| VK7JEM |
Rating:  |
2024-12-04 | |
| Great Bang for your buck |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
n-Picked up a used Non-D non-AT for a good price a few months ago and have been using it daily since.
Firstly Im a receiver man. Have owned many dozen top end kenwood Icom Drake Grundig receivers and still do. I have also owned a good few txers. SOome I keep some I move on quickly. THis is a keeper.
Its not a weak station DX digger or competition winner. Its a brilliant entry all rounder, for rag chews, cw and a dabbling in digital. Ideal first rig or for the "casual ham."
The receive audio is not up there with Drake R8 or Kenwood r5000, but its not terrible. External speaker helps a lot. And people I work have never commented on my tx audio (No wonderfuls... no horribles... just no worries 5/9) Its fine for an evenings radio play.
I also do a lot of swl and side by side with drake r8 or icom r75 (Now thats a radio with horrible audio) there is nothing one can hear that the others cant. Sometimes one might be a little clearer, but its subjective.
Big pluses, Love the memory grouping and alpha tagging, Has good IF dsp, nice big display, voice and cw memory play back (Record your cq, and just press a button to retransmit it) most functions 1 button. Feels very rugged and solid.
Minuses, showing its age and price, no waterfall type thing (but I have a few SDRs so dont miss it), uses serial not USB to talk to PC with limited functionality. no keypad for frequency entry. and the ergonomics are a bit clumsy at times.
Once you get used to all that.. i love it. |
|
| KB7ZNV |
Rating: |
2024-09-15 | |
| The FT-450AT seems to be an excellent rig. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| UPDATE: 09-2024.....I have had my FT-450AT for several years now. I am very happy with the purchase. For someone wanting a nice rig for not too much money, this fits the budget if you can a good used one. |
|
| K0RDS |
Rating: |
2024-09-15 | |
| Great Radio |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have owned the Yaesu FT-450 for several years and with the built in auto tuner it does a great job on the HF bands. I have never tried it on Six meters but have used it from full 100 watts out to as low as 5 watts and it can do a very good showing of what this radio will do. I use CW most of the time. It also does very good on SSB. Wish they still made this radio! I would love to buy another one for back up someday! 73, Dick, K0RDS |
|
| K5MGK |
Rating: |
2023-03-12 | |
| Long On Features and Short On Price |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought my FT-450AT earlier this year from an estate sale. The radio was new in the box and only used for testing by the ham who was handling the sale of the SK's ham gear. I have been using the new rig for over a month and have found it to be a great radio for the price (I paid $525 including shipping). After my first week or so of experimentation I found that the monitor feature was not working well for me to choose a mic equalizer setting. I had also found that the automatic tuner was too finnicky compared to my FT-991A's ATU. I had it attached to my external tuner, so I didn't use the internal tuner for the next couple of weeks. Then, I did a firmware update (it updated 60m memory channels) and reset the radio like the instructions said and both the internal tuner and the monitor feature both are working correctly now, yeah :o)
Over the period of several weeks, I have tried some digital modes, SSB phone, and listened to CW. For phone, I have played with the DSP features and found them easy to use and with some experimenting, I have found them useful. The first several DNR settings don't seem to have any affect on the noise level, but the last 5 or 6 are noticably quieter. For my hand mic, I use the default flat mic equalizer setting after monitoring myself with headphones. When I transmit, the output power seems up to snuff according to my external tuner's analog meter.
Setting the rig up with digital modes was not difficult as I use a similar setup with my G90. I bought a USB CAT cable and a split 6-pin data jack cable to plug into a the dongle USB soundcard at my computer. The digimodes worked without a problem. The only program I had a problem with was Winlink as it doesn't recognize the USB CAT cable connected to the FT-450. I use digital VOX on Winlink to bypass the CAT cable issue.
One nice feature that my FT-991A doesn't have is the ability to assign the C.S. button to a 10w carrier for tuning my external tuner. I haven't experimented yet with the memories, repeater settings (we don't have 10m repeaters near me) or with the RX/TX recording features.
As for using the menu system, I leave it on the extended longer menu option because I found the short menu not as useful. I have found that the included microphone is a condenser microphone and I prefer it to the optional dynamic MH-31 mic that comes with the FT-991A and the FT-450D models. I know at some point, those three mic buttons on the MH-31 would be useful to program. I wish the included MH-67 had those buttons, especially for transmitting the two pre-recorded message for POTA activations, etc.
The compact size of the radio is a real plus for taking portable and the internal speaker is loud and clear. I am glad I jumped at the chance to buy this rig! |
|
| VA3XQ |
Rating: |
2022-02-27 | |
| easy to operate |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| used mostly for digital. easy to use not much menu input needed and when there its set and forget. Very solid and a great receiver, actually better than most and i have used many. don't hesitate to try one. |
|
| G0JPF |
Rating: |
2022-02-14 | |
| Not for me... |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Has pretty good reciever, easy to operate, but the audio is terrible |
|
| NN2X |
Rating: |
2021-03-31 | |
| It works |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I got this radio as a "Loaner", for the used price nowadays of $500, you can't beat it...It does have Noise Reduction, which for me is a must..
Once you get around the menus, it is not all that complicated. I never owned a Yaesu, only Kenwood, so it took me a little to get around the knobs, so to speak
I had some fun getting this to work on digital modes, but all good..
All in all, you can't beat the functionality versus the price...
|
|
| KE7MU |
Rating: |
2019-07-07 | |
| Ok for small cheap radio |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I compared my ft897, came out in 2002, with my ft450, came out in 2007, with my ft891, came out in 2016 and my ft991A came out 2017, here are the results.
Easy to use ft450, least menus
Best DSP, all have draw backs
Ft897 & ft450 good but some noise
Ft891 good but doesn't reduce noise when station isn't present, blanker distorts SSB
Ft991 best but requires external audio amp to hear
Lowest cost ft891 $599 Sale
Highest cost ft991a $1199 Sale
Largest footprint tie Ft897 and ft991a, also both uhf and vhf.
After almost 20 years, I would have expected more and better performance differences rather than repackaging mediocre performing designs. After listening to ft1200 and ft3000, the have more knobs but same mediocre performance.
I understand if you spend more money you would expect better performance and defend your choices, but it is what it is!
----------------------
Earlier 4-star review posted by KE7MU on 2008-12-21
First let me say, I do not ridicule the radio because it has a small tuning dial, it's monochrome display, different power connector etc. In fact I do not have a problem with anything I could evaluate before the purchase. Hams that give radios a poor review on such things baffle me. Here are the
Pro's
1. DSP Filters are nice and work great.
2. DNR Dynamic Noise Reduction works great.
3. Mic EQ works good.
4. $635 delivered.
Con's
1. Noise blanker doesn't seem to work at all.
2. Not being able to use the tuning dial in AM mode is inconvenient.
3. SWR meter goes to max with an SWR of 2:1 as indicated on an external meter.
4. I couldn't get the notch filter to notch out hetrodynes on 40m.
5. Not being able to reprogram useless front panel buttons such as NB and Keyer should be addressed in future software upgrades.
So why did I give it a 4, it's all about features per $ invested. A hi-tech HF rig for a weeks pay, not bad. Of course if I could get an Orion, SDR5000 or K3 for a weeks pay, that is what I would have chosen.
|
|
| N7HO |
Rating: |
2019-02-18 | |
| My Favorite |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I got mine from a trade. I bought a FT-897D new and although it did everything it was supposed to, it was just the most boring radio I've ever owned. So an opportunity came up to trade with a friend for his used FT-450 (non-D/AT) + accessories, I jumped on the deal, and haven't regretted it a bit. I won't jump into details that are already covered here, but I will mention that I own a TS-940S/AT, an IC-781, and two IC-7200's, but this is the radio I prefer on my desk. The Icoms are good radios and I have no desire to part with them, but the little 450 is just fun to operate, and holds it's own against the 7200's. If you want an excellent "beginner" radio, I suggest the FT-450(D). |
|
| ZR1PJA |
Rating: |
2017-04-27 | |
| Great Practical Rig |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
The FT450 has proved itself over and over again. It has travelled in my hand luggage on many flights.
I have combined it with the LDG AT100 and works well together.
I have been able to setup a station quickly and easily in various locations with some very basic antenna systems that fit the location.
ThE DSP works well and able to isolate a signal very well.
Great display with large charaters and easy to use.
Changing the display colour is a bonus as I am partially colour blind.
The 450D has the advantage of the more visable fonts on the keys which is a big plus.
Highly recommended.
|
|
