Tom,
the FT-950 it's a great machine for FSK RTTY. It's really a great
machine and you will gain a very high value for the money you will pay for.
I tried it with DigiKeyey and micro keyer II by MicroHam, those are
fully integrated interfaces, and also with a home made one. Just the
time to set the internals audio levels from and to the radio and you are
on the air in any digimode, fiddling filters and controls by hands.
The FT-950 is really good also for audio digital modes. MF DSP filtering
is what you will need and there the 950 is a solid performer, as under
several other aspects.
Software here is N1MM with MMTTY/MMVARI and HRD/DM780, WSJT, WSPR and
JT65-HF.
MF filtering will require a little bit of fiddling with CAT codes,
inside macros, to make it the best. Doing this you could almost live
without touching anything on the front panel of the radio, just the VFO
and some other accessories. What id much in use in S&P, filters
fiddling, could be done to any needed extend just from the mouse, as for
N1MM macros. The rest of the S&P operations are up to you, to have QSO's
I mean ;-)
IMHO the Ft-950 could compete with the 756PROIII and win under several
aspects, a good radio isn't only expressed by numbers. More than some
times the 950 is better of the PROIII, at least with my dipoles and all
the surrounding environment I have nearby. My general opinion is that
the 950 it's more easy to use and fun than the PRO. For sure and not to
forget also the PRO is well usable under CAT macros, but the fiddling is
somewhat heavy in my perception, just shadows.
You will quite never regret the money that you saved buying the 950, nor
the 950 by itself. BTW I also own a PROIII, but I switched on and used
the FT-950 much more times, since i bought it, than my oldest and
trusted PROIII.
As for my activities on the bands, I use only RTTY and other digital
modes, 40m to 6M, no phone at all. About contesting I am not a big gun,
nor a small pistol, but I enjoy a lot simply spending my time with
friends on the bands, crowded or not.
Some border notes: you could listen for hours without a hot radio
seating in front of you; fiddle the RX and TX tones quite as you like
almost without external equipment; unfortunately, as far as I know,
there is no automatic ATU function, so you need to do it manually each
time there is the need.
Just another note. Be prepared to find a really strange miniDIN
connector, or to buy one from YAESU or on eBay, if you would like to
drive a PA. Just prior to have a buffer amplifier to switch the PA PTT
you need to get the signals, PTT and ALC, out of this "rarely seen
before" connector on the FT-950 back. Some MicroHam devices may help to
solve this behavior having a PA-PTT, but still not the ALC, of course.
This shouldn't not be a scaring things, just a thing to know. Quite like
as the particular mic preamplifier on ancient ICOM RTX.
If you like to experiment with borad and PC/software there is also a IF
board made to substitute the DMU-2000 board, it's made in the States. It
simply grep out the IF signal to a SDR radio made by the same brand.
Then you have on the PC the related software to net RX to TX and decode
signals to BF. The added feature is really good panadapter. I don't own
this stuff but if you would like to have a look search on You Tube under
"RF SPACE". This is the brand for the accessories. The one for the
FT-2000 is the same FT-950. Take care, by experience, I am a FLEX user
you will need a good, well a really good, audio board (a not noisy USB
one will suffice) and a solid performer PC, with M*S, X+P or W-7 (32
bit). Low latency is the keyword.
There is also a Yahoo group devoted to the 950 ...
I think it's enough. Make yours choice and enjoy, have fun with the radio.
In the hope my ItalEnglish is enough readable and make sense, HI. To
anybody that will reach this point: thanks for the patience.
73 de iw1ayd Salvo
PS A small tip, when you engage the 250/300 Hz 950 MF filter receiving
with MMTTY, try to use the notch feature of this last. Place the notch,
a little bit tied than the default, in the middle of the two tones with
a left button click of the mouse. You will obtain something near to the
TPF, the Twin Peak Filter by ICOM on the MMTTY waterfall. Instead of
enhancing the two tones you will un-enhance the field of nobody in
between the tones, sometimes help a bit.
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