[RTTY] FT-950 for RTTY

[IW1AYD Salvatore Irato]

Tom,
the FT-950 it's a great machine for FSK RTTY. It's really a great 
machine and you will gain a very high value for the money you will pay for.
I tried  it with DigiKeyey and micro keyer II by MicroHam, those are 
fully integrated interfaces, and also with a home made one. Just the 
time to set the internals audio levels from and to the radio and you are 
on the air in any digimode, fiddling filters and controls by hands.
The FT-950 is really good also for audio digital modes. MF DSP filtering 
is what you will need and there the 950 is a solid performer, as under 
several other aspects.
Software here is N1MM with MMTTY/MMVARI and HRD/DM780, WSJT, WSPR and 
JT65-HF.
MF filtering will require a little bit of fiddling with CAT codes, 
inside macros, to make it the best. Doing this you could almost live 
without  touching anything on the front panel of the radio, just the VFO 
and some other accessories. What id much in use in S&P, filters 
fiddling, could be done to any needed extend just from the mouse, as for 
N1MM macros. The rest of the S&P operations are up to you, to have QSO's 
I mean ;-)
IMHO the Ft-950 could compete with the 756PROIII and win under several 
aspects, a good radio isn't only expressed by numbers. More than some 
times the 950 is better of the PROIII, at least with my dipoles and all 
the surrounding environment I have nearby. My general opinion is that 
the 950 it's more easy to use and fun than the PRO. For sure and not to 
forget also the PRO is well usable under CAT macros, but the fiddling is 
somewhat heavy in my perception, just shadows.
You will quite never regret the money that you saved buying the 950, nor 
the 950 by itself. BTW I also own a PROIII, but I switched on and used 
the FT-950 much more times, since i bought it, than my oldest and 
trusted PROIII.
As for my activities on the bands, I use only RTTY and other digital 
modes, 40m to 6M, no phone at all. About contesting I am not a big gun, 
nor a small pistol, but I enjoy a lot simply spending my time with 
friends on the bands, crowded or not.

Some border notes: you could listen for hours without a hot radio 
seating in front of you; fiddle the RX and TX tones quite as you like 
almost without external equipment; unfortunately, as far as I know, 
there is no automatic ATU function, so you need to do it manually each 
time there is the need.
Just another note. Be prepared to find a really strange miniDIN 
connector, or to buy one from YAESU or on eBay, if you would like to 
drive a PA. Just prior to have a buffer amplifier to switch the PA PTT 
you need to get the signals, PTT and ALC, out of this "rarely seen 
before" connector on the FT-950 back. Some MicroHam devices may help to 
solve this behavior having a PA-PTT, but still not the ALC, of course. 
This shouldn't not be a scaring things, just a thing to know. Quite like 
as the particular mic preamplifier on ancient ICOM RTX.

If you like to experiment with borad and PC/software there is also a IF 
board made to substitute the DMU-2000 board, it's made in the States. It 
simply grep out the IF signal to a SDR radio made by the same brand. 
Then you have on the PC the related software to net RX to TX and decode 
signals to BF. The added feature is really good panadapter. I don't own 
this stuff but if you would like to have a look search on You Tube under 
"RF SPACE". This is the brand for the accessories. The one for the 
FT-2000 is the same FT-950. Take care, by experience, I am a FLEX user 
you will need a good, well a really good, audio board (a not noisy USB 
one will suffice) and a solid performer PC, with M*S, X+P or W-7 (32 
bit). Low latency is the keyword.

There is also a Yahoo group devoted to the 950 ...

I think it's enough. Make yours choice and enjoy, have fun with the radio.

In the hope my ItalEnglish is enough readable and make sense, HI. To 
anybody that will reach this point: thanks for the patience.

                  73 de iw1ayd Salvo


PS A small tip, when you engage the 250/300 Hz 950 MF filter receiving 
with MMTTY, try to use the notch feature of this last. Place the notch, 
a little bit tied than the default, in the middle of the two tones with 
a left button click of the mouse. You will obtain something near to the 
TPF, the Twin Peak Filter by ICOM on the MMTTY waterfall. Instead of 
enhancing  the two tones you will un-enhance the field of nobody in 
between the tones, sometimes help a bit.