| W5JON |
Rating:  |
2004-10-20 | |
| An Easy "5" |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
After four months of operation I am still very impressed and pleased with the performance. Easily meets or exceeds the ICOM-756PRO on all the important receive performance features.
For either ragchew, DX, or contesting, it is a real pleasure to use. At first the "menu" is a bit of a pain, but after a little while it makes sense, as almost all the entries are set once and rarely done again anyway.
As I have a QRO-2500DX amp, I did not need the 200 watt version. The 120 watts from the "Field" is fine, as the amps only needs 40 watts to get 1500 watts. Besides the "Field" has a built in 12VDC/110VAC power supply, verses the external power supply required for the 200watts "non-Field".
Bottom line is I am very satisfied.
73,
John W5JON |
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| WB4VET |
Rating: |
2004-07-21 | |
| Top Choice!! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have read many reviews posted on eham.net evaluating the different transceivers. Most are honest evaluations relating the writers experiences with a rig, usually including his likes and dislikes. I am going to take a little different tack and relay my experiences with the Yaesu compared to other popular radios. During the past three months I have been lucky enough to operate the FT-1000MP Field, Kenwood TS-870S, TS-570D,TS-940,TS-840, Ten Tec Jupiter and Icom 756 ProII. While I wasn't able to operate them all side by side at one time,the time period to experience them all was about two months, consequently, the comparisons were fresh. They were attached to the same antenna systems which included a GAP Titan DX and basic dipoles, so they had to work to get the signals. All transmissions were barefoot at the highest rated outputfor the radio.
Each radio has it's own unique features which I don't have time to list, but I can say without hesitation that the Yaesu out performed the others in almost every important category. Sensitivity was superior to all including the Icom 756 ProII. The Yaesu was consistently able to penetrate QRM when the others could not be heard or were weak. The Yaesu got praises for it's audio in every instance. The other radios had their moments, but the Yaesu was consistent and never failed to perform. Lastly, none of the other radios had the ability to shape the incoming signal regardless of the situation as did the Yaesu. Noise or an adjoining signal could be eliminated or controled easily. The closest was the Icom 756 ProII followed by the Jupiter, but were lacking. The poor Kenwoods suffer from outdated technology but are still reasonable radios.
The bottom line is this, if you want the best bang for the buck in reception and transmission, the Yaesu is the only choice. I hope I get a chance to compare it the the much higher price radios. I doubt if they will justify the difference in price. |
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| KG4GLI |
Rating: |
2004-03-25 | |
| Best of the Best |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| This has got to be one of the best rigs that I have ever owned. It hears very well, the combination of filters and DSP are execellent. The rig has always got great Audio reports. I am running the Hiel Goldline Pro with no problems. I have a Berhering EQ but have not had to use it at all. The display is great I have no problems seeing any of the features. Not deem at all. The rig does 100 watts out with no problems even on AM or FM hit a repeater in Califorina from KY with ease. I just have the stock filters everone says the extra filter help the reciever even more. But for now I feel no need for them. All in All I would have to say great rig at a great price. Icom and Kenwood could learn from Yaesu. |
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| KT5X |
Rating: |
2004-03-21 | |
| key clicks |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
If you use on CW please fix the key clicks. See the inrad site for instructions and kit.
To get rid of the lcicks and thumps in the break-in, go to the menu for QSK, and slow it down from 5 ms to about 20 ms, and the noises go away. |
|
| K4CMD |
Rating: |
2004-03-19 | |
| "First light" review, to be updated after some months |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Okay my friends, don't harp on me too much ... I'm intentionally writing a "newbie" review of this radio so I can make some points about initial quality, etc., that I might forget about if I wait until I've owned the radio a year. Rest assured I intend to come back and make some future observations. Here goes ... six days with the "Mark-V FT-1000MP Field," as Yaesu calls it.
Having been the owner of five new Kenwood and two new Icom HF rigs over the last 20 years, I've only owned Yaesu mobile radios and HTs. I've never had a problem with any of them, and after seeing that all Kenwood could bring to the table in a "top-of-the-line" HF radio was the diminutive everything-box called the TS-2000, I had turned my sights to the Field and the IC-756ProII when I decided to buy myself a 25th-anniversary-in-the-hobby present. After two solid months of reading every review out there (even some in other languages!), playing with both rigs at every opportunity, and interviewing owners, combined with my experience in the fact that the two new Icom HF rigs I've ever bought (IC-735 and IC-746) both arrived home from HRO dead in the box -- and I had driven up there to buy them myself -- I decided to go with the Yaesu.
So far I am not disappointed.
Any misgivings that the radio is outdated and suffers from a dim display problem were dispelled on day one. Yaesu's seemingly correct melding of analog and digital filtering has made this one fine radio in close-in strong-signal situations, as I've already found (actually went looking for) on the bands. This is astonishingly apparent on 40 at night, when I can dig around the SW broadcasters for signals I couldn't ever have hoped to hear with my former radio, a TS-570S(G). I can't get over how well the IDBT feature allows you to "steer" around QRM and pick out the weaker signal with little degradation of the audio. And hey, I don't have any optional filters (yet)! For my style of operating I may not need any extra filters at all.
Yaesu apparently has fixed the dim-display issue some of you have mentioned. In fact, I can report that the early-production model Yaesu had at its booth at this particular hamfest had a display much dimmer than the one in my new model. In my shack at home, I have found the "HI" setting to be much too bright and the "LO" setting to be just right. The only time I've switched it to "HI" has been when sunlight is streaming through the window about two feet from the front of the radio.
After years of being impressed with Kenwood's packaging of its radios (double cartons, compared to Icom's small, flimsy one-boxed configuration), I was quite astounded to find the Field in not one or two, but THREE boxes nested inside one another, plus the usual styrofoam shell for the radio to sit in. Sure enough, my new radio had survived the trip from Japan intact. I was even more surprised to find a letter from Vertex USA in the top of my box, letting me know that they had inspected the radio after it came ashore in California. Nice touch.
The menu system really isn't as archaic as some have noted; there are only maybe a half-dozen of the 80 or so menus that I couldn't readily figure out the meaning of by just reading the display. (Yaesu does include a two-sided, laminated, 8-1/2x11 card with all the menu functions, explanations, defaults and page-number references to them.)
While we're on the subject of what Yaesu includes with the radio, let's add a nice, color world map for the shack wall, a couple of Yaesu decals, a nice hand mike with fully detachable cord (did you owners notice -- the coiled cord is plugged into, not permanently connected to, the bottom of the mike itself, using a modular plug under a rubber boot?), a heavy-duty AC cord, and a bag of plugs and fuses. And that last part -- the bag of plugs and fuses -- goes much further than the bag o' stuff Kenwood gives you. Included were plugs for EVERY jack on the back of the radio, even the speaker and key jacks! That little bag's gotta be worth $30 in Radio Shack terms. Again, Yaesu, I'm impressed.
The controls and ergonomics of the radio are first-rate. Everything is put together well, and quality is high. I speak after owning two Icom radios whose knobs wobbled and keypads bounced right out of the box. Nothing wobbles on the front of this radio, and every control feels very smooth. And it's nice to finally have a "man-sized" radio with enough heft to it (31 pounds) that you can actually plug in and unplug headphones and microphones without pulling the radio across the table as you do so.
So far the radio has done very well using the MD-100A8X desk mike I picked up with it and my G5RV at 35 feet in the backyard here in the Richmond, VA area. In fact this rig's first real test -- a 17M pileup in the Canary Islands -- it passed on the fourth try.
I was concerned about all those DSP settings for mike equalization, combined with a similar array of controls on the underside of the MD-100 myself, but a good dozen on-air reports from hams both locally and as far away as Washington (state) have told me that it sounds very good with everything at the default settings. The on-board monitor confirmed these observations for myself.
Before I conclude this "installment" of my review, I must comment on the rig's usefulness in my other "half" of this hobby -- SWLing. The audio is very comfortable to listen to on AM, and the rig even has built-in AM Synchronous Detection to counter fading -- with a separate tuning meter just for this purpose.
In summary, I'm very pleased with my purchase, and am satisfied that my 8+ weeks of research paid off. To put icing on this cake, the "hamfest price" and current $50 Yaesu rebate made this gem of a radio actually cost less than the introductory price I paid for a TS-570D when they first came out in early 1997. For the price I call this a bargain, and the only reason I bought it instead of the non-Field version was so I could have DC capability for Field Day. So the radio's name rings true for me!
Top-notch rig, top-notch quality. A few months from now I'll let y'all know if "top-notch reliability" is a worthy edit!
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|
| KW9R |
Rating: |
2004-02-23 | |
| Great! Worth it! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
As of this writing, the the Orion has been on the market for almost 1 year. And I wanted one..bad. But working out the budget, there simply was no way. So, I reviewed the specs on several radios and guess what...the Field' numbers simply aren't bad compared to Ten Tec's top dawg. At the current Field's price, you gotta figure out how much a dB is worth..and to me, they ain't worth $1k to $1.5k!
Used the field this last weekend during the ARRL DX CW contest. Bottom line: if the sig was there, the Field dug it out.....everytime! And what a pleasure to listen to: the audio from this rig is great. The AGC thoug not programable is selectable. The EDSP filtering is super and adds to the selected filter (I have all filters installed). And the IF shift and width really work wonders and adjusting them doesn't result in "unpleasant" audio (IMHO). The transmiter and antenna tuner performed flawlessly through out the contest. Oh, I'm not serious a contester and made some excursions onto SSB. What fun! All reports on the audio quality were excellent.
Specifics: Yep, there are a lot of buttons. What the "modern" rigs do through menu's this one does with buttons. I love buttons:) Not that there aren't menus! There are gobs of menus. Plan on spending time your buddy "manual." The menus really tweak the rig to your individual taste. Are there "thumps and clicks in the headphones when keying CW? Yep, but I've monitored the rigs output and they aren't on the transmitted signal. And they are SO quiet in the headphones that they are only noticed if you're listening for them. They seem to be the result of blocking the audio amps while keying. Is the display weak? Not IMHO. I can read it fine. Is the display "old" technology. Suppose it is, but so what? The purpose of the display is to present information and it tells me everything about my current setting I need to know.
Bottom line: Would I recommend this radio. You bet. It was a top performer in it's hey-day and still is a top notch rig today, mixing "new" and "old" technologies to give great performance. And with the money you save, you can afford to take the XYL out to dinner frequently and maybe she'll forgive "another radio for that weird hobby of yours!"
--KW9R |
|
| DM7IC |
Rating: |
2004-02-06 | |
| GREAT |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
The following Product Review bases on the Experience I made on Air with the above named Radio.
TX and RX:
VERY BEST TX AUDIO ! Marvelous; "..like the Audio of 2m FM Station". I get that compliment often :-)) RX is sensitv and quiet, the fundament for a DX QSO (if you cant hear them, you cant work them).
EDSP:
With active Preselector, the QRM level drops appreciable (at an average of 3 S-units on 40m SSB at evenings).
With active IDBT it is easy to cut of the splatter of stations who come to close to the frequency. Best N.R. Position for me is A with IDBT on: I can hear the QRM dissapearing and a very weak DX Signal becomes readable. I made that experience many times on air.
The HF notch is indispensable: Over here in Europe sometimes we get Expressions of french feelings on 40m in a way those Gentlemen put a strong CW tone on the Frequncy where we have a QSO. With the HF noth I can reduce then the french carrier and after that its possible for me to speak with my friends. HF notch works very effective.
A Problem is the CW Section. With every keying there appears a click in the speaker. I am happy there is no keyclick audible on the TX signal. Whatsoever I dont work much in CW.
The N.R. makes a strong SSB Signal diffucult to read but there is no need for N.R. on a strong signal. What are the contour Filters realy for ?
73 de DM7IC |
|
| G3CWI |
Rating: |
2004-02-05 | |
| Disappointing |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
A few contest down the line and the shortcomings of the FT-1000MP MkV Field are starting to annoy me. I have written a review at:
http://www.qsl.net/g3cwi/ft-1000mp_mkv_field.htm
73
Richard
G3CWI
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Earlier 4-star review posted by G3CWI on 2004-01-09
I'm on my second Field as the first one failed after a few hours use. The second one has been fine though. There are some disappointments with it for me:
Clunky QSK with clicks and thumps
Received AF quality not really the best
Poor ergonomics of DSP CW filters (have to cycle through the lot to get back to wider filter)
Over reliance on DSP to mask some mediocre filter performance and IF noise
Why have Yaesu yet to realise that people have computers to do the keying and paddles too (both key sockets connect through to the internal keyer if it is switched on)?
That being said there are a great many good points too. I use mine for some propagation experiments and the stability is simply superb (I need milliHertz stability) even with the standard TCXO. The price makes this radio an excellent "value for money" purchase.
----------------------
Earlier 3-star review posted by G3CWI on 2003-10-05
Seemed good but on day 6 from new the main RX dropped in sensitivity by 20dB. The external ALC input was also faulty. It's now back with Yaesu for repairs - someting my previous ICOM gear never needed.
Chose the MkV Field after considering the ICOM 756 Pro 2 - hope I made a good choice. |
|
| N2QLW |
Rating: |
2004-01-14 | |
| Great radio!!! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| Great radio!!! Worked the radio for 12 Hrs straight @ 100 watts during tx without a hint of overheating!!! Excellent on rx also. I Love the built in powersupply. One less object to take up space on my desk... Could not find a radio with similar features and at the same price range as this radio. ICOM and Kenwood have a lot to learn from Yaesu. Keep up the good work Yaesu!!! |
|
| W7KKK |
Rating: |
2003-12-28 | |
| Great Value! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I have had this unit for several months now. It replaces my IC-746. Compared to the 746 the Field is much more complex to learn and operate to achieve optimum results but the time is well worth it. Is it really fair to compare the 746 to the Field? Maybe not.
The Field, in my opinion, is far and above a better radio right out of the box. The abilities of the receiver really shine, even with the stock filters and such as you purchase the radio.
The built in AC power supply to me is a bonus while still having DC power capabilities. I did not like the separate power supply of the 200 watt big brother, and I have an amp I rarely use anyway.
It seemed that so many contesters (which I am not into) that I know used the MP series that I thought I should give it a try. And at this point I can say I am glad that I did. The Field is just a few more dollars than the 746 series, but well worth it. And ICOM had only the 756 PRO II that sells for as much or more than the full 200 watt MP.
At the current market price of around $1700, I think the Field is tough to beat.
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