The first indications of price are out. MLS says deliveries are expected April and their price £599.95. From the specs provided by MLS it uses a NiMH battery pack, 6W RF (big deal), superhet RX and no mention of DSP or speech compression. Either MLS don't know much or these features are absent.
Are Yaesu getting desperate? Reading what is published, this a seriously unimpressive radio. I very much hope there is more - a lot more or this will bomb and Yaesu too.
There is so much riding on this and all Yaesu can do is provide a minor upgrade to a transceiver that is 18 years old? Yaesu, please get real! Look at your competitors!
Honestly, I am seriously under-whelmed.
See https://www.hamradio.co.uk/ .
See also: http://qrznow.com/yaesu-ft-818-6w-hfvhfuhf-all-mode-portable-transceiver/
Personally it's not got me out of bed.
ReplyDeleteAnything else exciting?
Zzzzzz
73 Steve
Agreed, it's unimpressive.
ReplyDeleteThe initial FCC specs said 10W (not 6). Only 2W on AM? No ATU or SWR metre, either? No mention of CW filters.
For HF, the CommRadio CTX-10 is much better. 20W, ATU, 2600mAH battery, RX pre-selectors, CW filter down to 500 Hz. This is what I'm looking at.
With all of the new satellites, there *is* a demand for a portable VHF/UHF SSB rig. I could see doing something like this for those bands, adding an internal TNC for packet. For half the price, of course. There's your next million, Roger.