| W5DXE |
Rating:  |
2013-10-10 | |
| Fantastic... But.... |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Fantastic radio. Can't say enough about it. And this coming from a life long Kenwood man. If only Yaesu could of done a better job on the OLEDs. Failure after a year is not acceptable for a rig that cost north of 5K. |
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| KG6YV |
Rating: |
2013-09-25 | |
| superb perfromance |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I go along with all the reviews that rate this unit's receiver as top notch. It is the best I have ever used. I operate both CW and SSB and find all the features well implemented, documented and all in superb operating ergonomics. My previous Yaesu was an FT-2000D and I can see where Yaesu learned a lot in the evolution to the FTDX 5000.
Yes, the SM5000 isn't a full function analyzer with a big screen but I am using an SDR-IQ for that function. This radio is very competitive with "anything" ICOM has and even against the TS-990 when you consider the price difference.
Oh, and for those who don't know Yaesu is now providing support for replacement displays if your OLED goes bad in or out of warranty. You pay shipping... That isn't bad either when you consider that ICOM does nothing for 7700 owners who lose their finals (I know of three hams with this problem) and that is a $1500.00 repair.
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| G3RCE |
Rating: |
2013-09-23 | |
| Superb performer |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
This is mainly to mention the recent update.
I mainly use cw and the latest September firmware update gives 4 separate settings for the APF audio peak filter which can really improve cw performance in difficult conditions.
It would be great if Elecraft would do something similar to improve the apf on the K3 and KX3, which are sadly lacking in comparison.
I agree that it would be an improvement if one could select a 1.8KHz roofing filter for ssb.
I think that this radio makes a superb base station.
73
Robert G3RCE
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| K4ELO |
Rating: |
2013-08-18 | |
| Excellent, but... |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
A very good rig with some exceptions like the weak dsp and the oled problem. Otherwise, it would get a 5. Yaesu should really recall the radio and fix the oled problem on all of them at no charge, including shipping in both directions - this is a heavy radio.
A very good receiver, but not excellent. The 3K roofing filter is too wide for ssb qrm and the dsp is nearly useless to me. It does better on cw with tighter filters.
The auto notch filter and the noise reduction are very good. Effective and don't destroy the received audio quality.
I have done A/B comparisons with some other high end rigs. The summary is that the 5K holds it's own on weak signal reception but fails the test on ssb qrm rejection. They really need a tighter roofing filter and much better dsp.
I do like the design of the controls and the menu system. Yaesu got that stuff right.
So it's a keeper for me, but as a backup rig.
If you're curious about my main rig, send me an email. The address is good on qrz.
73
Wayne
K4ELO
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| WR3KI |
Rating: |
2013-07-21 | |
| OLED displays are defective |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Very good rig, however, for $5K+, Yaesu should stand behind the radio & repair defective OLED displays. On my rig, they have faded out & are USELESS/unreadable. For those who are unaware of this issue, the THREE displays on the right front panel fail & become unreadable. Others have found white lines appear in the OLED displays. This is NOT an isolated problem, but has been found in MANY FTDX-5K's My rig was manufactured in July 2011, & in two years I am looking of a repair bill plus shipping of several hundred bucks. OUCH. Until Yaesu steps up & does the right thing concerning this issue, I would not recommend this rig. |
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| AD4C2006 |
Rating: |
2013-06-24 | |
| A great performer |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
For almost six years I have been searching and buying high performance radios to compete with my lovely K3 without success,I have owned FT-950/FT-2000, IC7600, TT Orion II, TS-950SDX/TS-590,etc and none of them have proved me to be better performers than the K3 BUT finally the hunt for a better radio has come to the end.
I am a happy owner of a FTDX-5000MP fully loaded and after been using it for 3 days in all modes and bands I can tell that this big heavy radio is the bigger twin brother of my K3. They are very close each other in performance, I will tell here my first impressions of comparison between them.
RX sensitivity
There is no difference, both will receive same station equally with same meter reading and same clarity
RX noise floor
Although Sherwood lab table gave the 5000 a 3db less noise floor that the K3 I have not hear any difference at all.
RX SSB selectivity
Well I have to tell the truth, in this field the K3 is the winner,even the 5000 have a 3Khz roofer and a very well designed DSP, there is no way to notch out a strong station that be at 2Khz from your freq even using the shift. With the K3 and the use of the 1.8 Khz roofer plus the help of the notch knob, yes, you will be able to completely get rid of the QRM station 2 Khz away and have a clean freq.
RX NR
UPPSS! Here we go, the K3 NR is not good, I have never liked it, I have never used it, once you set the many modes of the NR to have the best result, the received audio will sound very robotic, you can't not avoy the artifacts of the digital processing at all, its anoying to hear a station sounding like within a cave at least for me is bad to hear it like that.
WOW Yaesu has designed the best noise reduction I have heard, this so called "DNR" is awsome, not only you will erase all the band noise but also the received station will sound so clear that it sound like been on FM, great results, I love it.!
NB
Both radios work the same, clean the noise and the audio is not distorded.
Notch
Both radios will cancel rapidly any carrier around your freq completely although I notice the K3 is faster doing the job.I like the small display on the 5000 that shows the freq of the notch that will help to locate rapidly the QRM carrier.
I can't tell anything about second receivers because my K3 has only one receiver but the second RX on this 5000 works as good as the main one and I like the way speakers and headphones are set to split them both.
VRF and Contour are tools that the K3 don't have to fight noise and QRM and that makes the 5000 slightly better than the K3.
RX audio
Both radios sound the same, I have not noticed any difference in audio quality.
I have not heard so far in any of these two radios any birds,chirps or any form of received intermod with or without the antenna.
One thing I noticed is how quite is the 5000 as the K3 as well, when I disconect the antena is a total silence even with the RF gain all the way up likewise the K3.
ok, now lets jump into the TX.
TX audio quality.
Using the same mic on both radios, the Heil PR-40 and setting the 3 parametric EQ I could get a very well smooth balanced audio from 80 to slightly over 3100Hz,I have the same result on my K3 BUT on the air the reports tell me the 5000 has a better audio response than the K3 and certainly I agree, I heard myself in the K3 and it sound pretty good.You can see both radios TX audio graphs on qrz under my call sign AD4C.
I like the fact of been able to drop the output power to 75W trough the class A switch which is very convenient not to overdrive my AL-82 amp.
Scopes
This my only dislike from the 5000 and I am sure you all who own this radio will agree, the top spectrum scope is almost useless, its lacking sensitivity, you won't be able to see signals below S9, with my K3 using the the P3 panadapter I am able to see weak signals between S3 and S6 easily and know how the band is. So I am keeping the scope on the 5000 off, no point to keep it running. I hope that Yaesu address this issue and someday maybe have a firmware update for us.
CW
WOW, I am impressed of how well the cw filters work like my K3 although I will have to be honest and tell that I notice still some ringing noise specially when using the DSP between 50 and 100 Hz bandwith, this will not happen in my K3 wich no matter how narrow the DSP be set it will have a clean audio without any ringing noise.
End of the story, both radios are handshacking in my desk and I will keep this 5000MP surely for long time. I will give it a 5 in spite of the scope not working as it should be.
Thanks to Yaesu for making a high end radio at an afordable price.
You all enjoy it as much as I am.
Hector
AD4C |
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| N0PQK |
Rating: |
2013-05-29 | |
| Amazing Radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
The receiver on this thing is fantastic. (Yeasu FT-5000MP)I dare say the best receiver I have every used on any radio.
The only down side is that SM-5000 is lagged 500 milliseconds to 1 second behind what is heard.
If I did not need the ±0.05ppm OCXO I would have gone with the base model and used an SDRIQ as a spectrum display.
I like every thing else about this radio. |
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| K9PLK |
Rating: |
2013-04-11 | |
| CW HA! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I saw som ratings here about cw for this rig ! Well lets start by saying if you bought this rig for just cw your nuts! This rig has the best ssb receiver I have ever heard! So if you think for a moment cw is where its all about then dont buy this rig! CW IS A DEAD ISSUE! |
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| K5ICW |
Rating: |
2013-01-21 | |
| Almost Perfect |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have had my Ftdx-5000MP for about two months. It has met all of my expectations.
I am exclusively a CW operator and have owned several top performance rigs in the past : TenTec Orion, Elecraft K3,
Icom IC-756Pro2, Yaesu Mark V, Yaesu FT2000.
I was surprised that I actually love the Yaesu Bandscope. I never realized how much it enriches the operating experience.
This Yaesu rig marries the Elecraft K3 performance with the " big rig" experience. Buttons and knobs instead of multi step menu operations. It is an expensive rig but it delivers the goods !!!
It is a joy to use !
Some have experienced intermediate artifacts in the two smaller OLED displays. I have not. Many who have experienced them say that the artifacts would not change their satisfaction with the rig. I hope that I am one of the lucky owners who never sees OLED artifacts. If I do... I still would buy the radio again.
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| IW9CTR |
Rating: |
2013-01-11 | |
| good ... but oled is wrong |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Good radio, but the problem is OLED display, is breaking after 2 mounths.
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