My two cents:
1. I've heard that the scope/display in the new FT-9000DX is nothing
to write home about. The IC-7800 supposedly has a greatly superior
visual display. I guess the Orion II will be competing head-on with
the forthcoming FT-2000. I see the PROIII as being more attractive to
users on the phone bands rather than as a CW rig.
2. Anyone buying a FlexRadio has my admiration/sympathy. Some of us
are not so in love with PCs that we still don't want old-fashioned
functionality--like a large cabinet and a front panel with room for
knobs, meters, etc. For example, the OMNI VI seems to me to have an
ideal set of controls right at hand. The Orion looks as if it
inherited this kind of engineering.
If that means selecting a legacy rig with considerable limitations in
its firmware updating capability, I can live with that handicap.
73,
John, W3ULS
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