[Yaesu] Yaesu FT920 vs Icom 746: Results of comparison

[Nate Bargmann]

10 years ago I bought a TS-850 from a friend to upgrade from my TS-830
of 11 years at the time.  I had wanted one for a long time, but a month
in it soured me a bit when one of the DDS chips died and again six
months later when another died as well.  However, I continued to use it
for a couple of years and then one day I spied an FT-890 at the local
ham radio shop, a model I had desired for some years, and got it.

I used it for a few days when I  went to 10m with it one evening and
thought it was a deaf as a stump.  So I switched to the '850 and noted
that with the preamp on the noise was about S2 to S3 so the antenna was
working normally.  Then I tuned to a DX station that was peaking around
S4 and was about Q4 copy on the '850.  I switched to the '890, tuned
to the station and was blown away!  He was also S4 on the '890 but with
the quiet receiver he was nearly armchair copy.  I did several more A/B
tests on 10m and other bands to satisfy my discovery of the performance
of the Yaesu receiver.

Since then I replaced the '850 with the '920 so I never got a chance to
A/B them, but it compares identically to the '890 plus its enhancements
make it a keeper on my desk.  

Around the first of this year I fired up my '830 which had been in
retirement for several years and used it for a few days,  It was a
relief to go back to my '920, granted they are from different
technological eras, but still what I thought for years to be an
excellent receiver I found tiresome to use.

What little I have used my new FT-817 I have found the same quiet Yaesu
receiver as on my '890 and '920.  I guess there is a reason I am
thinking about selling the '830.  :-)

73, de Nate >>

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