| HB9FBJ |
Rating:      |
2003-02-12 | |
| Very good |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
The FT-920 has a very good RX and TX performance.
SSB RX audio: never remarked a problem with AGC. Even with the strongest signals it works just fine. NR, NB and Auto Notch, are extremely efficient and don’t have any impact on received audio. No distortion at all.
SSB TX audio: using the supplied hand microphone the audio is 'standard'. One cannot expect to get superior audio with a hand mike, imho. The FT-920 produces superb audio from a variety of dedicated and third party mics and EQ units. The internal equalizer works fine (particularly on position “3”). I added an external 8-bands eq (W2IHY), did some adjustments on TxCar menus, and my FT-920 sounds better than many other “high-end” rigs.
Sensitivity: very good (dual RF preamps!).
Selectivity. Yes, it could be better as it could on many other rigs of the same or even higher class/price.
DSP: It is a very good AUDIO DSP. It works as advertised.
Overall: great rig at a great price. |
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| G4EDY |
Rating:    |
2003-02-11 | |
| Not good value |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I tried one as a replacement for my old TS520SE, here in the UK the FT920 retails at a shade under $2000 or approximately 10 times the cost of a secondhand TS520!! General impressions were good regarding the look and feel of the rig. First negative point: why do Yaesu advertise the FT920 as a base tranceiver when it won't plug directly into the AC mains supply? There must be plenty of room in the case for an AC power supply. Here are a few of my opinions on the performance of this rig:-
SSB received audio, OK but AGC is slow to act on the leading edge of a strong signal giving rise to a click type distortion at the beginning of words.
SSB transmitted audio, using the supplied microphone the audio is 'rough'
Sensitivity, fine, although I think the money spent on dual RF amps could have been better spent elsewhere.
Selectivity, poor, SSB filter shapefactor worse than my 23 year old TS520 and thats not brilliant! I know that Inrad supply excellent aftermarket filters but the Yaesu filters are not good enough at this price level.
DSP, works, but in my opinion an audio DSP is a poor second to having good IF selectivity. It was very useful to be able to switch back to the TS520 and find that in some cases it was easier to copy a signal with QRM and no DSP on the 520 than the same signal with QRM reduced by the DSP. Our ears already carry an immensely powerful analog signal processor!!
Overall: an adequate rig but in my opinion not worth the high price tag, personally I would look at a secondhand TS850SAT or similar and save some money. |
|
| N5YRJ |
Rating:      |
2003-01-10 | |
| Excellent and Affordable |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Before Christmas I spent much time at the local HRO researching the following radios; Kenwood TS 570 & TS 2000, Icom 746 pro, and Yaesu FT 920 & FT 1000 Mark V field(100watt version). All of the Radios listed above are great.I based my purchase on cost, ergonomics, and features.
I wanted a radio that I could spend hours of operating, not hours reading through a manual to figure out how to use the radio. Don't get me wrong the manual is very important and should not be overlooked, but most modern rigs have so many features and buttons that it becomes overwhelming.
Two rigs, in my OPINION, were very comfortable and easy to operate, The FT 920 and the FT 1000 Mark V field. The Mark V field has more features and is much more radio, however cost was $1800, on sale, and that price only included the radio.
For $1154, I decided to choose the FT 920, which included the FM board, AM filter, SP 8 speaker, and MDX 100 desk mike.
The FT 920, for me, is very fun to operate, easy to maneuver, pleasant to listen to, has a superb notch filter, obtains excellent transmit audio reports and the receiver pulls out the weak signals. The AF-DSP does work good, but is a bit touchy and takes a little getting use to.What else do you want for that kind of money? |
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| N2MTM |
Rating:      |
2003-01-06 | |
| Exellent radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I get my FT 920 from second hand and the ham that get before me just used for less the 4 hours.Whe the box came to my i was expecting a little radio, whe i opened WOWWWW, real nice , i had used the FT 890, TS 450, TS 520 , but the king is FT 920 super quite front end , MONI fuction( nice ) equalizer, Antenna tuner, CW keyer building, Nice display.For me is a winner, some ham ask me if i'm using a FT 1000 or Icom pro serie and just say that is a FT 920.
I recomned this radio.Pund by dollars is a winner. |
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| AA4XR |
Rating:   |
2003-01-04 | |
| Not for me! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Did I get my hands on a bad one?
Without a doubt one of the worst high-end radios I've ever played with. This was a NEW unit that I op'd while in Thailand and the DSP was, at best, questionable, and the rx front end was in a constant state of overload. For general, or casual, operating this may be your cup of tea but from a DX standpoint of trying to sort out calls in a pile-up it failed miserably.
It has some nice features and is generally a good piece of equipment but the reciever leaves much to be desired. |
|
| N8TEV |
Rating:      |
2002-12-18 | |
| Great radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Well so far it's been a week since I purchased the Ft-920 and what can I say but awesome. I took a little trip down to A.E.S in milwaukee and purchased it, I got the radio, Sp8, am filter, fm board and the MD-100 Mike not at a bad price either. The recieve on the radio is good and transmit quality with the MD-100 has given me great results. I have been running a ft-840 for the past 7 years or so and it is a good rig, but nothing compared to the 920. This Radio is well built and the fm board and am filter were a breeze to install, all you have to do is plug them in. All of my radios that I have are Yaesu and none of them have ever given me a problem. I'm still trying to figure out the controls of the rig so maybe in the future i can give a little better review...73's Eric N8TEV |
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| KG4GLI |
Rating:      |
2002-12-17 | |
| A great Rig at a great Price. KG4GLI |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I purchased my at R@L Electronics for 1,154.00 Which included the Sp8,AM Filter,FM Unit,and MD100 8x mic. I was really impressed with the rig right off the box. I have owned many Yaesu Rigs and they have all been great. I have also owned Kenwood ts 570,690, Icom 756, Yaesu 847, and 840. All have been very good rigs but I feel that Yaesu has the best recieve compared to the other rigs. The Icom filtering is very good. and Kenwood FM band is very good. But over all the Yaesu rigs seem to be the best all around.The 920 gets very good audio reports with the goldline 4 mic, or the 100md. So if you want a great rig at a great price do not let the 920 pass by. You will not regret it. |
|
| KC8TLF |
Rating:      |
2002-11-25 | |
| Great radio! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I've owned mine for about four months now. I've been pleased and impressed with it since day one. Great to look at, pleasing to operate, and easy to use. The audio is very pleasing to me. I use the dsp all the time though. I think the last review pretty much said it though. |
|
| KG6AMW |
Rating:      |
2002-11-18 | |
| Quite Good |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I was interested in purchasing a mid priced rig that offered decent performance while keeping the price under $1500. I acquired the Yaesu 920 in December 2001. Since this time, I’ve operated the radio almost everyday and put about 300 QSLs on it. So here’s my story. The 920 shares very similar receiver architecture with the Yaesu 1000 series consisting of multiple JFETS,monolithic crystal filters combined with an eleven bandpass filters. The rig offers enough features to satisfy most users. The rig is limited in the area of optional filters besides the standard 2.4kHz, doesn’t offer the dual receive found in the 1000 series but does however offer an twin TX/RX SO-239 jacks along with a receive only RCA jack which offers the user some interesting options for receive only antennas. Here is a general summary of features.
DSP AF
Digital Voice Yes
Tuner Yes
Notch filter Yes
2.0 filter (option) No
Audio Monitor Yes (IF)
Dual VFO knobs Yes
Looking at ARRL receiver performance, the 920 stands up quite well to mid and high priced rigs. Numbers are reported in dBm taken at 14Mhz. The noise blanker works quite well. It has a variable setting and will eliminate all but the most obnoxious impulse types noises. The rig’s DSP chip is made by NEC (ID77016 16 bit chip), and operates in the audio stage. When you read this, you assume this limits DSP performance but it doesn’t seem too. The operation is fast enough so that performance does not suffer. Noise Reduction is good and has less of the rain barrel effect that I’ve heard elsewhere. It does quiet down background noise with just moderate distortion. Notch Filter is excellent. Its automatic and not manual but effectively eliminates all carriers. The DSP passband function is good. It will totally eliminate nearby stations greater than 1.5KHz away. Less than this, then you can still hear the station. The rig does not give you the option of selecting various crystal filter settings other than the 500 Hz CW filter option. You end up with a 2.4kHz main filter and the audio DSP function.
MDS 131.4
BDR 131.4
IMDDR 98
IP2 69
MDS (Minimum Discernible Signal)
BDR (Blocking Dynamic Range)
IMDDR 3rd Order (3rd order, two tone test)
IP2 This test shows receiver performance in the presence of multiple signals outside the band.
This rig is really quite nice to use. It has enough features that allows me to deal with most
situations quite nicely. You can listen to it for hours and not come away worn out. Its not the 1000MP Mark V or Pro II, but it performs almost as well and costs less than half the price of these other rigs. Its receiver performance numbers and features are good enough for the average non contester operator. I’ve listened to the Yaesu 1000 MP Mark V and the 920 receiver isn’t quite as good, but at the same time very close in performance. You could say almost too close, but the Mark V offers a variety of analogue/digital combinations where the 920 gives one standard format. If competitive contesting is not your life, then save the bucks and opt for the 920.
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|
| ZS6AN |
Rating:      |
2002-08-31 | |
| EXCELLENT |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I have just replaced my old and trusty Kenwood TS930SAT (relegated to standby position) with a new FT920. All I can say is WOW ! The radio is pleasing to look at, has an excellent receiver, an easy to understand menu and settings, and is excellent value for money. Reports received heap praise on the audio quality (although I guess the Heil Goldline GM5 does help). This radio is strongly recommended ! |
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