Hi Mike, between the K3 and the Yaesu it boils down to what radio your gonna like to operate, no matter how good the lab tests on the K3 IMO its a drag to et around there funky front panel controls. I went from a FT1KMP to the 590 which was a good radio but missed allot of what the MP did like having true RF clipping which drove the amp better and its audio on TX was alway much better. Yes the 590 had a slighly better RX but I got dragged into the lab test numbers on that rig but there is more than great number's that makes up a good all around rig. The numbers on the FT3K are very good, some better and some a little lower but I reall dont think your gonna see this even on a very busy band. As far as the TX noise on transmit, I know what the numbers in the arrl lab were but the ham down the street 1/4 mile away has told me that he only nows I am on the band when he gets closer than 5Khz away. Both the MP and the 590 he could hear me out 10-15khz away so go figure, maybe Yaesu changed some things in the firmware but this baby is cone of the cleanest TX sections I have had at my qth. I find the RX and TX both to have some of the best audio of many of the rigs I have tryed or used at other ham's shacks, even the FTDX5K or IC7800 that I have used, the RX audio is that good. The roofing filter's work and so does the DSP, even the digital NR work faster than the one on the 590 that was slow compared to to Icoms NR dsp. On CW the tone is excellent, I am not a cw buff but this radio sounds soo good that I find myself getting back into cw again, my code speed sucks but its getting better and no ringging even when the dsp is set to 50Hz, I can only say that with the 300Hz filter installed it would be the cats nuts. The display is great and the band scope works as well, yea its not the size of Icom's but work well fore plus the FFT audio scope is aa nice bonus. All the controls are well laid out and all work well, the only con is that the notch takes a while nto tune, I wish they had a faster manual notch position but I can tell ya its deep, 70+db will notch amost anything. The AGC system is also one of the best I have seen, you can adjust it so that static crashes dont overide the front end. Having a seperte RX out that's after the bandpass filter,ATT,Pre amps is a cool way to go, maybe they will come out with a sub RX which will slave with the 3K, who know's and 9Mhz IF out is a real plus. Yaesu hit a homerun IMO with this rig, its present price point is right on the money, I trust you will enjoy the new rig.
Jim

Sorry, I have no 2 mtr gear at all, just HF only.

We had a chnge of plans and are in contract now for a home in Carmel, NY. Was wondering is any ham's around that town went to the town hall and installed a tower the legal way, I have been on the town's site but not much info. Before I was looking at the town of brewster which had a different rule book but Carmel does not have much on there web site about antenna's. I kinda hope it would be like long island was 20 years ago but today ya gotta watch out so anyone in the township of Carmel could spread some light here that would be great.
Thanks
Jim
KE2TR

I did check the Brewster town reg's on tower's plus even talked with the building inspector, he stated 34' tower could be erected and you still have to apply for a permit, after that then you have to get a variance. I thought Long Island was a bitch with a 50' restriction but up state makes LI look like a cup cake. The ARRL is not doing enough with the FCC about these issue's on tower's, many town's dont give a dam about PRB1. It's bad enough that tower prices have gone threw the roof but now you gotta get lawyered up just to enjoy your hobby. Well the flip side is back in the 1990's I had a very nice station/antenna farm but that can only be way out in the stick's today. I thought that being up state with a hellova lot less poeple around you it might be easy to errect a tower but but I am dead wrong. Maybe it's time to find another hobby, that's a shame cause I've been in this hobby since 1968.
Jim
KE2TR

Hey N1CX, did you get your new QST yet? Looks like they liked the idea of Remote Ham Radio allot! No full page add just a review that is like the they are giving the guy's doing this there blessing's but you still have your old way's to knock a great new idea. Must be hard getting old and being of old fart age and acting like it.
Jim
KE2TR

I have been buying from HRO since my TS930 day's in the early 80's, they have always had excellent service and fast shipping on your order's. Before the 80's I bought from Harrison Radio cause it was local but they went out I belive in 81-82. My last buy from HRO was a FTDX3000 and I ordered it and had the rig in the next day from there Delaware store. The guy's at that store, Keven, Rob, Bob and a few more that have always helped me are the best, you just don't get the service anywere else like from HRO, they ROCK in my book.
Jim
KE2TR

Hi Mike, if you can find one used the F12 C3SS would knock the sock's off those two antenna's buy a huge margin. 17&12mtr's will cover well with most AT's built in rig's today but only as good as a dipole but 10/15&20 it's a real beam, no trap's and it out does some larger trapped tribander's, longest element is 24' and a 12' boom, about 27 pounds so the light duty Yaesu rotor will work real well. Those other mini beam's are a step up from a dipole with some FB but low gain, I know they spec around 3 dbd but you would be luck to get maybe 2 dbd on 10&15 and maybe like a dipole on 20. If there is any gain at all its gain/bandwidth is gonna be 20-30khz, yes they show some for of directivity but they have very poor efficiency.
Jim KE2TR

I have been on the town website but I would really like to know from some ham's who live there and have installed tower's in there yard's, sometime's you may not have too but they do have that section regarding fine's per day as well. If a permit is all that is needed hey that would be easy cause I would like to get up if I can 100' and nowere in the bylaws they state min's as far as how high. Here on LI in this township its 50' and that takes a year or so for a permit. To think 12 year's ago I had two crank up's on a 1/3 acre site (72' &55' with 20' mast's and 9 HF yagi's)here on LI and no permit's but the town back then didn't really enforce the law's but now they have a big marble town hall that come out of our over taxed proprty tax and nit pick everything. Back then crank up's were the way to get around the 50' min, as long as they cracked down below 50' you were OK, the 72' cranked down with the 20' mast and a two meter stick for packet on top was right at 49'. I would rather not go crank up cause new tower's are way outa control price wise by the time you ship those bugger's they cost way too much, tower's have gone up but shipping is threw the roof.
Jim

My wife and I are selling our home on LI and looking at the Brewster/Southeast area of NYS for our new qth. Here on LI CC&R's are ruling out any chances of tower's and antenna's, in the past 10 plus year's since I closed down my small but effective station I had in South Setauket LI the restriction's have gone threw the roof here so I am done with the rat race here on the Island and as we get older want a more relaxed area for our home. I am concerned with the area we want to buy our home in as far as any restriction  that they might have in these townships cause if I gotta get layered up then its not worth it to even try and get up a tower at the new qth, I'll do my phase vertical things on 75,40 and maybe 20mtr's as I can at least semi stealth them with enough property.
Any ham out there in these town's (Brewster/Southeast) that could give me some in-site of what they have done to install a tower as far as the leagal issues would help, thanks.
Jim
KE2TR

I find this post interesting, using the AL800H xfmr is n excellent idea nd by the look of thing's TT wants to get outa the amp biz as well, maybe SS amp's might be there new way but Ameritron seem to kick there but in sale plus have many amp's on the table, maybe not the best amp's on the market but dm good value nd they seem to run and run for year's. W1QJ's xfmr swap is and excellent idea aand will keep that amp running for many year's to come, great job!
Jim

A big tetrode with lots of gain like those russian tubes would be a great HB amp for the little Flex.

Well if flex wanted to make it compatable with Kenwoods TS590 they would sell a ton of thos 1500's, there are 10,000 590's sold here in the US.

Many ham's don't RTFM, they want plug n play and never really understand how to adjust the compressor or mic gain setting. With the 590 you have fee software for controlling almost everything about this rig plus when used with the software you have a user file for a 18 band EQ on both RX and TX, it takes all of a few adjustment and you can nail the TX audio just the way you like it. The RX is way above most radio's selling for even $3k and it barks right behind the famous K3's with an excellent RX. No it doesn't have a Icom boob tube display but make up for it with roofing filter's that do work and a DSP system that give the others some real competition. It's plain front panel turns some user's off but kenwood has had a real winner here. When I called up HRO to order a rig it was either the IC7410 or the Kenwood, the salesman there told me that the 590 was selling 10 to one out almost all the HF rigs they sell, he said there was nothing that came close unless your wanting to pay over $3k for a new rig. When I started to read all the lab reviews of the 590 by the ARRL,RSGB and seen the spec at Sherwood's site plus hearing so many fav reports from owners I sold my trusty FT1000MP loaded with filters and roofing filter as well and haven't looked back.

Don't get me wrong, there are allot of good rigs out there, if you use your radio to rag chew with your buddies the 950 is a fine rig, maybe a little dxing but try doing that when a contest weekend is going on, the 950 will get swamped with signals and you will find out what it means on those blocking number's when they test out the RX side of radio's in lab tests. If you like DXing and wanna get your feet wet into contesting the 590 is head and shoulders above the 590 and even barks up the back door of rigs like FTDX5000 and the K3. It seems to me that kenwood had taken there time to bring the 590 to market, they had to make a radio that was a cut above what else was in it price range and they did, they now own the price range. Yes the TT Eagle is also an excellent rig as well but like the Icon IC7410 they option you to death and the price goes up. The K3 is also a very good rig but ya gotta like a rig that looks like only a mother could love, its kinda heathkit/military like plus the multi function knob/button arrangement is not the easiest to learn so it takes some getting use to but to me its an ugly radio. Right now the 590 is selling 6:1 against mot other rigs out there and that's even against higher priced rigs. It did take me getting used to a smallish rig at first but the more I use the 590 the more I like what its all about, great RX/TX, very easy to use, with the FREE software the rig has even more bells than allot of rigs, easy remote computer control, its like having a DSR and a front panel as well (sorry flex user's I just can't warm up to a box and a computer idea, the flex is a techy type radio). I am sure the TS990 will be very good as well but it's gotta blow many rigs outa the water for $8K, I feel Kenwood should have brought out a TS890 series first then the flag ship, something in the $3k-$4k range, They have a chance to get a good share of the market I just hope they have there marketing down right cause they were almost at one point not even running. You will enjoy the 590, good luck.

Very sorry to hear about your amp, I had the same thing happen to my buddy's amp a week before the 1995 CQWW phone weekend, it turned out to be the power Xfmr, the primary shorted out. The same thing happened to three other ham's here on LI who bought the same amp but there amp's were under warranty my friends amp was one month outa warranty and TT said pay $450 for the repair. I would NEVER buy a TT product after that, even after hearing all the good reviews that some post on here about there products there service sucked IMO. The VP of TT at the time told me that if I had a GE fridge that was outa warranty by one month that they would charge me for a repair even of it had known issues with lets say the compressor, well I LOL in his face cause I had a 10 year old GE that the compressor did go, I called GE to order the part, they asked if I could give them the serial number and then told me that they would fix the fridge free cause it did have a known problem. I hope its not the Xfmr in your amp, if it is I would look around for an aftermarket one not a TT part.