Hello Art, thanks for taking the time to post your information about the
FT1000 from several years back. Fortunatly the FT1000D made inroads to
improving a lot of that, and the more recent (1 - 1 1/2 years) of late model
FT-1000MP doesnt exibit those concerns to all. Three versions of the radio -
FT1000, D, and MP sometimes confuses the issues too........ hi hi ...... not
to mention the production run changes. Seems most all of the high end radios
receive a lot of visibility and go through a lot of changes. Thats one
reason why I avoid being one of those that has the newest release of any rig
anymore.
There have been interesting debates the last year or so in the two Yaesu and
the FT1000MP reflectors about some concerns with the FT1000MP. Some who had
problems with the FT1000MP actually had different component values in some
circuits that make us suspect misbuilds, so didnt fit the other rigs normal
performance. Still others exibited the cw click/spur problem but others did
not.....especially the later model rigs. By later I mean those that shipped
from Yaesu in the last year or so and had the inhouse mods made before the
dealer got em.
Other problems were traced to RFI, especially when using more than one rear
panel antenna jack and a linear. FT1000D rigs come fully equipped with
filters, but the FT1000MP does not. Different users had filters from
different manufactures and performance varied again. Then there are the DC
and AC models of the FT1000MP. This makes a difference in todays digital
world because some external ac switching supplies have poor phase noise
performance and are influenced by RFI. The power supply noise and rfi
affects both transmit and receive.......especially those that also used an
antenna on the external RX connection and a amp. Then there was RFI from
different mike/cable situations.
Here is an interesting reply from one of the earlier messages:
snip snip....
"They use a PIN diode with only a few volts of bias to hold off the external
antenna connection. If the RF voltage on the external antenna exceeds the
voltage of the diode, it turns back on and runs the RX antenna back into the
low level TX RFchain (since the tuned filters are used for both TX and RX.
I discovered this while testing a 600 watt PA on an outside antenna,
fortunately I had a spectrum analyzer fired up and saw the extra pip two MHz
outside the 14 MHz band.
When I checked 160, my rig did the same thing but IN band. I had to do
extensive mods to cure the 751A. "
snip snip.......73 Tom
The latest info that has caught my attention is:
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Christensen <paulc@mediaone.net>
To: topband@contesting.com <topband@contesting.com>
To: <topband@contesting.com>
Date: Sunday, March 15, 1998 7:26 PM
Subject: Re: TopBand: FT1000mp keyclicks ?
:I sent my FT-1000MP back to the factory last year to bring it current.
:The invoice says "PERFORMED SPURS AN CW MODIFICATIONS,
:COMPLETE TEST AND ALIGNED TO FACTORY SPECIFICATIONS."
:
:Anyone know if this is a modification for keyclicks and improved 160M
:transmitter performance?
:
:-Paul, W9AC
:--
:FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/topband.html
:Submissions: topband@contesting.com
:Administrative requests: topband-REQUEST@contesting.com
:Problems: owner-topband@contesting.com
......and we havent even got into the differences in performance due to the
way the menu options are or are not set.
It has gotten very difficult anymore to compare manufactures and models and
reach any conclusions from just a few rigs or a few opinions. But over all
trends might be useful...and the feedback from these reflectors over a long
enough period of time seem to be one of the best ways we have to share that
information and develop those trends.....and influence the manufactures.
Thanks to all for there feedback.
73 from Bill - WD8ARZ
wd8arz@null.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Art Charette <k6xt@pacbell.net>
To: topband@contesting.com <topband@contesting.com>
To: <topband@contesting.com>
Date: Monday, March 16, 1998 2:53 AM
Subject: TopBand: FT1000 key clicks
:At risk of heat:
:
:Several years ago in the pages of that august journal, the San Diego DX
Club
:Bulletin, I published the results of some measurements I conducted on the
CW
:capabilities of 3 rigs I was considering: the FT1000, IC781, and TS950.
N6ND
:supplied the 950, HRO the other 2.
:
:As measured with a Tektronix scope the FT1000 suffered debilitating
:shortcomings on CW transmit. On the air it was in last place on receive.
:
:It was noisy on receive with tons of audio hiss. Sure hope they cleaned
that
:up.
:
:On QSK transmit each dot was very brief and harsh, generating severe clicks
:by comparison. The dots were about 1/3 full size and sounded awful.
:Risetimes were unmercifully short. I hear that many users adjust the weight
:on the keyer to compensate for the foreshortening.
:
:In non-QSK things were better on transmit: Only the first dot was clicky.
:
:This was long enough ago that Yaesu might have done something about it. I
:sure would avoid an early FT1000 based on my scope measurements and
:on-the-air observations. BTW, I did not choose the FT1000 since, at that
:time, either of the other two were far better CW choices.
:
:73 Art
--
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