A FT-950 in my future

The only reason the S-Meter reads higher is the preamplifier adds extra gain, to the signal and the noise!

I would recomend you read up on radio theory in either one of the Radio Society of Great Britain books or the ARRL handbook. Throw away that "CB for Dummies" book!

fp

 

FT 950

My last brand new radio was a TS 440s in 1990 About 5 years ago I got a clean, used Icom 751A. Both great rigs, the Icom has a better RX than the 440 and more features. Last week I decided to move into the 21st century and got the Yaesu FT 950. Wow A helluva rig. I was hoping that Icom still made the 746 Pro when I was ready to get a new rig but the replacement for the 746 was just way to much money for me. Anyway It did not take long to master the basic controls of the950 however I have a long way to go as it can do so much. The RX is quiet and signals just jump out. Reports on XMIT are favorable considering I just use the supplied hand mike for now. The DSP filters etc work just great but fine tune them to your own ear however. Over all the 950 beats the 751a hands down and the 751 is no slouch either. I have not done the on line PEP upgrades as of yet as I wish to run it through its paces first. Im told that the upgrades make a big difference in RX performance. For under 1400 bucks you cant go wrong here Been hanging around the low end of 40 m working some pretty good DX with 100w and a dipole. This is nothing that anyone else cant do, heck my Drake TR4 can do that too but..... The RX in the 950 is the best I have ever used in my 34 years of hamming I have had Kenwoods, Icoms Drakes and Yaesus over the years. This 950 is a home run- You wont be disappointed.

 

FT 950

Frank, I see on your QRZ page you did get the 950 after all It looks great in your shack How do you like it so far?

 

I like the radio, now I just need more time to play with it. I also have been using 20 meters SSB but have mainly been hanging out in the lower SSB portion of 40 meters and have made some nice contacts. The radio is like getting a new more expensive car so now I'm getting used to all of the new features I didn't have before. Getting the "dynamic element" studio microphone hooked up was really easy.

I'm still working with getting the speech processor and voice equalizer set where I'm comfortable that I know what I'm doing. I'm going to take VE3FMC's advice and join one of the "FT-950 yahoo groups", if I can find a good one to join.

73,

fp

 

No, you don't say.

Why? I know all about pre-amps thankyou very much. Thats why I said AMP1 seems to be of some use whereas AMP2 is basically pointless.

 

The speech processor doesn't want to be much above 30 or so and mic gain to around 11 o'clock position.

 

Excuse me, nothing is worse than Icom.....

I hated the menus on my IC-706 MKIIg

I gave away a IC-2100H for same reason......

 

I thought my ICOM 718 was OK and I don't think the FT-950 is anymore difficult than that one, there's just more to it. The FT-950 is certainly more carefully thought out than the Yaesu VX-170 handheld.

fp

 

I never use the speech Processor on my FT-950. And the reason is I do not want to sound like the rest of the guys who have audio which is flat topping and over driven, yet they think they sound like a broadcast station.

I have a Heil GM-5 with the 4 and 5 cartridges in it .

I use the wide setting for general rag chewing. I only use the narrow cartridge if someone is having a hard time copying my audio.

Mic gain setting will vary with loudness of your voice and the mic you are using.

I found the best way to set the audio up on my FT-950 and also my Icom 7000 was to talk to someone close by on 75 M. Someone who knows my voice. I did that and I sound the same on the air as I do in person. Can't get better than that unless you sound like Pee Wee Herman in person

BTW Frank how are you liking that FT-950? You and I could be brothers as I used to own an Icom 718 also. In between it and the FT-950 I used an Icom 7000, which I still own.

We need to set up a 40 or 75 meter sked some time and shoot the breeze.

73, Rick

 

That sounds great Rick. I do not have an antenna for 80 meters but I have a 8 dB gain NVLS dipole for 40 meters which can get into Canada fairly well.

The way I'm operating now I use the compressor to catch the occasional voice peak that would flattop on my oscilloscope display. Right now I'm just operating things with a flat frequency response (I think), at least I'm getting good signal reports. I was mentioning to one of the guys who works at the local amateur radio store about trying to figure out a good way to set the frequency response curve on the radio. He indicated "it probably wouldn't make much difference because you have a voice for radio".

73,

fp