[UK-CONTEST] FT1000MP AGC

[Dave Lawley]

I haven't tried the roofing filter yet but, on a related subject, has 
anyone installed the AGC mod and does it make a difference under pileup 
conditions?

It was very interesting to compare my FT1000MP and the Mark V field at 
GJ2A. My rig has the Inrad front-end mod and is loaded with all the 
(Yaesu) filters whereas the Jersey club's rig came without any 
additional filters, just the supplied 500Hz filter in the second IF I 
believe.

However, the AGC seemed a whole lot better on the Mark V. On my MP, as 
soon as you get more than one or two calling, the AGC compresses the 
signals together and makes it hard to pull anyone out of the pile. I 
resorted to backing the RF gain right down and turning off the AGC. But 
if you do this you have to keep one hand constantly on the RF gain and 
risk getting blasted every so often by stronger signals.

The Inrad web site says that the mod increases the decay time, how does 
this differ from just selecting slow AGC when operating CW, which 
doesn't cure the problem?

Happy New Year

Dave G4BUO