www.ft-2000.com - FANTASTIC Resource

I just ran across the web site www.ft-2000.com. It is a site dedicated to the technical aspects of the radio - from audio and DSP settings to bugs and fixes. I am not sure why I never ran across it before, but just browsing the site I can see it is an extraordinary resource. Those that have the rig and have experienced bugs should review the bugs section, and if there is something you have information on that isn't posted then you can post something yourself.

I think it could be improved by having the topics sorted by categories rather than one after another. Other than that, the information is great.

FTdx-5000MP Feature Speculation

I got my December QST in yesterday's mail so I figured I would scan the ad on the inside of the back cover to see what I could see on the FTdx-5000MP. I don't know if everything is true or if it will have the capabilities mentioned below, it is just speculation based on what I can see. So here it goes!

It looks like the front panel is back lit with blue LED's - as is seen under the IPO and ATT buttons on the left and the oval buttons on the right for the sub VFO and DSP/filters. It could just be the lighting that makes it look like that, though. I would hope they back lit the panel. I think that is a great feature, I use it all the time on my TS-2000.

From looking at the block diagram on the screen and the filter controls on the right the rig has the Mu-Tune capability. Whether those are built in or options is to be determined. Also, looking at the blocks it appears that there are 5 roofing filter selections, as opposed to the 4 on the FTdx-9000's and FT-2000's. My guess is the same settings are still avalible - 15kc, 6kc, 3kc, and AUTO. What's the 5th one? 1kc? 500c? That would be nice if it was 500c for CW. Even down to 300c would be nice. However, down to 500c the DSP should be good enough to make the passband whatever the user wants without over loading. Now, how much it rings is the question. There aren't many radios (K3, TT O2) that have roofing filter capabilities down to 500c or so.

I like the indicator screens on the right. However, I think the sub VFO should be on the main screen where the rest of the data is.

Speaking of which - the block diagram for the sub is awesome too. It looks like the sub has selectable roofing filters also! Maybe it will support diversity RX. If Yaesu made the two RX's nearly identical I'm sure that's what they are going after. It also appears that the sub RX is independent of the main one - the sub is on 15m and the main is on 20m, they aren't on the same band. It also appears that the receivers have their own antenna selection - which would also support diversity RX.

The antenna selector shows 1-4 +RX so it has 4 main antenna inputs. That's an improvement over the FT-2000 with only 2 +1 RX only.

That's about it! I joined the Yahoo group for the radio (FTdx9000MP) and have heard there is a press release coming, maybe this week. So hopefully we will get more information on the rig soon.