Some of you are aware that I sprung for a new 50Mhz-HF radio. It is the
Yaesu FTDX-10.
Bottom-line first, if you are ready to spring for a new radio, buy the Yaesu FTDX-10! Yes that explanation point is intentional.
My
Kenwood TS-590s is a great radio. It is built like a tank and has never let me down. I do have to sell it as I have enough backup radios. I do not need another Faraday Queen.
I looked at the famed
Icom IC-7300 and almost pulled the trigger on this radio especially since many of the veterans here on
UP have one; However, the FTDX-10 is brand new technology. The IC-7300 came out in 2018.
All in all the TS-590s used is going for around $800-, IC-7300 around $1,100- and the FTDX is going for around $1,400.
A good friend who is a member of my local club knew I was going to pull the pin on the IC-7300. He sent me a few articles and asked me to read them. I did along with a few others I found on the interwize. Then my friend told me that he just pulled the trigger on the Yaesu FTDX-101MP, the big brother of the FTDX-10. He was at a
Ham Radio Outlet store near him and played with all radios in the new FTDX line. Bottom-line, he loved the FTDX101MP and bought it. Now this is a guy that owns a FLEX-6600 radio.
He went into great detail the differences between the FTDX-10 and FTDX-101MP and when you combined all features and benefits they were basically the same radio. The FTDX-101MP does put out 200 watts at the top end, which is nice and had a few extra filters for CW.
Bottom-line first, I have never used a radio like the FTDX-10. It is truly a Lamborghini vs. the good old Ford F150 Lariat in the TS-590s.
The filters in the FTDX-10 are amazing. I can block out 95% of ground noise and 90% of QRM from folks that are using a linear amplifier or who's TX is greater that 2800 Hz. Using the ATU (Automatic Tuner) I have been able to tune all of my antennas with ease. On a couple of my homebrew antennas, in some bands, I needed to use my PalStar manual tuner that lives in my shack.
When I purchased the radio I also purchased a
Heil PSE6 headset with boom mic with the PTT operated by a foot switch. The reports using the mic that came with the FTDX-10 were very good after fiddling around with the five different ways to dial in your mic. It was a long and laborious task though. With the help of a YouTube video put out by
N4HNH Radio I was able dial it in. But, I wanted to use my HEIL setup.
I went to the HEIL site and they had suggested starting points for earlier generation radios but nothing for the FTDX generation. I dropped HEIL an email and within 30-minutes I received a response. What I received was Bob Heil's settings from one of his FTDX radios to start with. Went into the menu setting and made the recommended adjustments. Did a couple QSO's and reports came back to my TXing as EXCELLENT. One good friend we saw at a radio club meeting last night commented how good I sounded.
Setting up for digital comms was a breeze. I just followed a friends recommendations and I was on the air in about 15-minutes. The reports back were "you are loud and TX's are clear as a bell". I have been on about a half dozen digital nets at this point and no issues at all.
Now some cons. It is not built like a F-150. My TS-590s is a tank. The chasie on the FTDX-10 seems a bit tinny. The manual that came with the FTDX-10 is poor. Obviously written for the Japanese market and not English. Oh well, I am use to that. Trial and error along with using the details acquired from other owners before me helped a lot.
The last con is, if you ever owned a Yaesu you will understand this... Yaesu in Japanese means 'menu's'. Now all SDR radio's have menu's but like on all Yaesu there are menu's inside of menu's. Oh, inside of menu's. LOL.
I have had the FTDX-10 for two weeks now. I am still learning and probably have only accessed about 50% of what all this radio will offer an operator. I will post follow-up's to this review. Stay tuned.
