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Show all reviews of the Yaesu FT-950 (PEP-950 enhanced version). AKA Mark 2
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of the Yaesu FT-950 (PEP-950 enhanced version). AKA Mark 2.
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AA6RR
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 9, 2009 05:15
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I was not disappointed !
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I was looking for a HF radio to replace my aging Yaesu FT-1000D that I purchased new in 1994. My only experience with a new radio in the past 10 years has been with a Icom IC-746, a Icom IC-756ProII and a FlexRadio SDR-1000. I was leery of purchasing another "toyish" looking rig like the ProII. I also like to build my own software (Gui) to run the radio with and after looking at the FT-950's Cat Manual I was very intrigued. Also on my short list was the Elecraft K3. For several months I read what I could on the various forums and finally decided to purchase a used FT-950 on Ebay, since I wouldn't lose much money if I wanted to resell it. So, I found a real mint condition FT-950 on Ebay back in October and bought it. It turned out to be a real nice looking radio, although I thought that the powder blue frequency display was somehow out of place. I wasn't sure if it was the size or the font of the digits, but it seemed funky somehow. It is a very pleasing radio to look at, with four different colors going on inside of the display, and red and green button displays for VFO selections. I did get used to looking at the frequency display after a few weeks. One of my concerns was with the "ringing" on narrow bandwidths on cw, which the K3 is supposed to be good at eliminating. I operated the November SS Contest and had a chance to test the filters on the FT-950. I found that I was most comfortable with using the 200 hz wide filter, along with a minus 20 hz shift. There was a ringing effect when using the 100 hz filter and I found it to be too annoying, so I am very happy with the 200 hz setting. You just have to line up the tone of the cw station that is being received with a center marker that is displayed within the main display and you are now zero beat with that station. I found that the default AGC setting of "Fast" did present a harsh sounding cw tone, so I used "Mid" and the cw tone cleaned up. When the contest was over with, I went into the Menu (there are 118 menu items) and changed the value of the AGC "Fast" setting from 300 to 400. This is what is so great about this radio. There is a changeable value for virtually every function on the radio contained within the "Menu". I really enjoy this radio and it will be replacing my FT-1000D.I have the SDR-IQ receiver interfaced to my FT-950 via the RF Space IF-2000 board and using SpectraVue software I now have a radio with knobs and the panoramic receiver to go with it, unlike the dissappointment that I had with the FlexRadio SDR-1000 and having to do everything via the mouse. I have fun with all of the CAT commands and the Menu settings and accessing the various functions via my homebrew software. Yaesu has provided their own Gui called PCC-950. It is a well written Gui for controlling the FT-950 and they offer it for free, which I find amazing coming from a Japanese Manufacturer. Thank you Elecraft, Ten-Tec and FlexRadio, for injecting this attitude change into our hobby. From what I have read, the FT-950 is the FT-2000 without the extra knobs, meaning that you will have to go into the Menu at times to make a change, such as changing the output power level. The FT-950 does not have a second frequency display for VFO-B. VFO-B just shares the main frequency display with VFO-A. Depending on what software you might use to control the radio, you will notice that VFO-A and VFO-B have their separate displays when using a Gui. As others have stated, this is an unmatched radio at this price range !!
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