Just bought a Yaesu FT 991A radio

[PA5COR]

Cut the knot, and ordered the FT 991a for the collection, with cable for RJ 45 to 8 pin microphone connector.
My 22 year old FT 847 with Collins SSB filters just does fine, but i reckon looking at the specs the new 991a will do better on HF and VHF/UHF.
The FT 2000 D will get serviced and sold off as I will do with the FT 847.
Thinking of keeping the FT 100 with Collins AM filter as spare.
Looking forward when it will arrive next week.
New toys for boys...:icon_rolleyes::snicker:

[WZ7U]

Nice!
You got tRump checks too? :-D

[PA5COR]

Nope, just frugal living on my pension and saving up each month ;)

[WZ7U]

Of course not, you have common sense and discipline. Plus the foresight to have post employment income available.

I would be interested in a review of sorts after you've had a few [insert favorite time frame here] to get properly acquainted. As long as I don't have to go to eHam to read it. :wtf:

[PA5COR]

Picking the FT 991a was a no brainer for me, i need 2/70 all mode as well in the box.
Both the Icom 9300 as well the Yaesu FT 991A don't miss much on HF in their receivers, the DSP and N.B are better in the Yaesu FT991a, which is a good thing to have on the edge of the city, less if you live on the land without man made noise.
My FT 847 and FT 100 are both 22 years young, never let me down, if the FT 991 a does that as well i'm happy, the Ft 2000-D is not really young as well, and transceiver wise did not really add much to the FT 847 with Collins filters.
So, a bit downsizing in format of transceivers, i'm having the shack in my living room, with SB-1000 of Heathkit, and with the FT 2000-D it became a bit overdone.

I never bought transceiver based on Sherwood status, i just look at what my needs are, do chose a decent receiver or add ( collins ) filters.
The new FT 991 A comes with 3 KHz roofing filter, excellent DSP and N.B, and very decent receiver.

Since I lack the real estate I'll have to do with the average dutch plot and antenna's i have set up here.
Vertical 77 feet with autotuner for 160/80/40/20.
Fritzel FD4 lengthened for 160 - 6 meters yes it works on 6 meters as well bar 2 WARC bands.
Imax 2000 for 10/12/15/18.
Diamond X510N 2/70 vertical at 55 feet high.

So on all HF bands i can chose horizontal/vertical antenna's whatever one works best at that moment, and all suited for the 900 watts my Heathkit SB-1000 delivers in normal working mode. It will do 1000 watts, but i dont like stressing things.

Noise levels here on the edge of the small provincial city are still relative low, but might change over time so a good set of tools fighting it like the good DSP and N.B are important.
Having 50 watts all mode on 2/70 is fun, you will be surprised how far you can get even vertical when the bands open, with no conditions i can work most repeaters 60 miles+ away.

C4FM, nice bonus, not interested in that ( yet), later when winter arrives i can dip my feet into that.
Looked at both transceivers ( Icom 7300 and Yaesu FT 991 A ) but the lack of 2/70 made the choice easy, the larger display on the 7300 does not add that much to the transceiver as anyone would like to believe.
Menu structures, I am familiar with Yaesu menu's so no beef there.
Most are set and forget anyway...
Audio, the FT 991 A has like the FT 2000 D 3 parametric egualisers so you can set it up as you like, helped by the MD1 microphone and EQplus of W2IHY i have i can tailor the microphone audio as needed.
Speaker, use a good speaker, I have an old Kenwood SP 820 speaker with a 5 " speaker inside and 2 high cut and one low cut filter.
Front available head set connection.
Crisp bright display with enough reserve to be good readable even in sunlight, in my living room.
For the 1290 Euro i paid cheap as chips looking at the package you get.
My old FT 847 with Collins filters cost new in 1998 a whopping 6600 Guilders or 3000 Euro's ....in a time the guilder was worth more.
The relative small transceiver makes it possible to take it with me on holidays with a small switched mode P.S. and MFJ 993B tuner and homebrew FD-4.

That was the reasoning i chose the FT 991 A, after a decent trial period i get back with the results in real life on real antenna's and in practice.

[PA5COR]

Just added a new 30 amp power supply as well, the older SEC 1223 is now 13 years old and much used.
Nissei-NS-2230D is the new one, digital read out voltage and amps, 28 amp continuous and 30 amp max.
Anderson power poles in front standard banana plugs on the back.
https://www.hspshop.it/NISSEI-NS-230D-VARIABLE-30A-POWER-SUPPLY
Next to be delivered are 3 SUNON MF60251V1-1 very quiet 60x60x 25 mm ventilators to replace the ventilator in the FT 991a which has standard ball bearing Panasonic fan, by the Sunon maglev vapo bearing is a 4 dB quieter ventilator with higher cf/m.
Same ventilator will be in the new PSU so that one might be replaced as well.
https://www.reichelt.de/luefter-60-x-60-x-25-mm-12-v-0-087-a-sun-mf60251v1-1-p252983.html
Uses 1/2 the power of the panasonic original fan as well.

[PA5COR]

17061FT991A arrived this afternoon with Heil adaptor RJ 45 microphone connector to yaesu 8 pin conector and 3 fans i ordered.
Been busy till now to set the wished settings for receiver and audio and the rest of the settings, made a few qso's on all mode's and as it looks now all succesfull, not did the 3 band equalizer yet thoug, just the EQplus settings directly.
Initial conclusion, good receiver, good several methodes to fight noise and dig low signals from the noise.
VHF/UHF comes with the EU version luckily with N connector.:mrgreen:
Output on H.F. and 6 meter 120 watts PEP, VHF/UHF 55 watts for 2 meter 53 watts for 70 cm's.
Not opened the transceiver just amateur bands.
Picture bad, will make better quality later.

[VK1EA]

VHF/UHF comes with the EU version luckily with N connector.:mrgreen:


So you like N sockets?
Next time you come to Canberra I'll buy you some drinks and we'll talk about connectors...

17062

[PA5COR]

17063Nice look on the back.
Always build my stuff pure with N connectors, everything from 6 meters up.
All my transverters, P.A.'s, coaxial cables etc for 50 MHZ up N connectors good quality.
If i had gotten the USA model i would have removed the luxury banana plug and replaced it with N.

So, my Diamond X 510N now runs directly into the N connector on the back, since the 991 A comes with swr meter build in no problem.

[WZ7U]

You can get a US version in the EU?

[PA5COR]

Yes there is some import in that, but then you get the problem the USA 70 cm does not follow our 70 cm, ( 430 - 440 MHz)
You can change that but then the repeater offsets for Europe don't work anymore.
Some USA troop members might buy one to take home after their service is done and they return home though, prices are quite low here.
Standard the 60 meter frequencies work here but only the channels we can work on, i didn't do the mod to open up the transceiver, no need to get on 11 meter or so...
Opening up, the MARS mod only opens up the HF bands, the VHF and UHF are blocked software like, no change in that.

Still dicking around with it, initial results are promising, but i need more time to give a decent judgement.
As you can see I use the MD-1 microphone from Yaesu which i own for over 40 years, the EQPlus, and feed that with the homebrew call generator into the FT 991A.
The speaker next to it is the Kenwood SP 820.
And the trusty Heathkit SB-1000.

[WØTKX]

So you like N sockets?

Ten Tec stuff with N connectors. Swoon.

[VK1EA]

If i had gotten the USA model i would have removed the luxury banana plug and replaced it with N.


"banana plug" !
hey, that is very funny, I'll use the term from now on !

I use N connectors for absolutely everything, main reason being that in a past job I had (fitting air traffic control towers in Third World countries) we ended with lots of unused connectors after each project (as it was not cost effective to bring them back). In most cases, we would even sell the tools to someone there to avoid the cost/hassle of re-importing them back.
Testing equipment was a different animal, we went through all the hoops to have it back... but it was not uncommon having to wait for MONTHS to recover it.


I like that your new radio has a spectrum waterfall (a.k.a. "fishfinder display") but I think it is too small. I prefer to use a separate, external SDR receiver for that.

73,
Carlos VK1EA

[PA5COR]

Well, the 991A is a whopping foot away from my view, so it is big enough to see what is happening around your working frequency.
As said the Icom 7300 has a better and bigger screen, but lacks 2/70 all mode.
And the receiver in that has it's shortcomings as well.

As you can see in the piccie above i have my station in the living room, no space for a 23 " screen.... my shack is above for the rest, soldering, building stuff, repairing etc.
I do have the 17" laptop though, so we will see what the 991A can do with that connected to the USB port.

Small signal projects get BNC connectors of good quality, everything above 50 MHz N connectors, period.

The PL 259 is just not up to the task for anything above HF.
Specially on 2/70 or 23 cm every milliwatt you make must make it to the antenna without bump in impedance or attenuation.

One reason i do not skimp on coax, on HF I'm using Aircom + low loss made for VHF UHF, loss for reaching my FD_4 less as 0.1 dB on 10 meter.
Same for the Imax 2000 used on 10/12/15/18.
The coax on the Diamond X510N is Ecoflex 15 loss on 2 0.45 dB on 70 0.85 db for 15 meter with N connectors directly from antenna to N connector on the 991a.
My 77 feet vertical has due to restrictions of the coax running in the house 7mm low loss coax to the auto tuner ( MFJ 998) feeding the vertical I use on 160/80/40/20, loss on 20 is less as 0.1dB.
that can run the full 1000 watts i can push the Heathkit SB-1000 to witch has a full rebuild and new 3-500zg tube, most of the time limited to 6 to 700 watts though.

The FD-4 also works fine on 6 meters swr 1;1.3 there.
When you spend that much on good ( overkill) quality coax cable you also need to fork out for the highest quality connectors.
I do use pl259 silvered ones ( Amphenol) i bought 20 years back of high quality.
But most is simply N connectors or in low power projects BNC high quality connectors.
I'm a ham now for the better part of 43 years, working 160 to 23 cm, and trying to save money on your antenna's or feedlines is the worst decision you can make, better spend money there as on the newest most expensive transceiver.

Everyone has his/her shortcoming, mine is connectors and feed lines and antenna's made of the highest quality i can buy or make myself.
The Fritzel FD-4 is now on the roof for 13 years, cable made of stainless steel and copper wires, 1.5 kw balun 1:6 and 1:1 incorporated and survived all storms nature could throw at it.
I do have a spare new one here, just in case....:mrgreen:
The 77 foot vertical was home made and has 3000 feet of radials in/on the ground....and up for the last 10 years.

That is my addiction and I'll stick to it.

[VK1EA]

Well,

I see that you have some serious coax in there. I'm thinking of improving the remotering capabilities of my amplifiers, so I can leave them in the shed (under the antennas) while I keep the radios inside the house.
I use RG-214 (like an RG-213 with double shield but same loss) which is OK for HF... but it has me losing almost 3 dB at UHF frequencies.

About the 991A: it would be great if you can plug it to the PC and enjoy a larger display. I have been using stand-alone SDR receivers (AirSpy HF+, Afedri SDR and RFSpace SDRIQ) and seeing large chunks (or the whole band) of spectrum is a great feature.

Anyway: congratulations on the new toy, it looks very nice.

[PA5COR]

In my VHF/UHF days i had mast pre amps homebrew with Mitsubishi GaAs fets.
A homemade transistor amp, running 160 -180 watts with 2 MRF 247 class AB transistors.
needed a 40 amp PSU, homebrew though running on 13.8 volts...
Running then a FT 225 RD 2 meter all mode transceiver and a 70 cm transverter by microwave, soon followed up by the FT 847 with Collins filters bought new in 1998, which had 50/50 watt on 2/70.
Using the 12 element Flexa yagi for 2, a 23 element yagi for 70 cm, and a 60 element homebrew yagi for 23 cm with homebrew transverter with all of 5 watts output....
Add the Konni 5 element yagi for 6 meters, all gone now.

Using the lowest loss coax was a must then.
Getting the P.A.s as close as you can to the antenna's is good, if they have a low noise pre amp, your problems might be solved even with the current coax, else you need to look for lower loss coax and connectors.

Then i went for H.F, specially for 160 because there was more of a challenge to make a good antenna and radial system and lower the noise here.
It is quite easy to make a decent antenna for 80 and up, but for DX on 160 you need to seriously invest in antenna and making the noise free environment, finding all culprits making noise.
Still dabbing around with the FT 991A the menu settings are done, memories that needed to be filled done, FT restore working on the USB to USB B cable and laptop.
New 30 amp psu arrived and inserted, Nissei NS 2230D with digital volt/amp meter.
Noise free as well.

The FT 991 a on receive pulls 1.4 amp, 120 watts out is 17 amp, 55 watts on 2/70 is 11 amp.
You can get data in/out control the transceiver audio in/out, but not the waterfall display.
There is someone that build in a RTL stick in the FT 991A.......:mrgreen:
A large screen waterfall/spectrum display would be nice but since I'm quite close to the transceiver i don't mind, i also don't have a spot to put a large screen here, just can use the 17" laptop with I 7 processor and videocard build in.
First conclusion is I'm quite satisfied with the transceiver, the receiver is quite sensitive and the several noise fighting aids are working above expectations.
I could get lots of stations out of the muck the FT 2000-D would have had no chance on doing that.
Certainly the working 15/3 KHz roofing filter does wonders.

Transceivers are always an compromise to what you really want, I would have liked this one in a large housing with much of the menu items directly under the front knobs, bigger screen.
A reason i got the FT 2000-D.
But there the receiver let me down a bit, still worked around the world with it though.
The new and much better tools for fighting QRM and QRN give me some solace for the even noisier getting bands.
Having a DC to daylight transceiver in one box in the livingroom doesn't take up all the space either.
Add a good ( Kenwood SP 820) speaker or the like, a good microphone with EQPlus, the revamped Heathkit SB-1000 and I'm set.
I don't use the processor in the FT991A just the compressor/limiter in the EQPlus and downwards expander, and Yaesu MD-1 microphone.
Getting now unsolicited good reports about the audio.
I'm not a BBC presenter but decent audio is a must.
I better stop before anyone falls asleep here...:shifty:

[PA5COR]

https://youtu.be/3st5Mnr1rg4
It is possible with the SDR Rsp1a, and sdr UNO

[PA5COR]

Yesterday i decided to open up the Kenwood SP820 speaker i use to clean it out.
Found a whimpy 5" 3 watt speaker and remembered i had a visatone broadband speaker bought new, 20 watt with large magnet 20 times the size of the original speaker of the SP820 speaker and also 5 "
So, replaced the el cheapo original speaker with the visatone ( straight from 80 to 10.000Hz), added acoustic foam to the empty steel cabinet, and tested things out, first by going to some stations on the Am broadcast band, and yes, less audio drive needed, clean crisp audio with body, and then tested it on several bands on ham stations from strong to weak ones, and what an improvement, went to bed at 02.30 last night....
I can change audio passband with the contour, bandwidth settings on the fly with the FT991A so no beef there, and a pleasure to listen too for hours on end.
The Visatone speaker was quite expensive when i bought it, high efficiency and ultra low distortion speaker so that paid off after 4 years kept on the parts shelf.
Still dabbling around with the 991A to find out how good it is in receive, and not disappointed till now, more pleasantly surprised, comparing to the FT 2000-D it runs rings around it.
Will be back to give final verdict later.

[PA5COR]

Verdict after 2 weeks intensive use all modes all bands from 160 to and 70 cm.

Hot receiver, no receive amp needed on any band below 15 meter.
Antenna's used OCF at 40 feet 160 to 6 meters, Imax 2000 vertical in 18/15/12/10 at 33 feet up, vertical 77 feet with autotuner feeding it at the bottom 160 - 20.

There is a score of QRM/QRN tools on board all fully configurable to fight these noises, and the DNR really pulls the voices out of the crud, reducing noise to almost nothing and pulling the voice out, on the lower settings 1 -5 of max 15 the "waterfall" effect is minimal, but there not disturbing.
N.B. kills off pulses also fully configurable so you can get rid of that.
Working 3 KHz roofing filter, something the FT 2000-D had but not really worked.
Notch working to get rid of the big mouth splattering on one of your sidebands, set it and it's gone.

Contour working fine configurable so you can get that part of the audio you need pulling up as per setting in your menu.
Mic equaliser 3 settings for normal and 3 for processor, like the FT 2000-D has, my settings equals these now, seems they have the same audio mic gain amplification.

I don't use the compressor of the 991a, just the compressor/limiter and downwards expander of the EQplus.
Output 160 - 6 120 watts, pulling 17 amp at 14 volts.
on my Daiwa CN 801 HP meter i see 100 watts PEP, ALC just reacting less as half way as per manual instruction.
Output 2 meter 55 watts on the diamond 400 meter FM and SSB, 70 cm 53 watt FM/SSB
Using 11 amps on max power.
Receive is 1.3 amps at 14 volt, 1.2 on 13.8 volt.
Sensitivity on 2 and 70 higher as the already hot FT 847 with HEMT fets.....

Getting unsolicited good audio reports in SSB/FM with Yaesu MD-1 microphone and EQplus and settings in the microphone equalizer.
Not tried the digital modes yet, much later.....

screen, though the screen is a bit smaller as the Icom 7300 more then enough, i'm 1 feet away from the radio, clean sharp, and more then enough data to see, adjustable light, now at 8 max is 15....
Thanks to the screen menu settings are not cryptic anymore but fully readable and understandable without manual ..
Menu settings grouped so easy accessible, and if you are used like me to Yaesu menu's a breeze to set, most are set and forget as well.
Waterfall/spectrum analyser settable from 50 KHZ to 1 MHz, i put it under the programmable C.S. button.

Using FT restore, free program and USB-USB B cable i set a lot of memory channels in the radio and saved the menu settings on the laptop.
Easily to restore when i have to do a full reset.

Received audio is of a high quality and as seen above needs a good speaker or headphone, internal speaker fires upward, good quality but just for field days or so adequate.
Using a good speaker, AM broadcast now sounds like the good tube radios did...
Audio output is 2.5 watts from the radio, for normal use now at 1/3 open.

I tried the radio for 2 weeks now, on at 09.00 in the morning till when i go to bed.
With the last weeks sporadic E on 6 using the OCF worked Malta, Sardinia, Italy and Spain from the Netherlands using 100 watts.
10 meter a lot of EU on the FD-4 OCF or Imax 2000, same for 12/15 not been much on 18.
20 meter OCF used some on the vertical.
40/80/160 vertical/OCF.
All 100 watts from the radio.

2/70 Diamond X 510N at 45 feet from the ground all the Netherlands in SSB/ furthest contact 290 Km's direct SSB.
all repeaters workable in a radius of 100 KM's +or 60 miles+ with noise free signals

Did i mention knobs are lighted? easy here in my normal low light evenings.
This is my initial report after 2 weeks intensive use.
As i read up for months before taking the decision to buy, i'm still pleasantly surprised to what you get for the money, 1295 Euro's.
The FT 847 with Collins filters set me back in 1998 6600 Guilders or 3000 Euro's...
That was a decent radio, on H.F even with Collins filters lacking for 2 and 70 the bees knees then.
The 991A runs rings around it good H.F. and even better as the 847 2/70.
It even leaves the FT 2000-D in the dust.
:snicker:

[PA5COR]

Been playing around with FT-8 and the FT991A, fun to get it working been playing around on 160, good distances as well.
As well other bands, we have to keep learning isn't it?
Radio doing fine, no complaints, running FT-8 90 watts the whole evening on 160 and it got barely warm.
Exporting the log to qrz isn't a big deal either.