[K3CAL] New Ham looking for assistance

[David Harrell]

I'll add to the confusion and make the opposite argument. For me, the 991a
menus, display and general feel of operating the radio rule it out. My home
station is a FTDX-10 that I'm very happy with. If you've got room in your
shack, I think you're better off with a dedicated HF radio and a portable
50 watt VHF/UHF rig so you can monitor local repeaters while you're hunting
DX, POTA, or whatever else interests you. The dedicated HF rigs I would
consider in your shoes are the Yaesu FT-710, FTDX-10, and Icom 7300 MarkII.
If you don't have room for a separate dedicated HF rig that only does HF,
and if your budget allows, I really like the new Yaesu FTX-1 Optima.

It's worth a trip to Woodbridge to visit Ham Radio Outlet and get them to
show you different rigs. There are endless YouTube reviews of all these
rigs, and you can at least watch them in action. All of these radios
actually perform well, it's kind of like asking what's your favorite pair
of shoes.

Dave Harrell
K3GGM

On Sat, Apr 18, 2026 at 3:11 PM N5WTA N5WTA via K3CAL <k3cal at mailman.qth.net>
wrote:

> I saw 991a and jumped in right away lol
>
> 991a is a great radio and it does it all.   I mean everything.  And it’s
> small enough to take to an event.  I highly recommend it and my first
> suggestion would be to ignore the c4fm digital stuff as well as anything
> digital in hf.  The reason I say this, is that digital doesn’t teach you
> ham radio.  It doesn’t teach you how to grab that voice out of the static
> to make that dx contact, it doesn’t teach you how to adjust your radio for
> the current band conditions and it doesn’t teach you how to listen to band
> conditions to know what to expect. I’m a relatively new ham, spent upwards
> of 20k on the hobby in 8 years and if I had it all to do over again, I
> would have kept my 991a. I’m also the kind of guy that believes that if you
> can’t make that contact on 5 watts, there is something wrong with your
> antenna lol. Just my unwanted two cents though :-)
> Regards,
> Johnathan Ibert
>
> On Apr 18, 2026, at 2:51 PM, dwightcgordon--- via K3CAL <
> k3cal at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>       Dwight Gordon (KD3CZT) here. I'm new to the hobby and looking to
> purchase my first dedicated HF tranceiver. Im currently debating between
> the Yaesu 991-A and the FT-DX10. What are some options or quality of life
> features that would make a more seasoned hobbyist lean towards one or
> another? For the antenna I am looking very seriously at the DX Commander
> Signature 9. I hope to attend the next club meeting in person. Thanks in
> Advance
>
> Dwight Gordon
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Dave Harrell
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