The Yaesu FT710 was released here in the UK about 6 months ago so I'm a bit late doing a review of it but having just bought one I thought I'd show it from a CW operator's perspective..is it any good??
...very nice..I have an Icom IC7300, and agree that these newer rigs are very good on cw, but most reviews, etc., barely mention cw performance at all...
Interesting to see the new Yaesu rig....thanks for showing this. It would be good to hear your thoughts about it versus the K3S after a few weeks/months of CW operation particularly how the RXs compare listening to weak signals. SDR rigs tend to have quite harsh fatiguing audio I've found but I've read that the FT-710 is better than most in this respect. Your K3S will also adjust down to 50Hz bandwidth. Does the FT-710 use relays or pin diodes for TX/RX? I imagine that the FT-710 does a nice job on AM RX.
According to a Yaesu rep interview I saw, the reason against the HDMI is there is a possibility with some devices that use them to send voltage both ways. Some people have inadvertently burned out sound cards etc in computers and other devices when people connect them to the wrong type of devices.
Congratulations on purchasing your FT710, may I say that if your put your speaker on the right-hand side your stereo sound is better with the greater spread than the current position on the left along side the inbuilt speaker. As far as the external screen is concerned you can use a HDMI screen with DVI-D to HDMI cable, I have used both on my FT710 with great success, also a usb mouse very handy. Cheers and 7-3 Keith VK3KGW
I have an IC-706 I bought way back in 1995. It has full QSK and I use it for portable CW. The receiver is tough on the ears though and so I was thinking I would like to get some new receiver tech. I thought I would get the FT-710 for portable use. I am disappointed however in two things with the FT-710. The first is no real QSK. It uses relays (noisy). The manual claims QSK but not really. The 991A and the dx10 also don't have real QSK. You have to pay multi-thousands to get real QSK now and those rigs are really not suitable for portable use. I don't know if there are any options. The second is that stupid dvi-d connector. It's not like I really plan to use an external monitor during portable use but I can't find any new monitors with that connector. I have like six monitors in the house and the only one with a dvi-d is the one I bought back in 2009. I tend to keep my rigs forever and when my 2009 monitor dies where am I going to find a replacement? You're right. That EA station sounds like he is sending just one LONG word!
Nice to see your new rig operating. It would have been nice to touch on the keying relays and their ability to QSK. In the FT991A the ant relay is almost silent (without the preamp activated) but I was trying to listen on your video to get a feel for the relay noise (seems quite high) Do you ever use QSK? Vy 73 de VK4LL