[RTTY] Yaesu FT-1000 MK-Field vs Icom 756 PRO II?

[Ekki Plicht]

Tim,
your pros and cons on both rigs are more or less valid, I would say.

I would ask myself: much contesting or not? You have read at Dons site about 
the value of the spectrum display, it has become adamant for me during 
contests (finding free spots, not missing callers when s&p, checking if band 
is open/crowded).

Here in Germany the ProII has not officially been discontinued but is "not 
available until further notice". My guess is that Icom is waiting for the 
demand in ProIIIs and decide then whether to continue to build the ProII or 
not. But you will most likely get an excellent deal with a used rig now.

The two large tuning knobs on the FT-1k are surely nice and convenient. But I 
have never used them in any RTTY contest. When working DX - yes, of course. 
But you can do equally well with the Icom. I put the RX VFO on the DXs freq, 
and select my TX spot with the main dial. So I can use RIT if the DX drifts a 
little and select my TX spot while listening on dual watch. It's easy and 
straight forward, but you have to have one hand on the balance control all 
the time. I work only CW and RTTY, YMMV with SSB.

Plan to go multi/multi with your rig? A strong point for the FT-1K, although 
the merits for large signal rejection are exagerated IMO.

The image rejection on the 756ProII is nothing to be proud about with a rig at 
that price (all tests show that, I have experienced it myself). I have not 
played much with the ProIII but I hear it's better there (as Icom claims).

With either rig two Dunestar (or similiar) band filters are necessary when 
going multi/multi.

You will not be able to monitor RTTY/Packet at the same time (really 
simultaneously), you will have to switch modes. I am not 100% sure but I 
think the packet output is disconnected when not switched to packet mode.
The ProII lacks the packet interface of the Yaesu, but when you use the 
soundcard both for RTTY and Packet it doesn't matter much anyway, unless you 
plan to use a TNC for packet.

So far my 2 cents. I have to admit that I am biased towards Icom...

73,
Ekki, DF4OR