This particular transceiver is one of my (if not THE) all-time favorite among HF rigs. It's not as sophisticated as, say, a K3S or IC-7800 but the front panel gives you everything you need to operate the radio.

Its innards - particularly, the IF strip - bear more than a passing resemblance to the FT-901/902 series of just a few years prior. Think of a '980 as a fully synthesized FT-902 with an extra (455KHz) IF stage. The CPU has memories - 12 channels in all - and a number of accessories could be connected to the rear panel ACC connector. Among those in my inventory are an FL-7000 HF amplifier, an FC-757AT automatic antenna tuner and a factory-modified FTV-901R transverter. The '980 has the ability to directly display the transverter frequency on the 6, 2 and 432-435MHz bands. Slick. The PA section uses transistors rated at twice the nominal 100w advertised output; these are run at 24V to ensure good linearity and minimal IMD.

All this isn't without warts. The major Achilles Heel with the rigs (as with the Kenwood 930/940) is a potentially overheating then malfunctioning power supply which will destroy things in the PA compartment. There's a slick fix from Compudigital for the Kenwoods; I've written up the '930 mod on the site. Space is the final frontier for the '980 - the same Quint switching power supply as spec'd as a replacement for the 930/940 simply won't fit the Yaesu. I'm investigating options for this situation and will post them as the thread evolves.

A wideband IF output for use with a band scope is missing. And the rig won't transceive on 60M though it does cover all the post-WARC '79 allocations. A couple of fixes for that are in the works.