Just received my new FTDX5000MPL on Monday 8/27/18 and I couldn't be happier . I have been researching for months and with all the features this thing has on it I decided it was the one. I still have money left over also ! Icom has work to do and it will be interesting to see what the new Yaesu actually brings . I am not a real fan of SDR rigs at the moment even though I do have a 7300 for mobile and camping. I also could really care less about the band scopes. Seems a lot of people just cant live without them and thats fine but its not me . I am not staying up late for this Dave N8DC
Are you kidding? This is yaesu. 12 months after they drop this turd into the waiting arms of hams, there is going to be an “a” version. Do not fret! For only 800 bucks plus shipping you can mail yours back and they will replace a 16 cent part and paint “a” on the front. I honestly have no idea how yaesu is still around at this point.
If it doesn't perform well on AM they shouldn't even bother. No modern day rigs on AM can match the Hi-Fi & modulation of a true SDR (Flex/ANAN) etc. If they master that, I think it'll do real good then.
Yes I'm serious. The original FT101 was a great AM & SSB performer. If they're going to dare put the 101 tag on it, it damn well better perform good on AM.
Don't agree about SDR definition (is it analog or sdr we will see after release when we open the box). FLEX is a true (I believe so ) SDR and they added buttons (and whole computer inside…) because that was selling point for many hams that don't want to switch to mouse and keyboard. I have 6300 model and yes it's a brick doing nothing without external computer. But by adding tablet or laptop to that I used it portable in the field as well. So the question is more about how the signal is processed internally and not how do we adjust the settings. As almost all job is done by software there is not much to upgrade or fix physically on the circuit board. Therefore new functionalities are added by software upgrades. But of course there are the limits as well linked to the design and the components used. You can't transform 6300 into 6700 just by installing new software. Digital processing is present for long time with DSP on top of the analog signal and they decided to limit further analog part. I am missing sometimes buttons and knobs as well…. and my M-1 mike fits both Flex 6300 and Yaesu so I will follow closely what they will really bring to the market and why should I buy it instead of Icom or Kenwood - if I want to change of course.
ELECRAFT and FLEX maybe neither, for other reasons, apart if Yaesu did I big step forward comparing to the "new" FT-818ND. I believe indeed they're targeting directly IC-7610 customers (mostly the same functionalities) and it has 200W brother which Icom does not have currently. Some SDR gave us awesome niagara waterfalls on a big screen but these new rigs are very limited with the external screen connectors - basically you can simply see the same just bigger (with the same screen resolution) - so don't run to buy another 4K monitor - the old 17 or 18 inch will more than enough. Let's see once released but for this point it will be probably like new TS-890S (according the to released japanese manual). The ideal rig does not exists and will never come (as we all want something else)
As I said earlier, the knob or no knob thing is just my spin on this and not meant to be taken too literally. But for sure if you look at an HF rig and it doesn't have any knobs we know what it is. As far as FLEX adding knobs to appeal to those not wanting to use a mouse and keyboard (meaning not wanting to use a PC), well, I think we all know what that's all about. We are, for the most part, an older group and many shy away from the world of PC's. We didn't grow up with them and many have refused to adopt them. So, no knobs means a smaller market potential for the manufacturer. So, you want knobs? We have them too!
Yeah for sure. I think SDR is less complex and cheaper to produce but still able in most cases to give very good performance. It looks like the things on business side will go this way. SDR is also more appealing to the younger hams that can't live anymore without computer. At the end, whatever the technology used, if there will be someone to answer our CQ it's OK.
