Roger, thanks for the nice report. I have received quite a few so far and
most of them have good things to say about the radio. I plan to use this
radio primarily on SSB. My CW and PSK31 are all QRP and my K2 and K1 do just
fine for that.
I am pretty sure now that I will buy one of these fine radios. I'll just
wait for Dayton and see if there is a discount.....
Sam
N5WU
-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Barkley [mailto:rogerbarkley@juno.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2001 9:01 PM
To: Sam_Stimson@exchange.dell.com; yaesu@contesting.com
Subject: Re: Mark V Evaluation
Regarding the Mark V
I have owned one for three weeks -- the first two weeks I was
disappointed with its performance.
However, I kept reading and rereading the operating manual and
experimenting and I am now very pleased. It does have a steep learning
curve as the QST review says, and that is partly because the operating
manual does not give all the information you need to decide about some
settings.
On the negative side: I don't like the slightly plastic "feel" of the
Mark V versus my old Icom IC-765 -- but that is they way the make rigs
these days.
I made a couple of simple changes that have improved the ergometrics:
For one I put rubber grommets on the little knobs that I adjust
regularly: RF power output and CW speed. I think Yaesu gets low marks
for ergometrics and for the life of me I cannot understand why they just
won't make rigs a little larger. I also do not like the decals -- too
little contrast to read in a semi-dark room. I found it very helpful to
place the Mark V on a small stand that is about four inches high and sits
on my operating table -- I can reach the knobs much easier now.
I think the sensitivity falls a little short, but the rx is quieter than
the 765 which has the best IMD #s out there. If you operate CW or RTTY,
who must get the optional filters. I use the 500 Hz Collins filter
along with RITTY 4.2 on RTTY and am very pleased -- although it is no
better than my IC-765 on this mode.
The rx DSP is good, but frankly it is no better than the outboard
Timewave DSP 599zx -- maybe not quite as good on CW and considerably
better on SSB.
I have gotten repeatedly good, unsolicited praises for the transmit
audio.
>From my three weeks experience I would say that if you operate SSB, the
Mark V is a very good choice. For CW or RTTY there are other good units
out there, and the Mark V is matched with the best of them.
Roger
W6LAX
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