Product Review and Short Takes from QST Magazine March 2008 Product Reviews: Yaesu FT-950 HF and 6 Meter Transceiver Array Solutions AS-AYL-4 Receiving Antenna Short Takes: QSO Wizard: Mac OS X Amateur Radio Visual Aid Copyright © 2006 by the American Radio Relay League Inc. All rights reserved.
Key Measurements Summary product review Yaesu FT-950 HF and 6 Meter Transceiver 129 128 140 20 70 20 kHz Blocking Gain Compression (dB) 97 2 98 70 140 2 kHz Blocking Gain Compression (dB) 90 I3 95 20 50 110 20 kHz 3rd-Order Dynamic Range (dB) I3 2 Reviewed by Norm Fusaro, W3IZ Assistant Manager, Membership and Volunteer Programs Department Before the official opening of the JARL Ham Fair in August 2007, hidden under a black veil, Yaesu’s latest player in the mid priced transceiver market w
are sturdy with the front adjustable, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding a comfortable operating position. In order to offer a transceiver with all of the superb features that are found in the bigger rigs, cost had to be cut somewhere on the FT-950 without sacrificing operation.
µ-Tune units. The operator simply presses one of the buttons to choose which function to control and then presses the SELECT knob to activate or deactivate the selected feature. Turning the knob makes the adjustments. All settings are retained when moving from feature to feature and can be recalled. An improved feature not found on the big rigs is the CLEAR button that is used to return the selected function to its default setting.
QS0803-PR01 Receiver Receiver Dynamic Testing FM two-tone, third-order IMD dynamic range: Not specified 20 kHz offset, preamp on: 29 MHz, 77 dB†; 52 MHz, 78 dB; 10 MHz offset: 52 MHz, 85 dB. S-meter sensitivity: Not specified. S9 signal at 14.2 MHz: preamp off, 110 µV; preamp 1, 31 µV; preamp 2, 7.1 µV; 50 MHz, preamp off, 136 µV; preamp 1, 38 µV; preamp 2, 6.7 µV. Squelch sensitivity: SSB, 0.1-1.8, 50-54 MHz, 2.0 µV; FM, 28-30, 50-54 MHz, 1.0 µV. At threshold, preamp on: SSB, 14 MHz, 0.
Figure 4 — The FT-950’s rear panel includes connections for two antennas, a linear amplifier, and digital mode interface. Other jacks allow for plugand-play connection to Yaesu optional µ-Tune units, data management unit, FC-40 external antenna tuner and VL-1000 power amplifier. Figure 5 — As with other current Yaesu HF transceivers, the display shows filter selection, DSP settings and other important operating parameters at a glance.
behave well when presented with multiple signals or noise in the passband. The FT-950’s DNF effectively notched a single tone by 60 dB when nothing else is in the passband, but with more than one tone, it sometimes adds audible distortion products and notches the upper tone by a varying amount. Also, DNF is either on or off regardless of mode, so when activated it notches out desired CW signals as soon as they are tuned in. DNF settings are stored in memory separately for each VFO.
-20 QS0803-PR06 -30 -40 dB -50 -60 -70 -80 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 MHz Figure 6 — Response of the preamplifier and bandpass filter in the AS-AYL-4 loop controller from 1 to 7 MHz as measured in the ARRL Lab. The filter is designed to attenuate unwanted signals in the AM broadcast band below 1.8 MHz and in the shortwave broadcast bands above 4 MHz. with set screws.
short takes QSO Wizard: Mac OS X Amateur Radio Visual Aid permit you to save the log data in Cabrillo formats as required for ARRL and CQ HF and VHF contests. After Cabrillo formatting, the data may be printed, PDF’d, or copied and pasted into e-mail.
