New rigs announced at Dayton from Yaesu and Kenwood - "The 160-4m SDRs have landed"

You make the mistake in assuming the manufacturers sell the radios we want. They don’t. They sell the radios they know will sell.

If that response was to me not an earlier poster. I never made that assumption. It’s a business - which is why I can’t see the justification of them adding 4 metre support. I’m happy they have - but I can’t see any business justification!

73 Ed.

Product differentiation and be seen as leading the market. Marketing 101.

That’s a good point, Ed. Are they doing it to see whether there are enough buyers interested in 4m that it creates an edge for them over the competition? Re the technical and design changes needed, I somehow suspect that the low pass filter used for 50 and 70 mhz is shared. If so, the effort of including the extra band is software only and a very small change that would be. It’s little more than adding another band edge entry in an internal (software) table to allow the rig to transmit in that band.

To be honest I am guessing, so anyone with the block diagram and design notes for the rig in front of them knows a lot more about it than I do. :slight_smile:

73 Andrew VK1DA/2UH

I think there is truth in that. But it also calls into question simplistic assumptions that the FT-818 will get better:

I think it’s a shame that so many people think what is missing from the FT-818 is SDR architecture; that misses the point drastically. And maybe the eventual replacement will have SDR architecture, but that doesn’t mean it will be better as an overall package. What also niggles me is the obsession with spectrum display; the KX2 and KX3 don’t have spectrum display, and their RX current consumption is about the lowest in their class, that would not be possible with full colour tft displays.
de OE6FEG / M0FEU
Matt

FT818 is very old FT-817ND radio with insignificant modifications.

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I agree with the colour display / waterfall thing - great for shack sets, but next to useless up a hill! (Ok, colour would be prettier :wink:)

I’d settle for a Yaesu version of the Xiegu X5105, at maybe up to 10 watts? Front mounted controls, the SDR filters from the X5105, plus the dsp and maybe DIGI mode capability built in? - with 2m ssb of course! :+1:

Not asking too much am I…? :grin:

Bob

FT818 is very old FT-817ND radio with insignificant modifications

^^^ This…

Bob

5105 RX current = ~650mA
817 RX current = ~450mA

450mA is far too much TBH.

Yet the 817 does have spectrum display! I know its there but I never use it, what would be the point?

The Spectrum Scope Monitor on the FT-817 is a joke from back in 2001, not a spectrum display :smile:

Not sure what they mean by “High-Q VC Tuning Front-End”. I am assuming it’s a tracking preselector like in the very high-end models (Hilberling, Kenwood TS-990S, Icom IC-7851 etc) and more recently the IC-7610 (also SDR and probably in the same price range as the FTdx-101D).

Also very curious if it’s 14-bit or 16-bit ADC.

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It is Iike using a VIC20 (prehistoric “computer” with a tape recorder for I/O and a UHF TV as a video monitor) for a spectrum display.
You’d be tempted to try to shoot the space invaders rather than try to talk to them!

I should have said IC7300 type colour TFT/waterfall/spectrum display, I tend to think of them as all one and the same these days. Personally, I think the LCD spectrum displays are little bit coarse; like you, I would never use them on the hill. They don’t really compare to the rich fluidity of HDSDR etc. The main point is, current drain matters, and big rich displays take a bigger chunk out of the RX current drain. As for the new rigs, I ask myself if ‘Choice of the World’s Top DXers’ still applies. Maybe at one time, but Elecraft and Icom must have taken a decent chunk out of Yaesu’s sales.
de OE6FEG / M0FEU
Matt