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write your own review of the Yaesu FT-450D HF Transceiver.
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VE3CGU
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Rating: 3/5
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Apr 25, 2012 13:23
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Good Rig When Not In The Shop
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I have owned a 450D for a year now and am generally pleased with its operation. I accept its use of menus in order to keep size & front panel controls to a minimum. As a casual operator I am able to set up the rig exactly the way I wish & then pretty much leave the setup alone. If I did a lot of mode & CW keyer speed changing a rig with more front panel controls might be more appropriate.
Contour is very useful to peak received signals & the lower DSP settings help out a bit with noise but at higher values the received audio sounds hollow. It is still a lot better than no DSP.
The white display and backlit buttons are great for those of us with older eyes. I do not miss having a separate RIT pot and am now accustomed to using the clarifier function on VFO knob. Yes, that knob is a bit too small but it is in proportion to the rest of the front panel so I live with it.
As some other reviewers have stated the small key & headphone jacks are a pain. Even with high quality plugs I sometimes have to wiggle them to get a firm contact. 1/4" jacks are not so critical since they have more room for each conductor, but again this is a compact radio & I suppose there just isn't enough interior space to accommodate a full-sized connector.
Being able to set the C/S button to send a low level transmit signal to activate an external tuner & check the SWR at the same time is very helpful. Relay noise for full breakin CW seemed too noisy so I set it up for semi-breakin to cut down on the constant relay chatter.
My low rating is because of quality issues with this transceiver. In 12 months of ownership I have had the hassle & expense of sending it back twice for warranty repairs. The first time was shortly after I bought it, when reports of high pitched hum on transmit audio were received. The service shop installed grounding straps on the display to solve the problem. My issue is that this problem was common knowledge with numerous of the original FT-450s years ago. Yaesu should have fixed this in later models: that was one reason why I waited for the latest one just to avoid that problem.
My radio is currently back in the shop awaiting a new optical encoder for the VFO. After 10 months of very light use I noticed that the frequency was not increasing & decreasing in the customary manner. Sometimes the display would advance when I tuned the VFO clockwise, other times it would stall & even reverse. The tech at the service shop said that the replacement encoder on order from Yaesu is not an improved model but the same part. He further stated that they have not seen a lot of encoder problems with this model so it may just be a random bad part.
So in summary, I enjoy using this transceiver and feel that it is a lot of radio for the modest price. Controls feel solid & ergonomics are good, albeit a tad small for some users. I just hope my reliability issues are over since it is now out of warranty protection. It is just the luck of the draw and I don't think a more expensive Yaesu or any other manufacturer's radio would eliminate a faulty part.
73 Glenn VE3CGU
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KD3ZX
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Rating: 4/5
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Apr 18, 2012 07:22
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Audio Hum
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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This is a great little radio and very fun to operate. Mine is a Sep 2011 build, and it had the audio hum problem. Had to immediately send it back to Yaesu for warranty repair. I was told by Yaesu there was a mod that had to be done. Had it back in a week. My only question is why is Yaesu shipping them out the door if they are aware of this problem. This problem goes back to the FT450AT model. Should have been addressed by now? Other than that, this radio now performs very well in all respects. I have many other tranceivers to compare it to, including the FT950, and I would take the FT450D over the FT950 hands down. I sold the FT950 because it was a crackle box on receive. I am using the MD100A8X mic, eq in radio off, and an ALS600SPS amp in my office, and I have had nothing but excellent reports on my audio and signal. Only reason for a 4 rating is having to send a brand new radio back to the factory, and the fact that Yaesu was aware of the problem for quite some time. Otherwise, my rating would be a 5. The price has gone up considerably in the last year, so right now, the Kenwood TS480 line with the discounts is worth a look as well. Had both versions of the TS480's, also very nice, but not to crazy about the face not being built into the radio body for fixed station operation. 73 to all.
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CR7000
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 9, 2012 05:49
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HAMS best kept secret
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Where do i start
I got one of these brand new, at the time i could not decide whether to go for the 450D or 950.
Well for a start there is £400 price difference, and i am sure there are pros and cons between the two radios.
The 450D was the one for me, and i also walked away with a brand new 8800, and still had change in my pocket from the price of a 950.
This latest gem from yaesu outperforms anything in its price range, and also gives some of the bigger boys a run for there money
You wont be dissapointed with one of these
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PY1TU
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 20, 2012 19:15
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wonderful one
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I HAVE HAD FT-450, NOW I GET FT-450D, VERY GOOD ONE. I ONLY MAKE CW, WITH THE NEW 300 HZ. FILTER AND ANTENNA TUNER, BOTH VERY EASY TO OPERATE ,WE CAN SAY: IT IS A VERY FINE RADIO. IT IS REALLY " A STATE OF ART ".
73, TOM PY1TU / PY4UM.
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K4CMD
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 16, 2012 19:26
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Just about perfect
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I purposely held off for more than a year of ownership so I could take my time and write an informed and (hopefully) informative review.
My 450D was one of the first to come off the line, purchased in early February 2011. After one month, mine too fell victim to the faulty rotary encoder problem. Total time on its cross-country journey -- 23 days. I called while they had the radio and mentioned the hum problem, which I too had heard and forgot to mention in my letter accompanying the radio. When I got the radio back, Yaesu had included the faulty encoder and a resistor they swapped out. Hmmm ... the hum problem? All I know is, the radio has performed flawlessly ever since. I cannot detect the hum now.
There is one thing I have noticed that I'll give up as a quirk with the firmware: In any tuning step selection other than the painfully slow fine (1 Hz) step, if you turn the knob very steadily, you'll notice the steps aren't linear -- after every second digit there's a noticeable lag. So it tunes like: .01, .02, ... 03, 04, ... 05, 06, ... and so on. It did this both before and after the rotary encoder was replaced.
Having owned many radios from all the major manufacturers in my 28 years of hamming, I find the 450D to be the best bang for the buck I've ever owned in an HF rig. (I paid $920 for it at a local hamfest.) I place it close to Kenwood's TS-570 series in operating style and features. I find the IF DSP a great improvement over the 570's AF DSP, and I find myself using the DNR and Width controls all the time. The roofing filter, in conjunction with the Width control, make for some downright amazing -- and fast -- customization capabilities, and the Contour control can do some pretty incredible stuff when the band you're on is noisy. I do a lot of SWLing too, and I find the rig's receive performance and filter selections near perfect for AM reception. I do agree with others that an external speaker makes a big difference, but hey -- look at the size of the radio itself. It would be nearly impossible to cram the 5-inch studio-grade external speaker I use into the chassis of the radio while keeping the radio so small. And speaking of the chassis: As with the Kenwood, the radio is built inside a die-cast aluminum shell. Despite its diminutive size, I'd wager you could easily throw it through the wall of your shack (OK, drywall, not plaster) and it would land intact in the next room -- after possibly denting the floor. It feels VERY solid.
Here's one nit ... I too wish the key jack were around back. I don't like rarely-changed cables dangling out of the front of my radios. But we'll even that nit out with a rave -- a big one -- for the cooling fan. I've read some reviewers say it's loud when you're transmitting. Friends, if you think that's loud, you've never owned an Icom radio. And one other thing -- I'll bet half of you fellow owners don't realize that the fan runs *continuously* at a slow speed in receive mode -- a nice touch, since I sometimes keep the radio on for days at a time -- and you cannot hear it at all. I'll add in another rave for the new backlit keys and the wonderful, large display -- very, very nice for my aging vision. Oops, we're now at +1 for raves, so one more nit ... what happened to auto notch, Yaesu? I could complain that it would be nice to have more than *one* memory in the QMB (Quick Memory Bank), but with the radio having 15 million regular memories that can be assigned into groups AND labeled alphanumerically, I'll concede that this radio has more than enough ways to store a frequency.
Now let's talk about my Achilles Heel. I currently live in an apartment! My antenna is a delta loop that I constructed not to a particular frequency; rather, to encircle the roof, sides and floor of my second-floor balcony and thus achieve near-perfect invisibility. Fortunately those dimensions came to a near perfect match for 20 meters. Using an old MFJ-962C tuner that I've modified to work like MFJ intended it to (snicker snicker), I can work 40-6 with this antenna. (The internal ATU is very capable, performing nearly the same except that it has, as expected, trouble finding a match on 40.) Unfortunately, the antenna's major lobes are north-south; I would've preferred east-west here in Virginia -- but I had no choice in the matter. Using appropriate RF chokes formed in the coax, I've been able to run 100 watts on all of those bands despite the fact that the plane of the antenna is only seven feet from the radio, and I have no decent Earth ground. I'm using a Samlex 1235M switching supply.
Even with the aforementioned deficiencies in my antenna arrangement, here's some proof that living in an apartment isn't necessarily the end of the world. Despite interference (plasma TVs) from neighboring apartments, in a year of very casual operating I have logged 35 countries -- most on 20 meter phone. In fact, my very first contact with the radio back on 2/12/11 was with ZD7VC on St. Helena Island in the South Atlantic, a sea-level distance of 5,100 miles. Not too shabby for an apartment dweller using this fine little radio.
I'm now using the MD-100 desk microphone and have received fine audio reports right out of the box. I played with the audio equalizer settings, but both the stock mike and the desk mike sounded the best at the default settings.
With the exception of the rotary encoder problem, this radio has been a flawless performer and I'm very happy with my purchase after more than a year of ownership. This is a tough little radio that's tough to beat. If you want more proof, just ask the ops at last fall's Tarawa DXpedition, whose shipment of 16 FT-DX5000's got held up in port and never made it to the island -- Yaesu wound up shipping them 10 FT-450D's as replacements at the last minute, and (to quote the official website), "Despite the initial problems we encountered, the DXpedition was a major success making 213,169 QSOs and establishing at least ten new world records." (http://www.t32c.com) 73 and have fun, and thanks for reading my attempt at a real review.
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AE6ZW
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 10, 2012 12:12
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Good Sounding CW
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I had opportunity to use FT-450D for several weeks. it is newer model purchased in Feb 2012. SSB voice did not seems to include HUM on this model, despite of different back light level of display. I use indoor antenna, so the signal is not that strong, but I was able to make several QSO in CW mode. CW and SSB sound good, FT-450D does not sound like artificial , which are often typical of DSP radio. it runs well from deep cycle battery down to 11.0 V at input voltage to radio. only wish is it would been better every time change mode, or press DSP button, tell me which mode, or which DSP setting I am in by voice or beeps tone, so I don't have to look at display every time pressed the button. MODE button and DSP just cycle through each mode, so I need to take look at display each time press them, this may be fixed with newer firmware.
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N4ZBO
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 17, 2012 19:13
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Good All around rig
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have only had this rig for a few days now got it at the Orlado ham fest.... Wanted a new hf/6 meter rig after looking at the outhers that were there i picked this one yaseu had a long track record with the ft-450 so doing sume checking on my own i picked this one... It only has a few bugs the speker being the main one soundes tinney but it works i under stand you can't get a larger one in there due to the size of the rig.
As far as how it workes outher wise it does very well on all bands transmet soundes good you will want the desk mic to go with it md-100 that makes a big change in the xmetsound.
It is a very tight rig good filters and the dsp is grate..... i was a bit nerves at first to get a yaseu rig as i had 2 yaseu ft 857d's bouth were bad allmost out of the box but every body can make a lemon but thay replaced it with no problems so i said give them anther shot and so far it was the right choice... so if you want good allaround rig then this will do you fine....
73's N4ZBO
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WA3YUR
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 24, 2012 07:06
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A STAR PERFORMER
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Having the radio for almost a year now, I am updating my review. The FT-450D has been absolutely outstanding for me. I have changed a few aspects of the hobby insofar as my operation, and the radio has grown with me as well. Operation of the radio and menus is second nature now.
I have taken the unit portable, as well as mobile operation, and it has worked flawlesly. It works as I expect a radio to work.
It needed service fairly soon after I bought it, and the radio was back in my posession (from California) in a few days. Yaesu service kept me in the loop the whole time regarding repair status.
I LOVE the negative reviews I see on eHam about ANY piece of gear; if you look at 90% of them, it's the reviewer, and NOT the radio that is the problem. You can tell the reviwer has unrealistic expectations, got into a piece of gear without being educated or knowing what arena they were going to enter, the unit wouldn't do ONE thing they wanted, or these hams are probably crying about most everything in life. Don't even get me started on how illogical the approach of - "MY OLD RADIO NEVER DID THAT" is.
The amount of reviews or quality of reviews on one piece of gear are unscientific, most hams with 5/5 experiences don't bother to inform anyone. They may not even know about the review section of eHam. Comparing the raw numbers of reviews of one piece of gear to another is anything but scientifcally conclusive. eHam is a GREAT way to look into a variety of experieces in our hobby, and I am glad for it. It is one of the things I use when I research buying gear, but NOT the only thing. Once I get a piece of gear, I am virtually assured my experience will be GREAT. Take your time to make a decision, and you will be rewarded.
LUV YA eHAM !
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ATC43
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 4, 2012 04:30
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brill little radio
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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This is a fantastic radio,just needs the mod to stop hum,great receive and tx audio,for the money you will not find another radio that offers such great performance,Yaesu just need to add extra earthing for front panel,and all will be well,that said if you are thinking of buying one,get it,you will not be disappointed,easy to use,brill dsp,great audio,tx and rx,i did the mod to stop hum on tx,v easy the ft450d yahoo group has the fix on file,the only thing that does get me is the fact that yaesu new about hum from ft450,and there fix for the 450d,was not good enough
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W3QE
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 1, 2012 13:12
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Why Spend More?
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Based on the price I hear it said that this radio is a good entry level radio. Well Yaesu could probably add another $500 on the price tag and sell them with about the same results one would expect from radios costing that much and still sell as many units. You get a lot of radio for a little money spent. Look at the features not found on similar priced units. I owned the high-cost radios and unless I am deaf after 30 years as a ham, I just can't tell much difference in radios costing twice as much or more. As far as the spec geeks who only decide their purchases based on the Sherwood charts, your deceiving yourself--IMO. Happy New and Hamming
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