At the risk of starting something akin to a religious war... ;-)
I picked up one about 5 weeks ago. Love it! That said however, I really do
need to point out that I was coming from a Ten-Tec Omni-D (fairly old
technology). Probably any modern rig would have impressed me!
Before settling on the FT-920 I talked with a few experienced (good)
contesters from my old QTH area, EMA. Almost to a person they said
something like "you'll be happy with any modern radio, just pick one". I
had considered a number of different rigs; from a Kenwood TS-570D (the
cheapest of the bunch I was looking at) to the ICOM 7xx series to a Yaesu
FT-1000mp. The FT-1000D was out of my price range and the Ten-Tec Omni-VI+
didn't have general coverage (which I do use).
In the end it came down to the FT-920 and FT-1000mp. I chose the FT-920 for
a number of objective and subjective reasons that I won't bother to air in
this forum. It would also leave me with some change for accessories as
well.
One thing to consider is what one of the contesters pointed out to me. He
had an FT-1000D at his disposal and used it for a couple of the big
contests. He said that he didn't score any better with that rig than he did
with his older rig.
Now that I have played with the FT-920 a while I have to wonder if it really
boils down to this; once you've reached a certain level of performance that
satisfies contest operation the things that would differentiate one rig from
the next are so subtle that you don't have time to make good use of them in
a contest. In a contest you don't typically don't have time to spend
digging around for a weak one with DSP. The bells and whistles that can
make a difference are a good NB or NR circuit and some of the "quick" memory
features.
I am an inexperienced contest operator, but I enjoy it and have found the
FT-920 a lot of fun to use. If it has a down side it would be something
that was stated in the QST review. The bleed through of very strong signals
on the opposite side of zero beat. I have experienced this but never to the
point where I couldn't compensate for it. The new filter board mods from
International Radio may help in this area.
73,s
-ricK1log/7
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-cq-contest@contesting.com
[mailto:owner-cq-contest@contesting.com]On Behalf Of Bill Aycock
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 1999 6:57 PM
To: yaesu@contesting.com; cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: [CQ-Contest] FT-920
In an infrequent visit to a Ham-Goodies store- I saw and played with an
FT-920. I liked it.
I am not a contester, but could become one, someday- Mostly just casual DX
and like good, but not exorbitant gear.
I would like any opinion, good or bad- if you would care to share. I have
read the Oct 97 QST review.
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