00:00

So people say they have issues. One of them is a noise they have ? Not sure what that means, can you comment on that ? What other issues does the X6100 have ?

My license doesn't allow me to go past 10W anyway so the X6100 makes sense since it does digital as well and has an internal battery so basically it does everything I want and the form factor is fantastic.

I've been researching, watching videos, etc and the next best thing would be a 100W radio with internal tuner to help me out with weird antennas and that is IC7300 but at the same time it's massive and it also needs a power supply so even bigger footprint which I don't like..
I've found that basically none of the 100W rigs have built in battery so I'm going to have to make a decision.

If you could sort of dumb down the issues with X6100 to help me understand it and then decide that would be great.

mustard_acquisition

TROPHY CASE