[1000mp] No more Yaesu

[Bill Tippett]

W5YR wrote:
 >And a corollary to that thought is that no company should be so brazen as to
advertise "the world's best amateur radio transceiver" as one rather
wishful-thinking US company has done of late. Such marketing nonsense is
offensive to any but the most gullible.

         Whoa George, that dog won't hunt...time for a reality check.


*  "Experience the Most Advanced DSP Ever Created for Amateur Radio"

(Hmmm...I thought that was Linrad created by SM5BSZ.)


*  "Now Icom raises the bar of excellence with the world's most powerful
DSP technology in amateur radio history in the IC-756PROII."

FACT:  The PROII's IMD and BDR (receiver performance) are mediocre at
best, certainly not raising any bars of excellence.  (Source:  ARRL
Expanded Test Reports summarized here:
http://www.elecraft.com/K2_perf.htm#5%20kHz%20numbers )


*  "Make More Contesting Points - Contesters told us how to improve the
756PRO, so you can rack up points (and awards) even faster."

FACT:  The PROII's IMD and BDR performance are WORSE than the 756PRO.
(Source:  ARRL Expanded Test Reports)


*  The 5 page glossy brochure contains exactly 0.5 pages of actual
specifications, most of which are trivial boilerplate.
http://www.icomamerica.com/brochures/ic-756proii.pdf (see page 5)


         However, I suspect we "ain't seen nothing yet" from Icom in the
way of marketing hype.  I can't wait to read their IC-7800 claims
(but I'll also wait to see how it REALLY performs in the ARRL tests).
Here's a sample from their webpage:

"Many asked why is this a Legacy Radio?  Simply put "+40 dBm TOI."  This is
  the specification of the Third Order Intercept point of the 
IC-7800.  While the
IC-756PRO II and a couple of other new rigs boast a "+25 dBm TOI", there is
nothing in the amateur radio world that can even come close to this 
specification."

IF (as I suspect but do not know for a fact) Icom uses the Rhode & Schwarz
technique of auto-switching in an attenuator for strong signals, this is very
misleading advertising.  I can achieve 43 dB TOI simply by selecting a 6 dB
attenuator in Orion...of course I also lose 6 dB of sensitivity, but I suspect
Icom will conveniently omit that detail in their usual skimpy specifications.


         At least there is some basis for Ten-Tec's claims since Orion does
have the world's best IMD and BDR receiver performance at close signal
spacings.  As Joe Namath said, "It ain't bragging if you do can it."

         Now who wins your "brazen advertising" contest?

                                                         73,  Bill  W4ZV