Kenwood and Yaesu both introduced new products at Dayton, but neither of them has created much of a stir. Both seem to be aimed at competing with the ICOM IC-7610, as they both have big panadapter displays. But, while the Yaesu FTDX101D is being touted as an SDR, the Kenwood TS-890S is not an SDR at all. Both are vaporware (as K9ZW puts it) at this point. No prices were announced, nor was availability.
Here’s what Yaesu is saying about their radio:
Yaesu is excited to introduce a new High-Class HF/50MHz 100W Transceiver – FTDX101D and the first sample will be seen at Dayton Hamvention 2018. This information and the sample showed at Dayton are only the preliminary introduction, and any detailed information such as pricing and date of release is to be announced at a later date.
The new FTDX101D is utilizing the latest SDR Technology and classified as our High-End HF line, the FTDX series, which amateurs have come to know represents quality.
A few of the remarkable features of the new FTDX101D are:
- YAESU High-Class HF/ 50MHz 100W Transceiver
- SDR Technology and Waterfall Display
- Large Touch Panel precision color display
- Active Band Monitor enables rapid band changes with LED illumination of the operating band
- Independent control of the Main and Sub Bands allows effortless operation for the serious contester needing to move quickly between the amateur bands
- High-Q VC Tuning Front-End
- Main tuning dial for Main and Sub Band frequency control includes an Outer Dial for clarifier, VC tuning, fine tuning or custom settings.”
Kenwood TS-890S
The Kenwood, on the other hand, isn’t an SDR rig at all. Here’s what a bare-bones data sheet had to say about the radio:
Full Down Conversion RX
- H-mode Mixer
- High C/N 1st LO
Built-in Roofing Filters
- 500Hz / 2.7kHz / 6kHz / 15kHz (270Hz Optional)
7 Inch Color TFT Display
- Roofing Frequency Sampling Band Scope
- Auto Scroll Mode
- Multi Information System
I’m no expert, of course, but these don’t seem like very exciting products to me. I don’t think that either of them are likely to get the ICOM, Elecraft, and Flex fanboys (I’m an ICOM fanboy, btw) to switch.
One thing that the Yaesu has going for it is that it covers the 4m band. That’s not a big deal here in the states, but my European ICQPodcast colleagues seemed to excited about this feature.
Neil says
This Kenwood fanboy says….
Yawn.
I might have to switch after 42 years.
Dave New, N8SBE says
The Kenwood would likely be closer to a hybrid radio, with a hardware front end, and DSP back end, which is what the Elecraft K3s is.
I note that Kenwood is supplying a narrow 500 Hz crystal roofing filter, which is essentially how the Elecraft gets its close-in (< 2 kHz spacing) dynamic range. A bare-bones K3s has a 2.7 kHz five-pole (optionally 2.8 kHz eight-pole) roofing filter, so you have to add additional filters as extra-cost options to get high-dynamic range at closer spacings.
I have five roofing filters in both my main and sub (for a total of 10 filters) receivers in my K3s: 15 kHz, 2.8 kHz, 1.8 kHz, 400 Hz, 200 Hz. The DSP 'brick-wall' filters are cascaded behind these, and the rig is set up so that as you vary the DSP bandwidth from wide to narrow, each different crystal filter kicks in as you go narrower.
Thus, I can 'dial in' a 2.4 kHz or 2.1 kHz SSB receiver bandwidth in the DSP, and the front end will be protected with the 2.8 kHz filter (the transmitter always uses the 2.7/2.8 kHz filter for voice transmission, except for ESSB which requires the AM 6 or AM/FM 15 kHz filter). I put in the 15 kHz rather than a 6 kHz filter for AM, so that I could use FM on 10 and 6 meter repeaters, if need be.
If there were six slots each, I would have both 15 kHz and 6 kHz filters installed. On the other hand, I find that I don't use the 200 Hz or smaller bandwidth often, now preferring instead to use 400 Hz with audio peaking once that was added in a firmware update. So, in retrospect, setting it up for 400 Hz for CW with or w/o audio peaking, something suitable for wide-shift RTTY (800 Hz-1 kHz) and maybe a 2.1 kHz (the 1.8 kHz is a bit narrow for my tastes — I tend to dial in 2.1 kHz [300 Hz-2.1 kHz]) for crowded SSB conditions.
It will be interesting to see how well either of the announced radios handle high-speed (30+ WPM) break-in CW keying, especially with RIT shift turned on. Elecraft found a certain amount of receiver IMD was introduced in the early K3 models. They fixed it by upgrading the LO synth boards (offered as a upgrade for previous owners), with cleaner oscillators (less phase noise). All recent K3 and all K3s now come with the better LOs.
With the old LOs, you could faintly hear what sounded like someone transmitting CW on your frequency when you started transmitting high-speed CW in full-break in. The ghost 'signal' which was intermod from adjacent loud CW signals would disappear as soon as you stopped transmitting. With the new LOs, the issue is completely gone.
Frankly it was never that annoying, but the folks at Elecraft tend to be perfectionists.
I hope that for the sake of those folks that may shell out big bucks for these new radios, that Yaesu and Kenwood have been paying attention.
KB3ZUO says
I have mostly felt that the ts990s was a bit more than I would have needed, this ts 890s gives me something more to consider and looks more tame for the kind of person i am . Since my friend , who was my Elmer died, i have had a hard time bringing my self to get on the waves to do more than listen. But those days are going to come to a change, that isn’t the only reason ; but poor location in an apartment with only an apartment antenna and poor , cheap tuner and lowest cost hf Alinco I could get. I just need that yard with tree and a good landlord who wont mind the buckmaster strewn through it.