30 Oct 2024

Yaesu FTX-1F all mode, all band QRP transceiver

When this was announced at the Tokyo Ham Fair some months ago, there was a lot of hype, but little news. 

It was expected "early 2025", but since then I have heard nothing further. Several dealers are accepting deposits, but I have heard no news about price or specs..

Does anyone know anything? 

It looks like Yaesu's answer to the FT817/818 series and the ICOM IC-705. Without the detailed specs and prices, it is hard to know how this will do. 

I imagine much of the software and hardware is based heavily on other Yaesu SDR transceivers to reduce development costs.

I hope the price is well below £1000 so it is competitive against many other products now around, especially as the Japanese Yen is far weaker than it was against the US dollar and UK pound.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Roger!

    What do we know already:
    1. All mode / all band - pretty much EU/UK version is also confirmed to have 70MHz band. There are rumours about 220MHz for US market.
    2. True dual receiver - this is highly expected for satellite use and as for now according to description should be possible.
    3. All fancy Yaesu stuff - 3DSS / 32 bit IF DSP with all features (SHIFT / WIDTH / NOTCH / CONTROUR / APF / DNR / NB)
    4. Two loudspeakers built in (NOT AESS system - or at least no info about that for now).
    5. Wires X compatibility.
    6. CAT control over USB including audio in/out and TX control. This suggests built in audio card.
    7. Optional ATU and Fan for cooling (FT8 operation).
    8. Also during Japan Fest brochure included information that radio is heavily based on components from FTDX series so we can expect similar quality.
    And that is pretty much it.

    What we do not know:
    1. Price (of course). 1000 Pound in my opinion is bit too low - we should expect rather 1200-1300 range. Also it depends if ATU will be separately or included in kit. On top of that this is a direct competition to IC-705 so we should expect radio to be in price range of IC-705 during it's release. I tried to ask one of radio distributors about price but nothing is known yet.
    2. 70MHz/220MHz - well as mentioned earlier it's "pretty much" confirmed but still need full clarification from Yaesu itself since there is no official note about that as for now. Personally for me (EU) it's highly expected to be better than IC-705 and have that 4m band included.
    3. Bluetooth / Wireless operation. There is absolutely no mention about that anywhere. It's highly expected since IC-705 can be operated almost fully via BT including PC connection, microphone connection, audio connection etc. Not including that in FTX-1F will be a huge drawback and somewhat a step backwards... especially when direct competitor have that and it is on market already for 4 years. This might be a factor to consider when deciding to get IC-705 or FTX-1F.

    Question marks:
    1. Heat dissipaton factor. On external power supply radio should provide 10W of output power. There will be external fan add-on for FT-8 operation and this raises question - why fan in not build in and why it is required at all with that little amount of power. This is concerning as operating during hot days might require additional cooling.
    2. Power efficency. 5760mah battery should provide 9 hours of operating under cycle 6/6/48 (which is assumed to be provided in seconds). Realisticly no one works in such strange duty cycle - we might expect much less operation time in real scenario. Also as per heat dissipation - it's unkown how radio will handle continuous operation or bit of "abusing" in pile up.

    And that's it - I guess nothing new in those information. I'm also waiting for updates about FTX-1F. Hopefully Yaesu will do it's homework as community expectations are very high.

    73 de SP9XE!

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