Sherwood Tests on QRP Radios with Comments

Rob Sherwood NC0B is the expert when it comes to radio measurements and right now the Yaesu FT-101Mp is top dog! I know I know the Flex guys are angry but they spend more time doing windows updates to use their radio.

Check out the excellent work of FMH and his excel. His fingers must hurt after the entering of data.

Rigs, Price and Satisfaction Studies

Rob Sherwood NC0B

1. I agree on the KX3. Its roofing filters and DSP chain is well done

2. No experience with Ten-Tec

3. Never seen one

4. Flex 1500 – the latency on CW will drive you crazy and is reliant on your laptop

5. The Icom with a RM Italy 100 watt amp works just like a 7300 and its a great contest radio but not a field day radio

6. ARRL results similar but I have only seen 1 in Canada and the guy sold it not long afterwards to get a 705

7. The G90 is OK but its front end isn’t that good due to the lack of RF filtering and being true SDR

8. No idea as I know no one who has it

9. I would place it along with the KX3 but its a bit stripped down so the performance is less

10. The ARRL reviews were just as bad. For an emergency flyaway radio this is acceptable but not for parks on the air or even as a home radio. I have contacted the company many times with no response. I think if it was better it would sell like crazy as its a great radio with great features.

Why the Yaesu 857/897/817/818 are not covered may hide the fact they too suffer a bit from poor DR3 performance from my experience. Yes, they have a wide front end, seem noisy and collapse near strong signals but then these are sold as portable radios where Contest Grade performance is not expected. They are poor radios for Field Day. Why?

Field Day is an all modes and multi-transmitter event.  Most stations have 3 to 6 transmitters on the air at one time, sometimes even two on the same band – one on CW and one on SSB.  The DR3 specs are critical at 100 Khz, 20 Khz and maybe 5 Khz. Due to the SDR technology and trying to filter out using software instead of tight half-octave RF bandpass filters, the 7300 overloads and collapses. The 7610 is way better in this regards and the DR3 improved by 10 db because its got the RF filters in place. For many they don’t care but go try POTA with your buddies and watch their 7300s collapse as their neighbour is 40 feet away. Call it splatter or intermod or whatever its the same thing.

Hence, the Icom 705 and the KX3 being able to be a base radio with an amplifier as well as a portable radio. The RF amplifiers filters add some extra filtering on the front end but really one needs bandpass filters as best practice.

My 2 buddies have the filters that they use during POTA so they don’t wipe each other out.

Nothing wrong with whatever you buy just don’t expect a contest radio from a portable radio   705 and KX3 exempted from real world practical experience.

Hence, my dragging out my Yaesu FT-1000 with all the Collins crystal filters and band pass filter to enjoy a splatter free weekend. Ok, I may be the one causing the splatter but I cannot help your FT-897 radio because i am not splattering you , your radio’s front end is collapsing due to signal overload and poor RF filtering up front.

Choose the best DR3 performance at 2Khz for CW and 5Khz for sideband.

Yaesu uses roofing filters like everyone else and you know its on target when they make a difference in their use.

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