[Elecraft] FT5000 review in Radcom

[Toby Pennington]

Hector,  I would not get too excited about a few DBs on way or another.   It is just not going to make that much difference.  Also,  diversity receive with the  5000 is not going to work as well as in the K3. 

The bothersome thing about the FT dx 5000 mp to me is the weight.....another 52 pound rig that will be a pain in the rear to box up and ship for repairs.  I am 69 years old now and have an Icom 7700.   I shipped it out once for repair and it was a pain getting it boxed up and shipped.  Not only that,  but repairs are expensive with the big rigs.  IF you lose a logic board then you are looking at a $2k repair bill including shipping both ways.  

Strong points for the K3,  lighter weight,  easy to ship,  repairs are not expensive,  and can be done in the field on occasion.  Great performance.......also a great rig for portable operation.    The only negative is the user interface which is not really that great when compared to the competition.  Some will take me to task for this comment,  but I feel it is warranted.  

Yaesu and Kenwood have both jumped on the down conversion band wagon now.  They see the success of Elecraft and want a piece of the market. Elecraft is winning the hearts and minds of contesters and dxers,    but to some extent casual operators still like the bigger rigs with more convenience operationally.  

My guess is the the FT 5000 will be a big seller,   as the user interface should be more friendly,  plus the high performance stats of the receiver will be attractive.  The price for the MP version is about  6,200.  A fully loaded K3 can run over $5k,   so not too much difference in price when you think about feature sets of the two rigs when loaded with comparable features.  

The Kenwood 950 with two roofing filters  2.8 and 500 hz priced at 1,800 could be a sleeper for many looking for a lower price version of the K3. 

Time will tell as we go forward......it will be interesting to see what develops!

Toby  W4CAK