I can imagine a bunch of reasons why most "big guns" use FT-1000MPs, which
admittedly will be eligible for display at the Smithsonian as museum
artifacts before long. And the main reason has nothing to do with
performance. It's familiarity. These folks depend on a bunch of volunteer
ops descending on their QTH for a weekend of work/play. The only rigs the
various ops know by heart are those MPs. If a contest station suddenly
presented these volunteers with a bunch of nifty new software-driven rigs
to play with, there would be pandemonium as they tried to learn it in a few
hours/minutes. So I think, oddly, the last people to switch over to
superior, modern equipment like the ORION or the forthcoming IC-7800 will
be these "big guns."
The lucky contesters are the single ops who can take the time to learn how
to take advantage of what software-driven radios can do for them. Meantime,
Yaesu and the "big guns" seem caught in a time warp.
By the way, has anyone noticed that QST has hired a new tech editor and
made him responsible for QST rig reviews, and that his main rig at home
appears to be an OMNI VI? He also operates mainly CW. Miracles never cease
(I'm talking about the CW preference).
73,
John, W3ULS
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