| LX1AX |
Rating:  |
2005-02-28 | |
| Perfect |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I had bought the Mark V (new) in 2001 and have had no problems until now . Perfect Receiver and Transmitter . The second receiver is also good .
Very much possibilities for filtering QRM and QRN.I use it with the MD 200 deskmicrofone and I become very good audio reports .
It's a perfect transceiver and the price is also
not too expensive for such a good quality .
I would buy it again !
I only use it for SSB , because I'm not making other modes .
LX1AX ALAIN
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|
| W7IS |
Rating: |
2004-12-09 | |
| Great Performance |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I was lucky enough to have both the Mark V MP and the Field side by side for tests. I found the MP 200W rig had a slightly lower noise receiver and slightly better receiver sensitivity. As well as the 200W rig had a some what smoother full breakin cw operation. And that was with both rigs using factory default settings. After extensive on air tests I found neither rig suffered from key clicks on CW. So I am guessing Yaesu has either fixed the key clicks or reduced them to a very low level. The 200W did make it a little easier to work the weak signal DX stations. The only problem I had with either rig was a receiver failure on one of them. And that was fixed by Yaesu under warranty. They only had the rig in Calif service center for a few days and they shipped it back 2 day express. It turned out to a component failure in the tuner. Other than that, both of them have been great. The Mark V is probably the only truly Contest Grade rig being sold today. With the crystal filters providing great selectivity when the bands are filled with strong signals. I had a Kenwood Ts-870 here for a while but it suffered from strong signal overload and was worthless for contesting. I cant find any fault with the Mark V. Its one great rig for contesting or rag chewing in any mode of operation. Although you have to be very careful to ground your stations equipment well to prevent RFI feedback. After I upgraded the stations grounding and went to high quality Rg-8 coax, I can now operate at 1500W with no RFI problems. Frank W7is |
|
| N9ZM |
Rating: |
2004-12-02 | |
| Great Rig! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I bought my FT-1000MP Mark-V in October of 2003. After I bought I saw a lot of negative comments listed here. My first thought is what have you done. However, after owning the rig for over a year now, I have found it to be a great rig. With so many adjustments the learning cuve is steep. But once you figure things out you will love this radio. The IPO and IDBT functions are a great help on crowded bands. The dual receive is nice. 200 watts out is nice when I don't want to fire up the amp and need a little extra out of the rig. |
|
| N0AH |
Rating: |
2004-11-01 | |
| Lot's of FRUSTRATION |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Florescent light display comes on when it gets it's own mind to and the antenna auto tune is a nice looking button that tunes nothing. I have a MA5B Cushcraft Beam on for 20M tuned in the CW portion of the band but forget this rig's ability to tune it above 14.150MHz. Pooh. My Yaesu FT900's internal tuner can tun a tuna can on 160M so what happen here? Sub VFO controls are impossible for fat finger hams like me to access and my Icom 756Pro dual operation is child's play compared to the Mark V's cumbersome operation. Now what I like:
200 watts really is nice and does make a difference compared to my other 3 HF rigs in the shack. The NB is the best of all rigs and actually allows me to operate on the low bands but not every morning. For serious comparision, the 756Pro is not too far behind. Except for one noise source that the mark V wipes out. And thats all it takes, right?
So here is my bottom line opinion. If you want an easy radio to operate, avoid this rig. Go find a 756ProII, an earlier used model FT-900, or something with easy to push buttons. But if you are in it for the competitition, noise reduction, have a brain and some patients, you might actually like this rig once you figure out what does and does not work, and have 1-2 factory adjustments. In other words- save your money- QC is NOTHING at Yaesu.
If you want to see the antenna this rig can not tune up on 20M, go to qrz.com and look me up under N0AH. Again, it is a Cushcraft MA5B. Sad........................I wasted a lot of money on a rig over it's looks- Sounds like a lot of bad dates I've had- |
|
| PA7TWO |
Rating: |
2004-09-03 | |
| Some serious issues found after two weeks of usage. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have my FT1000MP MK “V” for two weeks now. Here are my findings compared to other rigs (KWD TS450/690/850), Icom IC706 MKI, II, Pro II, IC-7800, Yaesu FT897, 990) I played/owned/own with for extended periods of time:
What I do not like:
SWR metering in any other mode than CW is really poor. Light overshoot in segments on the display and useless SWR readings especially in SSB mode does not help to determine when to tune.
Manual says tune ones or twice on each band, reason is the 39 memory allocations for the tuner, which are not refreshed or overwritten. Manually, via the special button sequence during startup, you have to erase ALL user memories, and that includes some menu settings as well... These are in my opinion BIG flaws in the software of this rig.
The Sub RX. Not a real second stand-alone receiver, more a second VFO but very very limited. Murata filter is of a not expected quality and believe it or not, the optional filter slot can only be used for mode CW. There are multiple 455 SSB optional SSB filters available (Yaesu – Inrad), but the rig does not switch the filter in when I.E. SSB is used.
The Murata filter has a filter shape of a “pancake” and shall be replaced after the guarantee period at my end. Optional filters to replace the Murata have be soldered in with small lengths of coax, does not fit 1:1.
O yes, a next serious limitation is the frequency range that the Sub RX can differ from the Main RX. Do not think that you can listen to 10M on Main and 80M on Sub, which does not work!
TX frequency in split operation is not displayed when the PTT is pushed, but the rig only indicates the TX freq with a small red LED.
The RX frequency and power indicator stays in the main receiver display during split operation in TX mode.
Display readability during operation in sunlight. Boy I do like the display, its size, its style but readability could be much better. In sunlight the display is really hard to read.
What I do like:
The sound! (main receiver…) In SSB or CW, RX sound is crisp & clear, just like the KWD TS850+DSP100 combination.
Modulated audio is “okay”, although the Yaesu MD100 mic is barely able to produce enough input. (Not active mic). Perhaps I hookup my KWD MC-80 to the rig in the near future to do some comparisons.
The higher power output. 200 watts is really nice for local / dx qsos, I did not use my power amp (FL2100B) ever since I switched on this rig!
What I would like to be added in a future new model;
A spectrum display.
A real second independent RX.
A high quality filter in the Sub RX.
Final conclusion for now: After using this rig for a few weeks now, I really expected more quality of the flagship of Yaesu. Specially the SWR readings, the Sub RX filtering and memory allocations of the ATU are major flaws that should have been designed much better.
When I compare the radio to my Kenwood TS-850Sat+DSP100 combination, the basic receiver quality is equal. Certainly not substantially better. The Yaesu has more settings to tailor the audio (RX & TX) and that is what this radio makes so good. The radio has a higher “hiss” than the TS-850. The selectable width and shift, to fight the QRM, may be of help but up to now did not much for me. The auto Notch works fine and so does the VBR functionality in crowded band conditions. Optional SSB filters are not a “must have” but will add, in some conditions, better reduction of QRM. (in general, 2.0kHz bandwidth is too small for easy listening to SSB signals).
More in detail reports from my end after 6 month of use.
Kind regards and I hope to work some of you using my new rig,
Vy 73, de Kees – pa7two – m5two.
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|
| KY6R |
Rating: |
2004-07-23 | |
| Still Great |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| In the year I've owned this rig I haven't had one problem (knock on wood), and the 200 watts has been plenty to help me attain 5BDXCC and DXCC Challenge. Getting through the 3C0V, TO4E and other heavy duty pileups with 200 watts was relatively easy. I worked 100 on 80M last winter with "only" 200W - which might be the best DXCC work I've done. The only thing an amp would have done was help me get through the pileups a little faster - but I am patient and persevere, so that hasn't been a problem. The rig is MUCH better if you fill it with Inrad filters. |
|
| HB9DRI |
Rating: |
2004-07-23 | |
| A real QRM Killer |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
After read and test about the 756Pro2, TS-2000 and the Mark V Field I decide to buy the Mark V FT-1000MP. Installed yesterday and the big surprise is how the Radio KILL the noise and splaters, i live in Central Europe where the concentration of big German and Italian signals are strong (a lot of hams use more than 1kw), this high concentration of signals ( specially on 7 Mhz) put your receiver on the limit. I love the EDSP and the VFR to fight against this big signals, incredible Radio to pickup out of the noise the weak signals. I am so happy.
Only one bad point:
Is about the FP-29, after the Radio was installed I test the Antenna Tunner in all bands and I found a big RF feedback on 14 Mhz. The radio can not tune my Windom antena on 14 Mhz. After an hour of checking all the connections and test over the dummy load( over the dummy load no problems) I move accidentally the DC cable from the FP-29, and the problem is fix. The ATU start to work propely on 14 Mhz. When I change the position of this cable again the problem back.
Probably is somethings special linked with my antenna configuration (the short element of the windom is too close to the roof of my schak)but looks like the RF insolation on the FP-29 is poor, I fixed the problem installing Ferrite cores in each cable on both sides, Radio ans PS, and now the problem is not more present.
For the rest this is the best Radio i use in the las 20 years, more details and updates in the nexts weeks.
73 DX
Alex / HB9DRI |
|
| K9XK |
Rating: |
2004-05-13 | |
| Surprisingly Good |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have had a couple of FT-1000Ds recently and also have a '756 Pro II. One thing I always hated going back and forth between the Yeasu and the Icom is that the '756 seemed like a "toy" compared to the '1000D, with its smallness and silly cheap plastic buttons and tiny knobs. I wanted a radio like a 1000D but with some more modern features - mostly DSP-related. The Mark V fills the bill nicely, albeit with a little clumsiness.
I have owned every high-end HF rig out there but that did not prepare me for the way the Mark V does things. This is a rig whose manual you have to read. Then you have to play around with the rig. Then re-read the manual. Then play some more..and then...well, keep at it. You'll get the hang of it. For most of us, this stuff is fun.
A few highlights:
The Mark V really tries to combine IF and DSP filtering for maximum flexibility. In RX, basically you can set IF passband properties with the Shift and Width controls and then tell the DSP to "track" those using the IBDT function. Or you have very quick DSP "contours" you can set at the push of a button.
TX DSP features are less user-friendly versus the '756 Pro II or the TS-870 (the ultimate in simple use of DSP). There are a few different settings buried in the Mark V's cryptic menu system (which must be accessed by simultaneous pushes of two little widely separated buttons, as if it is something you will rarely use) But there is a lot of flexibility and you can go from Walter Winchell wannabe mode to obnoxious mode in seconds (or a few minutes).
The VRF function is a really cool feature that can quiet down out-of band "artifacts" as well as in-band noise as well.
Both the IBDT and VRF, in a very curious affront to human engineering, have their activation buttons located on the jog/shuttle ring. Besides the slight reduction in accessibility, this positioning is confusing because people would generally assume that one control stuck inside another establishes some relationship between them. Oh well, it's just a little nit I guess, that one forgets about after a month.
An improvement over the '1000D is that they did move often-used controls, such as the frequency exchange buttons and the Dual button, from the lower skirt (somewhere behind the big VFO knob) to the more prominent places on the front panel.
I like the big rubberized knobs.
A very nice touch is making the TX and RX LEDs for the Main and Sub receivers into buttons. This makes switching around in a contest or pileup a snap.
I think after most of the interesting baubles were engineered, they got "tired" toward the end and just stuck everything else under a panel on the top in the form of closely-spaced little "trim pots". But be careful in there since there is at least one trimmer that, if touched, will necessitate a little visit to Yaesu.
On the other hand, if they crammed all the stuff you want, like CW sidetone level and CW and SSB VOX delays on the front panel, we'd have people on here complaining that they cannot get their fat, tobacco-stained fingers on them, so I guess they needed to make a compromise.
They have a separate AF gain control for the Sub receiver and after being used to a RX "Balance" control and a single AF gain control on other rigs, I didn't like it. But two seconds later I remembered that I often would forget to move the Balance back all the way to the Main RX after going Dual. I am sure this is was common issue so Yeasu got smart and came up with that. You can reassign the Sub AF control back to a Balance control through the menuing system if you wish. Then you can have your friend operate your secretly reprogrammed rig and tell him that he is dumb because he can't operate the Sub AF properly.
All in all, they did a good job and have some innovative features. Aside from the lack of a band scope, the Yeasu is very competitive with all the hot ones out there.
BTW, I have seen some references to fan noise from the power supply. Mine is quiet. If I want fan noise I will turn on the PS-125 for my '756 Pro II. Now THAT is fan noise, boys and girls, so much so that there is a well-known mod to control it. |
|
| W2RJL |
Rating: |
2004-04-10 | |
| expected BETTER quality |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
first off, i see that some other people are having similiar problems with the MkV-200-watt model than the "Field" 100-watt model. I must also be one of the guys that got a radio that slipped by QC. And to those of you that have had no problems with your MkV's - then you got the radios that weren't made on Monday or Friday's... I have owned this radio for just about 11-months and a couple of weeks ago (Mar.31) the radio went back to Yaesu for the second time. First time it went back, because display failed - they replace main board with CPU on it or so they say. Second time, is now for what appears to be Auto-tuner problems - which should not have happened as I do not use the internal tuner, I use an external tuner (Palstar AT1500cv, see my review on that unit - I also run a Ameritron 811H with the rest). I use the Auto-tune once and that was just to ckeck it out and make sure that it was working. I am very unhappy with this so-called top-end radio. I like Yaesu and have been a loyal customer of their products. Also, I have owned several Yaesu radio from the cheap FT-840 to the earth station FT-847 and now just recently I purchased the FT-920 (see that review too)as a back-up when the MkV died the first time around and all these radios have performed without a problem so who would have thought that their "Big Daddy" radio, the MkV, would perform anyway differently! GUESS AGAIN! In baseball it's 3 strikes your out but not here with radios, it's 2 strikes and you can see it at a later date on ebay being auctioned off when I get the radio back.
Final: It's such a nice radio - what a shame on that QC dept. I never owned a Kenwood HF but there might be one in the future of this shack! |
|
| WB4M |
Rating: |
2004-04-01 | |
| A lot for the money |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I bought my Mark V in November of 2003, and it replaced a Yaesu FT-990.
I won't go into all the details of the previous 12 posts, but will say the main features I like about the rig are the dual receive and the 200-watt output.
I operate 99.99 percent digital and I use AFSK into the mic jack. With this rig, I am unable to use my narrow filters this way, with my FT-990 I could switch in 500 or 250hz filters regardless of mode. Memory selection and use was much easier on the 990 also. The Mark V manual could to a little better about explaining things, such as an amp hook up. Yaesu much assume we all use Yaesu solid state amps.
It is a fun rig with lots of features, but for ease of use, I'd just as soon have my old FT-990 back. |
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