The 710 is Yaesu’s response to the Icom 7300…it’s an entry level radio. The buttons on the DX-10 make it easier to access functions for DX, contesting, etc. At first I found the buttons difficult, but now it’s second nature to reach over and press the button I want to access. I’m considering the 710 to replace the 7300 in my go box. Great video. W6ZD
It’s like I said from the beginning of this series…the FT-710 AESS is a “me too” radio. Yaesu just executed the pure SDR concept better than ICOM did. But Yaesu has had time to perfect it. It still doesn’t beat the hybrid FTdx10 or the FTdx101D/MP for overall dynamic range. But it is very close behind. Interestingly, it beats the hybrid K3S, but not by much. The DSP might be the drawback for the FT-710. I cover that in subsequent videos in this series. 73, de N4HNH
I honestly don't understand why Yaesu released FT-710. If you need portability - FT-891 If you need everything in one - FT-991 If you need a good stationary solution - FTdx10 If you need maximum performance - FTdx101 I just don't see a niche for this radio.
It’s a me-too. Yes, we can make a SDR too. There was market pressure. So many buyers think the SDR approach is best. But nothing to date has beaten the hybrid big brothers of the FT-710. Now, judging strictly by the 2kHz dynamic range, the FT-710 is the best performing SDR ever made to date. But, Yaesu should have released it as a competitor to the IC-705, like I hoped and voiced in video #1 of this series. But, alas, they didn’t ask me. Ha! 73, de N4HNH
The FT-710 is a pure SDR. It lacks the superheterodyne front-end and the roofing filters that perform some heavy lifting, allowing the SDR and the DSP stages to perform better. Yaesu calls their superheterodyne/SDR combination a hybrid. The Yaesu hybrid technology has propelled their FTdx101D/MP and their FTdx10 to rank highest for performance that prevents front-end overload and provides the best ability to minimize interference from strong signals near the frequency you are listening to. The FT-710 is currently the best pure SDR ever tested for the ability to minimize interference from a strong signal near the frequency you are listening to, but it just cannot quite beat the hybrids. It is very close though. 73, de N4HNH
Yaesu did a great job with their execution of SDR technology. Their randomization and dithering approach seems to be performing better than the randomization and dithering in the IC-7300. ICOM calls their randomization and dithering IP+. Yaesu calls their randomization and dithering IPO, even though it isn’t the same approach as IPO in their previous transceivers. Randomization and dithering is a type of feedback loop from the SDR stage back to the input of the Analog to Digital converter. This feedback is actually a type of randomized noise that miraculously lowers the chance of overloading the A/D conversion stage. The IC-7300 experiences such overloads with strong signals. The OVR light turns on when the IC-7300 A/D converter is overloaded. Bonus: Both IP+ and IPO improve the cross-modulation characteristic of the receiver. The signal strength reading will register lower on the S-meter but the receiver’s ability to reject interference will be improved. 73, de N4HNH
Thanks for the video! Was looking forward to seeing the size difference, I'm very happy with my FTDX10 while it is a bit crowded on the controls I've become used to it.
You chose wisely my friend. I’m accustomed to the FTdx10 controls layout. Yaesu could have easily ganged the AF and RF gain again, at the lower right, and let the top right handle shift and width again. But that makes too much sense, I guess. 73, de N4HNH
People tend to give snap decisions about things, like buttons. When I first got the FTDX10, I was in the camp of thinking the controls are too crowded. However, over the months of ownership I adjusted, and even at night with no lighting I know where the buttons are and can push/adjust them without issue. It just took time to get used to and I don't think twice about it anymore.
Many thanks for speedy reply, I have also been told that the Black is more Grey in the Smaller Rig, which makes a big Difference in Display appearance, infact 1 honest genuine Ham Operator, says that the Display is better Vision wise in the 10, than the Large 7 inch Display in the Big 10MP that's saying something, he was not talking about Display features, you can't compare with the Big MP, he was just referring to the Actual Display itself.
You can connect an external DVI-D monitor to either transceiver so it doesn’t matter. But I don’t find the FTdx10 display to be any more clear than the FTdx101 display.
Yeasu corrected an ergonomics problem on the 10 by moving the volume and RF gain to the right on the tuning knob ... it just feels intuitive and logical and eliminates the chance of hitting the tuning knob, most people are right-handed and the volume control is the most accessed control when operating ...separating the RF wasn't necessary but I think they wanted symmetry, I actually love the setup even though small its a joy to operate and the menu system is quick and easy to use... Another overlooked plus for this radio is the Japanese build quality, it has a feel and fit and finish not found in some Chinese radios. W4THX
Exactly. I don’t mind the buttons across the top. Having to resort to touchscreen for controls I use often is a bother. With all the space they used for RF gain and AF gain, they could have used ganged encoders like on the FTdx10 and left shift/width available via knobs, rather than forcing us into another menu.
Me too! But I am enjoying the FT-710 AESS on CW. I just shot a video of me chasing a very "ghosty" ghost station with the FT-710 AESS. It definitely delivered. The station was a QRP SOTA activator in Colorado. His signal was 319 with all of the filtering enabled, including my notch trick. Without fully utilizing the gain structure and filtering of the FT-710, the QRP station was nonexistent. I would have tuned passed him with lesser transceivers. Fortunately, I knew he was there because he posted a spot to the SOTAWATCH3 web page. So, I maximized the capabilities of the FT-710 AESS to drill down into the noise floor and pull him out. Yes, I could have done the exact same thing with the FTdx10 - just as well. And I still prefer the FTdx10, for reasons that will be revealed in this series. But this FT-710 AESS could be the greatest starter HF base station ever made to date. No radio is perfect. It definitely has shortcomings. All rigs do. We have to decide which shortcomings matter enough to stop us from buying a particular radio. And that relates to operating style and what our particular interests are. For me, it's pulling QRP stations out of the noise floor. 73, de N4HNH
I think that’s a matter of personal opinion. I choose a transceiver based upon performance. In that case the FTdx10 wins. The main color difference is the red. With the FT-710, the red has a bit of an orange tint. With the FTdx10, the red is red.
I look at knob reduction from a warranty perspective. Switch's, Encoders, Potentiometers are the least reliable parts on these radios and are expensive and laborious to replace. If the bean counters have their way all knobs would be banished from the front panel and replaced with a larger display with a force stick's/mouse off to the side. The depth of menu's will be astonishing, it will perform to specifications. Operationally it will be a disaster. I'm not a seasoned ham by no means but I have a fair amount of time twiddling the knobs on some of the most sophisticated radios the government has. I understand Doug's desire for knobs, the more the better because when you are coaxing out those signals that are in the noise you have to adjust receiver parameters. These radios are not point and click, you have to caress them to get the best results. I have the FTDX-10 and operate from a desk. I don't have issues with knob crowding. I think Yaesu has created a good balance between operational performance and functional access with this radio. My only beef is when you drill down thru menu's I would like the menu to stay visible until I do something to close. A good example of this bad design is when you're in CW mode and you want to decode, you invoke the decoder by the touchscreen which then changes the Function Knob assignment. While you turn the function knob to see if the CW decode improves and dwell for more than a few seconds, the function knob will revert back to its previous function assignment. The way this works is stupid at best. If the same design team that did this on the FTDX-10 I can only imagine the menu abyss the FT-710 will be. Yaesu's lack of desire to change these operational hiccups is beyond me. I suspect it has to do with having to revisit the regulatory certifications. For those considering the FT-710. The main purpose we buy these radios is to communicate. If we can't hear, then we can't communicate. Digital signal processing (DSP) can only do so much. The better the signal we present to the DSP the better overall performance. There are reasons Sherwood puts the Yaesu's hybrid technology at the top of his list, it's the analog front ends of those radios that give the DSP a better signal to work with. The cost delta between FTDX-10 and the FT-710 is around 15% at the time of this post. When I made my buying decision on the FTDX-10 it was on the radio's architecture (from a major radio manufacturer) and my budget. Speakers are cheap! put your money in the receiver and antenna.
I like everything you said. Great commentary. Because of one word your comment was masked by the YT filter. Remove the curse word and your comment will remain visible.
It’s called a camera angle. The gap between the top radio and the bottom radio creates an illusion. The radios were even on the left side. I mentioned that in the video. Anyone can clearly see that one radio is smaller than the other. I think it’s stupid that I even need to explain this. Are you concerned that one radio is smaller than the other?
No. Not at all. It doesn’t have 2m and 70cm. It is more like a pure SDR version of the FTdx10 but with a different DSP chip. It’s like a FTdx10 lite. 73, de N4HNH
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If I understand correctly, AESS is some kind of active two-way speaker crossover. It seems strange to me that you can place that extra speaker box on either side of the rig. Wouldn't that cause all sorts of phase shifts around the cutoff frequency, especially if the speaker is mounted on the right?
No phase shifts. You’re probably referring to phase cancellation (aka comb filtering). Comb filtering happens when the same audible frequencies arrive at your ears from two different directions, milliseconds apart. The crossover separates the two frequency ranges in this case. 700 Hz and below, or 1,000 Hz and below, are sent to the internal speaker. Frequencies above the crossover point are sent to the external speaker. Higher frequencies are more directional so this method makes sense. There is more separation by mounting the SP-40 on the right-hand side. It’s a nice sound. It helps make up for the small resonance chamber of the radio. The internal speaker doesn’t have much of a resonance chamber to work with. Does it sound better than the FTdx10 with its SP-30? Stay tuned. I cover that in a future video. If anyone plans to use the FT-710 for portable operation, I recommend using headphones. A survey among the members of my Patreon team found that most use headphones, followed closely by external speaker, with very few using the internal speaker. This was a general survey - not about any particular transceiver. 73, de N4HNH
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@@n4hnhradio Yes, phase cancellation, but I couldn't recall the proper name. Thanks! It's going to be interesting to find out how AESS and SP-30 differ from one another.
If you run a dipole and put a loop antenna in the line does it eliminate background noise or static. I’ve heard this, but loops are 400+ dollars. Is this a value ?
I have never heard of that. Any antenna is prone to receiving noise unless it has low gain. A higher gain antenna will receive more atmospheric noise because of its gain. A horizontally-polarized antenna will tend to receive less atmospheric noise, because atmospheric noise is predominantly vertically polarized. My best antenna for gain is my 160m doublet. After that it’s my ZS6BKW, which is in the doublet family too. Great performers. The ZS6BKW has the lower noise floor on most bands but it don’t have as much gain as the doublet. The doublet is 250 feet of wire, fed in the middle with 450-Ohm ladder line. It comes into a 4:1 Balun. That long wire is multiple wavelengths long at the higher frequencies so it has much gain. The ZS6BKW is the best compromise of low noise high gain that I have ever used. 73, de N4HNH
@@n4hnhradio Mfj 1788 loop is supposed to cut down on a lot of the background noise associated with a dipole receive. I’m new at this so I thought your opinion would be good.
I’m wondering if you ran across someone referring to using a loop antenna for receiving, while transmitting with a dipole. You wouldn’t want to electrically connect a dipole and a loop together. Some transceivers have a dedicated receive only antenna port. You enable that port and the transceiver will switch to that antenna during receive but use your dipole to transmit. Depending upon how you install a loop antenna, it could help minimize local man-made noise. Installing the loop horizontally can do this. But, the radiation angle will be high, so the antenna favors regional signals, as opposed to long distance signals. Like I said previously, it’s about gain, which is achieved by redirecting an antenna’s pattern. I recommend watching the video where I use a balloon to illustrate how an antenna develops gain. It is in the “Learning Ham Radio” playlist, at this link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cNMmBbvg6s4.html If a loop is installed “standing up”, not horizontal to the ground (a popular one is the delta loop) it will receive far field (DX) signals better. But, in that case, it will also pull in more atmospheric noise, just like a dipole will. 73, de N4HNH
You won’t hear me complain. The FTdx5000MP is a 45-pound behemoth, but I love every ounce of it, because of its ergonomics. Well, and there’s the performance aspect of it too.
I prefer ganged knobs because they put two controls in the same place on the panel. The FT-710 wastes the entire right-hand side of the front panel for AF and RF Gain with two separate knobs. Then you have to use a knob at the lower left of the VFO to access the menu to set/change DSP settings. I change DSP settings more than I change AF or RF Gain.
@@n4hnhradio Anyway, I went ahead and ordered a FT-710 to use at a second home. I'll have a compromise antenna at this site so I'll be mostly FT8 or just listening anyway, and I like the smaller size. SCU-lan10 is unobtainable still but want that to run this remotely.
I wouldn’t consider either hi-fidelity. Ham radio audio falls predominantly in the 300-3,000 Hertz range. Both can listen 4kHz wide if DNR isn’t enabled and the width is set at maximum. Next Tuesday’s video is all about RX audio. 73, de N4HNH
Thanks for speedy reply, a very honest man on you tube who had both, said same thing, but he said more important than the Red,s the Black is more grey than on the 10, which makes for a better display, infact apparently its a better display than the large 7 inch on the 10MP, of course you can't compare those 2 performance price wise, it's possible that software updates have made the 710 close to the 10, but the Gentleman telling me that the difference was quite obvious, so I am going to buy the 10, am old School basic operator so sound filters and all that stuff is unimportant to me.
Firmware updates have improved the FT-710. It’s the best DNR there is at the moment. But it can’t quite beat the hybrid FTdx10. It’s also missing sine features that the FTdx10 has. It does have a peak-reading power meter option. I cover the differences in my 36 video tutorial series for the FT-710. I have 94 videos, this far, in my FTdx10 tutorial series.
So the Sherwood Engineering receiver performance numbers are in and the FT-710 is now placed right below the FTDX-10 with very similar numbers. Checking prices at HRO, the FT-710 is $200 less than the FTDX-10 and $50 more than the IC-7300. I think ICOM will have to lower the price of the IC-7300 to compete with the FT-710. As far as FT-710 vs FTDX-10 I think you save $200 and give up a little convenience. So I wonder if the days of the FTDX-10 are numbered. Black Friday pricing should be interesting.
I think the days of the FT-710 are numbered, unless Yaesu puts out an effective firmware update, assuming that the NXP chip is capable. Stay tuned to my series. I recommend not to make a purchase decision based solely on a CW test that uses a 500Hz filter to combat QRM from 2kHz away. I value that ranking very much too. But there is more to be considered. As I’ve shown in the FTdx5000 playlist, when I employ the rest of its features, it can beat my FTdx10. The FTdx5000 is currently 15th in Rob’s ranking. It is 14th after you consider footnote “y”. But, after fully utilizing the full capabilities of the FTdx5000MP, in day to day operation, it can beat the FTdx10. I chose it over the FTdx101MP.
The menu parameters are very similar, just accessed differently. Both use the same DSP chip. It’s just that the DNR algorithms are improved in the FTdx10. But the FT-991A would be my choice if I could only have one transceiver.
i played with both at hro and went with the 710 but i am coming from the 891 so i dont mind not having a ton of buttons. while playing with it at hro i hit buttons on accident and moved the vfo on accident a few times so i thought less is more for me
No it isn’t hard to get into the menu. It’s just that you have to get into a menu when each of those DSP functions has a dedicated knob on the FTdx10. No need to press this knob, rotate to select DSP parameter to set, press again, rotate to change the parameter, press again to lock in new parameter. With FTdx10 you reach for the knob that corresponds to the DSP parameter you wish to change and rotate it. Done. In fact, when you rotate the Notch filter knob, it automatically activates notch. It’s the same with APF. 73, de N4HNH
