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Reviews For: Yaesu FT-2000/2000D

Category: Transceivers: HF Amateur HF+6M+VHF+UHF models - non QRP <5W

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FT-2000/2000D
Reviews: 204MSRP: 2.995
Description:
HF/VHF-Transceiver (160 - 6 m) with 100 Watt output or 200 Watt with external power supply. Successor of the very popular FT-1000MP (Mark-V/Field). RF and LF scope. High dynamic range front end. 6 KHz and 12 KHz Roofing Filters. IF-DSP. Sub receiver.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.yaesu.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
002044.4
G0KSC Rating: 2008-07-07
Fantastic, no other word for it Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Firstly, I would like to say what ashame it is that people do not provide accurate reviews. In the many negative comments about the FT2000 the reviewer then references how great the IC756 is. Within the IC756 reviews, the same is so only this time, the FT2000 is much better.

If you are a 'Yaesu Man' or an 'Icom Man' say so and don't slate for the sack of slatting! That's my 2 cents worth out of the way.

The rig. I AM a Yaesu man and have owned exclusivley Yaesu radios for around 10 years. However, I wanted to look at both the Icom IC756 and the FT2000 objectively and establish the one to go for. In the end I chose the FT2000 for 2 reasons.
Fristly, I love Yaesu and as I said above, I have been very happy in the 8 years of ownership of my FT1000MP and second, the negative comments I read about having to read the manual with the FT2000 is what swung it for me.

When I bought the FT1000MP, it was the first ever piece of equipment I have bought that I had to read the manual to get it to work at all. A bad thing? I don't think so.

Radio hams have been building and setting up equipmentof their own for many years. I have built basci CW tranmitters and had great pleasure working around Europe with a few dollars worth of components and a piece of wire. with modern day technology, a lot of that experience has gone and been lost and for me, setting up the FT1000MP for the best audio quality for MY voice and receiving reports of 'BBC Quality audio' was the next best thing.

Having the ability to fine tune all areas of the radio, making mistakes and correcting them and perhaps taking months to do it is in my opinion, part of this hobby and one of the most satisfying and gratifying experiences once it has been acheived.

The FT2000 is not what I expected. I was thinking I was going to get an FT1000MP with 50mhz and a few extra buttons. This is not the case. the DSP capabilities are amazing. I have spent the day finding weak signals and adjusting the filtering to staggering effect. I really felt I was going to needto buy CW filters until I saw how shape and crisp the filters were and just how adjustable they are too.

Compared to the FT1000MP and the FT847 I have here, the FT2000 is streets ahead in everything it does, even the feel of the maintuning knob.

I have a lot of playing to do yet and have not even considered pressing the PTT yet but one thing is for certain, this is a fabulous radio I am going to enjoy for a long time.

Is it better than the IC 756 or others? I do not know but one thing I do now is this. If any other radio in this class comes close, the respective owner/operators will be very very happy indeed.

If you are a yaesu man at heart? Buy it, you will have a smile on your face until your cheeks hurt!

Justin G0KSC
KC8YTY Rating: 2008-06-21
Top Of the line Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Let me start off saying radio is not mit for people who just got there license, alot alot to this radio....Radio is wonderful. Like the in band dual receive great for dxing! Really like the analog meter for the main receiver, and digital for the sub. ATu is alittle picky, but is very good. Dsp is wonderful! Like the micrpohone eq. Got the yaesu 100-md mic. Sounds great! Radio is very hot on audio My mic gain is set very low. I'm very soft spoken person. The radio really gives my voice an up lift. So if you get one turn the mic gain down. An nothing beats the display on the radio, very colorful, beautiful!
W6PSA Rating: 2008-06-17
review with DMU-2000 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The FT-2000 is not for beginners, unless you are a good technical thinker. Some radio designers handle operators with kid-gloves and remove technical feature that are useful. I have one of the first FT-2000 built, in my opinion, think the negative reviews are from lack of understanding (don't take offense please). Example: The DNF feature does work, use it next time someone is tuning-up on top of you.

I just bought the DMU2000 and wish I would have bought it ALONG time ago. I have owned the radio for over a year now and agree that it is a great radio with a lot of features. After all the frustration of the learning curve, I believe that buying the DMU a year ago would have saved me from a lot of headaches and increased my understanding of the radio through a visual representation.

Negative: I don't like that the DMU's controls are used on the small function buttons, on the face of the FT-2000, but buying the FH-2 keypad should fix that.

PS: Would you rather watch the band-scope on a 19in. LCD flat screen (FT-2000 w/DMU), or on a small 9in. screen (other radios). Personally, I spend more time in front of my computer and not staring down the face of the radio. I recommend buying a KVM switch from your local computer store, so you can share your computer monitor/keyboard between the DMU-Unit and your computer (save money). I hope this review was helpful.

73,
W6PSA

Overall a great radio!!!
W4LGH Rating: 2008-06-15
Great Radio Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have had my FT2K for almost a year now. With each firmware update it got better. Now we are waiting on a MAJOR firmware update, and I bet its going to fix the few little bugs left in the radio. None of them you can't live with or work around, however I am excited to see what it does.
Personally I would like to see the DSP Noise reduction work a little smoother. So I guess we will have to wait and see what the August release brings us.

Great radio, not a good choice for the non-technical ham, as it requires a large learning curve, and NOT a plug and play radio. But for those who really enjoy digging into it, its a JOY!

2E1RDX Rating: 2008-06-05
Excellent once set up Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have now bought a FT-2000 and first impressions were ok but that it was a very noisy receiver
I have kept playing for the past 4 days and have now sorted the beast out
as in many of the modern radio's I have tried poor basic factory settings make a great radio less than great !!! the received audio is now close to the SDR-1000 which believe me is something special I have been into the menu settings for the dsp and improved things drastically and have learned that you need to keep playing with VRF,NOTCH,DNF,CONTOUR,and DNR after 2 days constant use I have learned what needs to be where and that was not easy to sort but now I have it done it's a different radio to the one I bought 4 days ago ??? I have only scratched the surface but have improved the receiver more than I thought was possible when i first played with the radio and I am sure the same applies for all other settings I have played for only 5 minutes with the Transmit side and the possibilities are amazing so now I understand when people say read, read, read, and get stuck into the menu set up as if you don't you will have a very average radio !!!!
Here are the most important menu settings

for TX with standard mic and no processor mic gain at 12 oclock and the switch on the back of the mic on tone 1
menu 123=100
124=5
125=3
126=1500
127=10
128=5
129=3200
130=10
131=1
this will give excellent crisp audio

now for receive on ssb I use

menu 084= -110
085= -40
090= -15
091= 6
092= narrow
093= sharp
102= sharp
103= gentle
104= 2250
with these settings combined with contour on tuned for best result notch on tuned to the right of center line dnf on and width and shift adjusted for best results I am very happy with the receiver set like this it will at least give a decent setting to start and you may need to alter other menu's to get it better good luck
my thanks to Jim M0HDX for his help setting the TX audio up and may I also Thank Tim M3SDE/2E0SDE/ZK1SDE for his help and information which he gives with great enthusiasm as this helped greatly
AB3CX Rating: 2008-06-02
Fine Radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This radio just took me to a 1.5 million point performance in the CQ WPX CW contest. The DSP works great; as has been noted on the Yahoo Group for the FT-2000, the DSP should be set via the menu for peaking, not nulling which is the default. There has been alot written on optimizing the AGC setting is the menu which solve the problems. I ran the contest with the RF gain at full, 400 hertz CW digital filter, and contour peaking fairly sharp, never had an issue in 30 hours of operating. The receive is very selective, not prone to overloading or to weak signal suppression by adjacent strong signals. Study the manual and talk to some of the happy users about optimizing the radio menu settings. Those using the digital notch in CW mode need to re read the manual, it only works in SSB, as the receiver has no way to decide which carrier is to be notched in CW. The memory keyer and sequential serial number increment function are very handy in relieving contest fatigue, and encouraged me to send CQ more frequently which was a good thing to do!
K6GAK Rating: 2008-06-02
For the experienced amateur and serious DXer or contestor Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Prior to switching to the FT-2000, I used an FT-1000MP, Mark V for about six years. That was a great rig, but it falls behind the FT-2000. Here are the things I like about it:

Great ergonomic design.
It's firmware is easily upgradable.
It doesn't need $700 worth of crystal filters.
The receiver is outstanding.
The noise reduction featurs are excellent.
It's a great CW rig.
It's extensively adjustable through a comprehensive menu system.
It has every feature that a modern transceiver should offer at a reasonable price.
Excellent customer service from Yaesu.

I follow the postings on the Yahoo reflector groups and am aware of the "problems" that are mentioned there. Personally, I haven't experienced any problems. A lot of them seem to come from the inexperience of the owner and other misgivings relate to the quest for theoritical perfection. Is the 2000 perfect? No. Is it easy to learn to operate? Not very. Would it be a good first rig for a new amateur? Absolutely not! Is it one of the best transceivers for the price available on the present market? You bet!

It's interesting to me that the tinkering instinct of quite a few amateurs leads them to attempt home brew "improvements" of the 2000's performance. Personally, I'll leave that to Yaesu and keep my warrantee intact.

If you're looking for a terrific rig in the medium price range and know your way around amateur radio and computers, I recommend the FT-2000. Otherwise, a more basic rig would be a better choice.
K9RQ Rating: 2008-05-21
Good but not best buy for the money Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've had a chance to put this rig through its paces, and it is a very very good radio. My only problem is that I don't see anything here that makes it worth $1000 more than my Kenwood TS 2000. Still, this 2000 is a terrific radio for those who don't mind the cost.
W2JVP Rating: 2008-05-07
GREAT Transceiver!!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Won't bore you with tech stuff. Unbeleivable receiver. Great transmitter with broadcast quality audio. The receiver right out of the box is great, the extras only enhance signals. The transmitt audio EQ menu taylors the audio to your liking. Use headphones and the monitor button to adjust your audio. While DXing and on HF nets ragchewing I get nothing but great signal and audio reports. I can't beleive there are so many negative reviews. It is a rig for an experienced operator who knows how to read and experiment. Right out of the box I downloaded the newest software update and then started playing. The only thing I can say is 'READ THE MANUAL' thoroughly many times. The only complaint I have with Yaesu is they have terrible instruction manuals. If you want a fantastic HF transceiver for DXing, go for it.
73 de W2JVP, Frank
MI3DBB Rating: 2008-04-25
Could do better Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I owned this radio for 6 months... and have encountered most or all the usual problems already stated in other reviews here so I won't bore you with the same old same... I've had enough with testing for Mr. Yaesu and have sold mine and bought an Icom IC 756 Pro 3 which I feel does exactly what it should for the same money and is proper finished.