I imagine Yaesu and Kenwood are going to be in financial trouble sooner than later. None of their products are innovative, everything is reactionary (the 991A) being a prime example for Yaesu, the rig model ages for Kenwood being theirs (at least their new 600 dollar HT offers something)
There might be some doubt about this, I read a study by the military some years ago saying that properly adjusted brightness of white light, has less impact on night vision because lower levels of brightness are needed for readability than for red or orange lighting. Actually some are moving to use dim green lighting now: http://www.astromax.org/activities/members/kniffen.htm If you are really concerned about night vision, just keep your levels of vitamin A up. Night vision recovery is helped immensely by this -- especially since most peoples' diets are pretty vitamin A deficient. Cheers and 73, Mark.
I have been away, and have not been able to respond to posts as I normally would. So if you have responded to one of my posts I am not ignoring you, I just haven't got around to answering it yet. Also I am currently having a problem posting and liking other posts, because it does not appear to be working very well. 73 to all.
I have owned the FT2DR, The OS was as buggy as hell and required a battery pull often. The display is nothing at all like the advertising images which are an outright lie. My particular radio was in comparison to my FT-1XDR deaf. The touch screen is not glass it is soft plastic, like a coke bottle. In the electronics world that sort of technology is archaic at best. Yaesu should be ashamed of that alone, it's a joke. A $2.00 display on a $400 radio.. no thanks. With a soft plastic display to claim the radio is rugged is a lie. My FT-1XDR can get a GPS fix indoors during a rain storm, the FT2 can't get a GPS fix indoors at all, even on a sunny day.
I've been a Yaesu fan for a long time... I really do not like any of the new radios. I still got my first HT when I got my tech ticket 8+ years ago. That was a Yaesu VX7R in black. I didn't like the design because of the swivel belt clip. One day I lost the radio on a golf course in a ditch and didn't even know it was gone until I left. I had to search all over the golf course for about 2 hours until I found it. So I did without it for many years, mostly because I have a FT2800M in my truck. The only time I used my VX7R was during public service events. Even then, I didn't like it. I still have the VX7R, only because it is a neat radio to play with, but practicality is just... well, like a child's toy. I just want something I can quickly plug a frequency in or a repeater and be done with it, AND for it to be dirt cheap if it got broke, lost, or stolen. The radio I went for was the Alinco DJ500T. Been using it every single day for the past year and a half. Best radio I ever got. I got three antennas for it, one a Comet SMA209, Comet SMA24J along with the stock antenna. Which, for the win, the stock antenna is BETTER than the stock antenna for the VX7R. I can run on 1 battery pack all day and use it on high power for about 5 hours of talk time. The battery will stay charged in receive mode practically all week if I don't transmit, running it for about 2 hours a day. It doesn't get obnoxiously hot when doing long QSOs either. The VX7R gets painful to hold if you use it a lot at high power. All in all, I do not know why Yaesu would make these two radios... I have no idea. Don't get me wrong, I like Yaesu, but for cripe's sake... we don't need more of these type radios!