FT-2000

This might just be the right radio. After rekindling my interest at Hamvention and the recent fix Yaesu did with the firmware, this looks like a good radio now.

It seems there are a lot of people that are really put off by Yaesu's lack of support until now, so I can see where the dissatisfaction would be. Also, since Motorolla bought a controlling share of Vertex Standard (the parent company of Yaesu), and surely not for the Amateur line, there is concern of future support for their Amateur radios.

No company is perfect, and there surely is no such thing as a perfect radio. However, there seem to be a lot of people that are really pleased with how Yaesu upgraded the firmware. I am sure there will be some more improvements over time as well. For what it is, the FT-2000 seems to be a "good" radio, not perfect, but good.

One point I would like to bring up, again, is the fact that this IS NOT a $10,000 radio. Yeah there are better radios than an FT-2000 out there, but I challenge you to find a radio that has the features that the FT-2000 has (or provisions of - DMU), along with the size and feel of a base radio, that costs less than $2500. In fact, find me a radio that costs less than $7000 that satisfies those requirements (I am thinking of an IC-7700 here, the TT Orion II isn't in the "feel" ballgame). Until another radio comes out on the market, there just is no other option that comes close to this (as a full-featured quality base radio) in the price class it competes in. That's all there is to it. I have a feeling that, any way you slice it, the FT-2000 WILL BE BETTER than my TS-2000. I can get in to the base radio scene without stepping in to the major leagues.

I have noticed, more so in the past than now though you still see it happening, that there are a lot of these radios on the used market. People buy them as an addition to a mega station they already have and find they don't like the FT-2000 the moment they plug it in because of its "quarks". They end up boxing it right back up and selling it. The radios are, for all intensive purposes, brand new (maybe a month old), never been off of a desk (too big for most portable operations), and probably still have the plastic over the display. For what they go for on the used market I could get the rig, data management unit, and a display screen for what the radio itself costs new, maybe less, and in the same condition I would get if I went to the store and bought brand new.

After looking through the classifieds online I found the 10-15 year old FT-1000D (the precursor to the 2000) is worth more than a new, less than a month old, FT-2000. What's up with that? I think it reinforces the used value - you get a big bang for your buck.

I would really like to sit and play with one of these radios on the air. It's one thing to tune around at Hamvention, but taking the time to learn the radio and, hopefully, do a direct A/B comparison between it and my TS-2000 would be more valuable than any 5 minute tune around 20m at Hamvention. Since Universal Radio won't open one up for me (I've been there and tried HI, and I've been buying radios there for 10 years) I'll have to go somewhere else. If any of you have one you would allow a sit-and-play session on, let me know! I won't be buying one any time soon, so no rush.