Continuing the discussion from Yaesu FTX-1F, a new QRP rig! (Part 1) - #100 by MI0PYN.
Previous discussions:
I think they moved manufacturing to the UAE. Swap one set of human rights abuses for another…
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I can only amateurly speculate it moved to UAE for both geopolitical as well as taxation reasons? Might be that they couldn’t relocate anywhere else because of the sanctions?
Is there any information about Lab599? Who are they? Their background etc?
Talking of relocating manufacturing, what was the story with the FT65? Some say Made in China, others say Made In Japan. Mine is the former. Has there been a teardown of both for comparison at all?
Back to the FTX, hopefully that will be put together well. Look at the three new RASPers, that FTM150 looks like Yaesu robbed the parts bin from the FTM500 for the big head unit.
My FT-65e is made in China, and performs way better than my Quangsh*** which is also made in China. Performance is more about the design/implementation than the country of origin…
…I’ve wondered whether it’s about purchase location - i.e. FT-65e vs FT-65r. Maybe someone can comment on where their recently purchased FT-65e or FT-65r was produced, and what country they purchased it from.
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Preliminary material about the FTX-1F, including pricing (
), still no news about availability, maybe they’re waiting for Hamvention.
[screenshots 1 of 2] (VE6LK: "Yaesu FTX-1F pricing released, no shipping dates …" - mastodon.hams.social)
[screenshots 2 of 2] (VE6LK: "Yaesu FTX-1F pricing released, no shipping dates …" - mastodon.hams.social)
credit VE6LK
- 100W amp is interesting, will it be compatible with other rigs?
- GPS and BT are optional add-ons, more money to be extracted from customers.
- separate antenna port for HF and V/UHF
- ATU bolt-on module is SO-239, weird choice
- 0.9A current draw on receive is crazy
- base rig + ATU is gonna cost $2150 at launch
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Thanks Carlo for the info @IU1KGS
The weight is a little high (I think more than a base IC-705?):
And the price is nuts. That is more than I paid for a new KX-2 from the USA. I think maybe more than a KX-3 would be with 2m? Although I accept this Yaesu does of course offer more bands than the KX-3 by default.
That current draw is almost as much as my FT-891!
Hopefully someone can get their hands on one soon and test it in the real world and tell us if it is worth the price…
73, Simon
The SOTA guys at Friedrichshafen (including me) will be queing up to get their hands on the demo model and try it out!
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Here we go, I guess it’s official: EU availability 13/06/2025
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‘Optima’ version here: FTX-1 Optima - 100W HF/50MHZ VHF UHF SDR Transceiver for £2069
Glad i bought a used KX2 with ATU the other day now and saved about a bag of sand. 
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Pretty sure that was the price I paid for my KX2 with ATU and internal battery charger in 2023 (+4 months lead time). These tiny QRP rigs are prohibitively expensive.
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Ha! I win. Well me and some others… I said the base price would be between £1500 & £1800.
YOLO as they say so perhaps I should just buy one. Except I’m going to look at buying a Summer car this afternoon… a BMW 640 convertible, pre-owned of course, and that may take a large chunk out of the toy funds. 
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Too much information missing for a buy-or-leave-it decision:
- What about 60m?
- What about 4m?
- What about a antenna tuner for the 100W PA? Has it got a TUN/LIN jack so I could use the mAT-30 which I got for my FT-891?
- Real Full-Duplex for Sat operation?
It might be a tempting state-of-the-art replacement for my FT817/FT-891 combo…, probably there will be some development of the price, or cashback after a while.
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Lack of it would be a very unusual choice.
They say UK only in the leaflet.
ML&S product page for the SPA-1 seems to hint that is built in, probably the usual 3:1 max mismatch.
The block diagram from the leaflet doesn’t seem to point in that direction, there is a sub receiver, but only one path for V/U.
No actually dual receive ability seems to exist, but I would think that full duplex would be thoroughly advertised, given the lack of capable equipment on the market.
I agree, but I can’t find anything about 60m in the leaflet, nor at WIMO’s website.
They say “UK amateur bands only” in the fine print, but nowhere else in the leaflet. 4m is permitted in HB9 as well, and If I spend that kind of money, I’d like to have it included without having to mess around with internal solder bridges or other widebanding stuff.
That’s why I’d like to use something real of which I know it’s properly working.
I fully agree, but the FT-5D was also advertised in a similar way, and then somebody showed me that you can receive VHF and UHF simultaneously, but the RX of one band gets muted once you transmit on the other one. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the FTX-1 behaves the same way.
That’s what I meant: The only feature documented in writing is “simultaneous receive”, not “simultaneous transmit/receive”…
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At 1700 UTC today, John Kruk of Yaesu USA will be live on YouTube with details on the new FTX-1F transceiver. Feel free to ask him anything.