New gadget in the house ..

Hey .. hey , I've got what I've been dreaming to get, an HF set! Went to the usual place in Singapore on the 30th November and got myself a Yaesu FT-897D, Yaesu FC-40 and the necessary accessories with it. The damage was around SGD$2002.

I had it set up as my base rig for now but I haven't got time to really install the Diamond Dipole antenna that I bought along with the rig. The antenna is quite long and I have no idea if it could actually fit the length of my house. Otherwise, it will most probably go into a 'to-sell' item in the next six month if I couldn't get it installed. So, I am without a proper antenna to rx on HF bands for now. I did order a vertical antenna from DX Engineering but was quoted a shipping cost which cost 100% more than the cost of the antenna... so last night, I was looking for an alternative and found a portable antenna called Buddistick.. put my CC details and hopefully I could start rx/tx something. Hey, why not just get a long wire antenna?? Yeah true .. but need to do a reading first .. My rig is at second floor and I've got no grounding setup properly for now. I was quoted for SGD$300 for a Diamond vertical base antenna and highly considering it for a permanent solution too. Will see if my budget allows this and most probably will get it during my next visit to S'pore.

At last, we've got the keys!

On the 1st Dec 2007, we're officially the owner of a house no 9, Jalan BRP 2/1B at Bukit Rahman Putra. It was quite a long wait since we signed the S&P back in July 2007. We thought everything will get speed up since we've got a pre-approval from the bank. It seems that the other party's bank was so slow in releasing all the required documents.. hence the delay.

Yesterday, we brought a contractor for renovation. We were told that the BPT will surely won't allow us to do any external extension to our house. My wife called the BPT and was assured that they won't allow any extension, but was told that if it is already built, we might get fined and that was it.. so.. in another word, there is always a 'backdoor' .. build the extension and if we get caught, just pay the fine.. sound reasonable :D

We'll see how much is the quote will be. We need to do some painting too .. actually, the whole house need to be repainted. The outside paint is peeling off and the inside, somehow the developer used a really cheap paint (OR mix with low quality paint). I won't be surprised if the contractor will quote a high price but will see if everything fit our budget, we'll just go on with the renovation.. otherwise, will do the major renovation first.