28 May 2018

Is the Yaesu FT818 just a stop-gap?

Recently Yaesu introduced the successor to the hugely successful FT817. Like many, I was seriously underwhelmed: this was a huge disappointment. One could be forgiven for thinking this was more about Yaesu dealing with component obsolescence than meeting market needs.

Being charitable, perhaps Yaesu is working on a real FT817 successor with the features people really want. Less charitably, Yaesu is broke and trying to do developments on the cheap. I sincerely hope the former!

In recent times Yaesu seems to be drifting. I have owned lots of Yaesu rigs and it they are going to fail this would be a great pity.

4 comments:

G1KQH said...

I believe they will slowly drift to all designs of their models being SDR driven in the next few years or so.

I betting on it will be a five year progression.

Evolution has always been slow, look how long it took man to get from monkey to human don't despair!


73 Steve

Roger G3XBM said...

Steve, let's hope they see the light and thrive. I am seriously worried about Yaesu, who seem rudderless.

G1KQH said...

I think I would say that to Kenwood, they simply have lost the steering wheel?


Too be fair, you have got to plough such an amount into R & D, and is that sometimes viable? At the end of the day will the customer still buy your new product or bow to the competition?

My money is on India in the comming years overtaking even China.

73 Steve

Roger G3XBM said...

Steve, you could we be right. India is coming up fast.