FT-990 noise floor

[Kok Chen]

Tim Peacock, AC5IF, writes,

> I have to agree with K8JP, if your having problems with a high noise
> floor on your FT-990 you might want to look around the shack for the
> source (computer,TV,aquarium heater,etc.). My 990 has an extremly low
> noise floor.

I wonder if Yaesu has changed something.  I have a low-serial number
FT-990, purchased a few years ago, and the audio on that thing is also 
very hissy.  This is the older AC-model that did not have a 12-volt 
connector; also came with the ROM that took forever to upload data
(thankfully, I don't use that feature).

Narrowing down the switched capacitor filter helps quite a bit on CW.
I found that is the only way I could tolerate that rig when digging
out the weak ones on CW.  

Next to my Omni-VI, the FT-990 sounds _really_ noisy (guess which rig 
I use more of now).  But the FT-990 is a nice no-fuss rig.  No need
to touch up the band-pass tuning when you switch between CW and RTTY,
as you do with the Omni.

73

Kok Chen, AA6TY				kchen@apple.com
Apple Computer, Inc.