[Elecraft] FT-5000

[Nick - VE3EY]

It is nice for Yaesu to finally do something that Ten-Tec and Elecraft have
been doing for years.  Though they want twice the amount of money for that
big nice radio.  I don't know nothing about how the R&D investment works and
how they come up with the pricing, but in my opinion, at this stage this
still makes them technology followers - not the leaders.

Even their QST add clearly indicates that: "The answer"

When K3 got announced it was a quantum leap ahead of my existing MKV which
was a good radio (filled with Inrad filters) for its time.  Investing a
'few' extra grand in addition to what I got for my MKV was worth for me
given the additional value K3 brought home.

Now looking at FTDX5000, some specs look great and I would love to have a
nice looking radio such as this one, but for me the cost does not justify
it.

I still think Yaesu will sell lots of those.

Perhaps it would have been a different story if this was a direct sampling
radio..

73,  Nick
ve3ey



On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 11:44 AM, David Christ <radioham at mchsi.com> wrote:

> These are two quite different animals with different design
> objectives.  The FT-5000 weighs 46 pounds and runs on household AC.
> The K3 weighs 8 pounds and runs off 12 VDC.  And here we bump into
> reality when it comes to 200W.  Getting 200 W out of 12 V finals
> would be a real trick if you want a clean signal. Each rig fits its
> own segment of the market, and part of the market would be happy with
> either.  I doubt that Elecraft needs to loose much sleep over the
> FT-5000.
>
> David K0LUM
>
> At 7:59 AM -0800 2/26/10, lstavenhagen wrote:
> >Well I dunno. From looking at the specs on the website, I can't see that
> the
> >FT-5000 is going to offer anything over and above what you can get with
> the
> >K3, really. At least nothing off the top of my head that would justify the
> >extra cost.
> >
> >The only feature I see appearing on more rigs that I'd say Elecraft might
> >want to look into is the 200W final amp. This is nice because, IMO,
> >- it reduces the need to go kilowatt with an outboard amp. True it's only
> a
> >doubling of the typical 100W output, but you can go for quite a while
> longer
> >without having to invest in a KW.
> >- more headroom for high-duty cycle modes like the digital modes. I.e. you
> >can go 100% duty-cycle at higher power levels than with a 100W final.
> >- very very cushy duty on the final when you are driving an amplifier,
> >particularly one of the older dual 3-500Z amps which can require quite a
> bit
> >of drive to get to full power. You can run that higher drive level into it
> >all day long without having to be flat out or close to it like you
> sometimes
> >are with a 100W final into one of the "boat anchors".
> >
> >It's probably a relatively low investment in R&D and parts, etc., for
> >Elecraft to implement too (tho maybe the size might be a problem in the
> >K3?).
> >
> >That'd be my suggestion as far as a good bang/buck investment Elecraft
> could
> >make.
> >
> >The claimed IP3 performance of the 5000 is pretty good indeed, but I'll
> >believe it when I see it. Like I said a lot of these boxes are still
> trying
> >to match the K2 as far as performance hi hi.
> >
> >73,
> >LS
> >W5QD
> >
> >
> >--
> >View this message in context:
> >http://n2.nabble.com/FT-5000-tp4052723p4639973.html
> >Sent from the [HAM] mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> >______________________________________________________________
> >Elecraft mailing list
> >Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> >Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> >Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> >
> >This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> >Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>