Opinions on Yaesu FT-991 vs. Yaesu FT DX 1200

I plan on spending a morning in front of the ICOM rigs @ HRO also. I would like to make only one upgrade from my starter rig.

 

Yes I agree.. that's why Santa has a IC-7300 ready to drop off!!!!!

 

Yeah, well. I had a new license, the price was right. Call it exuberance.
Anyhoo, inexperienced as I am; I'm still quite pleased with the rig.

 

Just wondering (not arguing,) why would the real-time display in the 991A be useless?
In pictures and videos, it looks pretty good.

 

I should've qualified my statement by saying "for me it's useless."
It's very small and I use reading glasses
If you've got perfect eyesight, it's probably pretty decent.

 

My FT-991 arrived this morning and I tested it out over lunch. The sweep function takes less than a second and I was able to see K7ONP was on the air for NPOA. I called him during a mild pileup and he took me right on the first call. This was literally five minutes after opening the box. I think this will be a dandy little radio.

 

Well....I made up my mind after spending a couple of days in front of the 450D/991/DX1200/DX3000D as well as a TS-590SG and an IC-7300 at my local HRO demo bench. Let me say that they are all fine rigs! I was looking to upgrade from my 450D due to spending lots of time trying to dig marginal signals off of my "challenged" stealth antenna. I was looking for something that could tame the noise that is unfortunately a frequent occurrence on my stealth antenna. Spending lots of time in front of my 450D and "challenged" antenna was tiring and lessening my ham experience.
The wonderful antenna @ HRO made all of these rigs sound great. If I had an antenna like HRO at home I could have lived with the 450D!
So...I spent my time at HRO digging out the barely audible signals and trying to copy on each rig. One rig stood out as being able to find those signals the other rigs could not. That rig was my choice and I traded in my 450D during Cyber Monday....for a pretty good walk away price by the way!

That rig was the FTDX3000D. Now that it's home it has made my ham experience less tiring. So far I love it. And as a plus it's got digital mode capability built in. I intend to try that out this winter! I know this thread is about the 991/1200. This is how I rated the rigs in descending order:
3000D/1200/590SG/991/7300/450D. Be advised that my comparison was based only on receiver performance. Also be advised that receiver performance is very subjective...I have a hearing problem and tested them with my hearing aids on and off prior to making my decision. You might feel differently. If you ever get the chance to do a comparison like this...side by side...I would highly recommend you do so.
Also...due to the fact that the Yaesu rigs all sit beside other Yaesu rigs at HRO (same is true of Kenwood and Icom) it is easier to compare each manufacturer. Running from one end of the bench to another to compare an Icom to a Yaesu really changes the room acoustics. It's a better comparison if you can sit in one spot with all rigs in front of you.

 

Fantastic. The FTDX3000 is a fine rig, very highly rated and has great HF features. I probably would have waited for one had I not wanted a rig with 144/440 built in. If they made a version of the 3000 with V/U capabilities, they'd have a hot seller.

 

In my case I already had an 817ND which doubles as my HF QRP and VHF/UHF rig. Love my 817ND and would recommend to anyone.
I can fully understand that a 991 could easily meet requirements of both HF and VHF/UHF....and an all in one rig to boot!

 

Had the FTDX-1200, even bragged about it in an earlier reply. It's a good radio, but I quickly grew tired of the menu system.
Traded it for an 756PROIII and couldn't be happier. Lots of good older radios out there that perform just as well as the newer ones.