[1000mp] No more Yaesu II

[W5FKX - Don]

To address some of the queries and comments in regard to my "No more Yaesu"
posting, here is a bit more.

First, I was using an external speaker (SP-8), into which I had plugged a
pair of inexpensive 8 ohm stereo headphones from Radio Shack. Also, because
of the low audio output, I use a NIR-12 as an audio amp between the
FT-1000MP and the external SP-8 speaker. The two previous failures occurred
before I began using the NIR-12, so I have discounted it as a contributor.
With the exception of  no NIR-12, one of the previous failures was under
identical circumstances - copying weak CW signal using 'phones plugged into
SP-8; however, the other (first) incident was with external speaker only,
trying to copy a weak RTTY signal. In all cases, the failure was
coincidental with the sudden presence of a strong signal in the bandpass.

Other details of the recent incident: I was tuning a weak signal on 160m, so
I had the IPO (pre-amp) OFF and 12db of attenuation switched into the front
end in order to improve the SNR, with both 250 Hz filters in, DSP filter set
to 60Hz and the BW as narrow as possible.

As alluded to above, although Yaesu early on assured me that it was normal,
I have always felt that the audio output was too low, especially for weak
signal conditions as described above. I have tried different headphones,
plugged into the front panel or the speaker, and the speaker connection was
always marginally better than the front panel plug. To answer the obvious
question that was asked in one of the posts, my hearing is normal over the
full audio range.

Of course, as was pointed out by someone, there is no guarantee that another
brand will be better than the last. Indeed, as I said originally, I have
really enjoyed my FT-1000MP; however, I can see no compelling reason to
ignore the fact that the same failure, having repeated three times, will not
happen again. It would be foolish not to investigate the possiblity that a
more satisfying product may be available. If not, I can always re-evaluate
the situation. :-)

Finally, in regard to the comments about human nature pre-disposing us to be
complainers or list-masochists -  I too, am continually amazed at what some
people say on lists whose purpose is exchange of technical info and user
experiences.  ;-)

73,
Don W5FKX