YAESU FTX-1 OPTIMA (FT-991B)

Rather than wait until the end to reach my conclusion, I’m going to spit out my feelings about this radio right now!

It’s expensive (really expensive) and it’s somewhat disappointing😮 

Now bear in mind that this is just my opinion. I'm not an Icom fanboy and I'm not a Yaesu hater - I've bought more Yaesu radios than any other make. And finally, I should point out that I only discuss radios that I've purchased with my own personal money.

When bringing something to market, most manufacturers would look very carefully at the competition and seek to beat them at their own game. Consider Icom’s 7610 - a magnificent radio which offered top-notch performance and an incredible feature list which set the standard for a £3k base station. 

A few years later, Yaesu responded with their FT-DX101D and we all believed it would offer even more bang for the buck. It didn’t! Sure, it provided better Lab Figures for the number chasers, and it was a beautiful bit of kit, but in many respects, it failed (IMHO). Instead of introducing new and innovative features, it lacked so many of the everyday useful features that the IC-7610 had provided years earlier, including a built-in Server for remote-control operation, a QSO Recorder and even a real time Clock 😮. And the ergonomics sucked by comparison!! 

Well it seems that Yaesu have made the same mistake with the FTX-1. In 2019 Icom announced the ground-breaking IC-705 and it was peppered with new features which we all now take for granted, not to mention the most intuitive ergonomics ever! No wonder it was so successful! Meanwhile, Yaesu seemed happy to rely on sales of their 20+ year old FT817/818 design. 

Yes, 5 YEARS LATER in 2024, Yaesu announced their new QRP Shack-In-A-Box and it was supposed to be available in the UK in early 2025. January, February, March, April, May, June, July came and went. Nothing! Every month, the release got pushed back again and again. Many people (including me) had pre-ordered the £1600 radio and had to wait patiently for Yaesu to stop moving the delivery goal-posts.  My order eventually arrived early August 😮 

Everyone was hoping for an IC-705 Slayer and nobody got one (except the delusional people who claimed the FTX was a "game changer"😂).

The FTX-1 immediately started life behind the IC-705….

• NO BUILT-IN WIFI FOR REMOTE CONTROL
• NO BUILT-IN BLUETOOTH
• NO BUILT-IN GPS

It beggars belief that Yaesu would do this! It’s not like they didn’t know how high the bar was set. I wanted more from this new radio, not less! 

So on top of having to pay £400 more for an FTX-1 than an IC-705, we also have to pay extra for the things which are already included with the 705. Pffft!

Although I already own an IC-705, I really fancied the idea of the FTX-1, not least because it would give me the option of using C4FM during my outings along with WIRES-X connectivity. Unfortunately, the Wires-X connectivity is not available until later this year😡.

I must admit that I was surprised by the size of the FTX - I guess we’d been hoping for something light and compact, but it is, in fact, larger and heavier than the 705😲. The overall appearance is very pleasing and the screen looks every bit as good as the Icom’s screen, including when operating outdoors in sunlight. The Touch-Sensitivity of the Yaesu is definitely poorer than the Icom.

I find the Yaesu ergonomics inferior to Icom’s but that's personal preference to some degree. That 3D waterfall however, is just ridiculously gimmicky - but as I've said before about 3DSS, it keeps the Under-12's happy! Thankfully, the 2D waterfall is fine  (although the options to adjust the colours of the panadapter are limited - you get just a basic number of chavvy colours to choose from).

A big positive for the FTX-1 is the inclusion of the 4M band (UK) and the two antenna ports - I guess the larger cabinet makes that easy to do and it’s a shame that Icom hadn’t done the same.  It's a great pity that Yaesu chose to locate the HF BNC above the VHF/UHF BNC, because it means that you can't stick a vertical whip on the latter if you also have a HF antenna connected.

Neither the FTX-1 or the IC-705 has a built-in ATU and you really do have to shake your head at this omission, especially when Elecraft have been managing to squeeze a superb 20W ATU (and even batteries) into the tiny KX2 and KX3 transceivers for over a decade even though their cabinets are smaller! The Optima version does include an ATU but it can’t hold a candle to the Elecraft design or capability.

For just £250 😂, you can add an external Yaesu ATU to the Field radio but be aware that it can only handle 10W (so you're potentially always working at its limit) and it needs to be clipped to the back of the radio, adding more bulk. Since it cannot be used with any other radio, I definitely won't be buying one! I would recommend people buy the stunningly capable 20W Elecraft T1 ATU instead, or something like an LDG Z100 PLUS. Either of these will easily match a long wire, whereas the FC-80 will only cope with a 3:1 mismatch. 

One thing I was excited about was Yaesu's claim that this radio was Dual Receive, allowing you to listen to two different frequencies at the same time. Sadly, this is not available on the HF bands - it only works on the VHF/UHF bands and it's not full duplex!

There's one area of the new Yaesu which definitely shines - the audio! It is a great sounding radio thanks to the forward-facing speaker system they introduced on other radios like the FTM500 but it doesn't include the AESS system. The 705 also has a speaker on the front of the panel, but it's not quite as rich sounding as the FTX. Having said that, the 705's audio is a little punchier which may help when listening to very weak signals. Tomatoes, Tomatoes! If you prefer to use headphones, then there's no difference between them.

Sharing the same antenna with a switch, I was able to run both radios side by side to compare the incoming signals. Both radios have good receivers and apart from the different audio tone between one and the other, I was unable to tell any real difference. They both picked up the weakest of signals and the S-Meter readings were very closely matched (no pre-amps on). Switching on the “SuperDX” increases signal strength at the cost of much increased noise.

Where I could tell a difference between the FTX-1 and the 705 was on the bandscopes. On the 705 you could just about see a weak station (either on the scope, but more easily on the waterfall) but on the FTX-1 screen you could see no evidence of activity, even after adjusting the bandscope parameters. You could hear the weak station, but not see it. Hopefully this will be fixed with a firmware update. 

There's no mention of it, but looking at the block diagrams, I'd say that the FTX-1 looks closer to the DX10 architecture, than the 710. Smarter people than me will no doubt correct me. 

Moving around, changing settings on both radios showed me that the Icom was easier to work with than the Yaesu. Yes, I've had the Icom for four years and I'm very familiar with it, but even so, when I carried out an operation on the 705 and tried the same on the FTX, it was always more intuitive on the 705. There's quite a few 'quirks' in the Yaesu system that need sorting out and I don't doubt they'll be addressed quickly. Nevertheless, the Yaesu is a lovely radio and if it's your only one, you'll very quickly get used to it all.

A feature that I do like on the Yaesu is QMB which lets you very quickly store and recall a frequency. I use this when working QRP trying to break into a pileup. If I can't get through to the caller, I work elsewhere for a while until the pileup subsides and then go back to try again. QMB makes it easy to return to that frequency.

PMG is another handy feature common to modern Yaesu radios, It only works on VHF/UHF, but it stores your top five favourite frequencies and then scans them for activity.

The feel and quality of the FTX is good. As long as you keep that God-Awful 3D waterfall out of sight, you'll not feel like you're playing with a toy. All the buttons and rotaries feel good and operate smoothly. Because of the shape of the battery, the FTX-1 sits at a really useful angle, whereas the IC-705 needs a little prop.

The battery is a 6400mAh Li-ion which they reckon will last up to 9 hours on receive, which is pretty awesome. My IC-705 battery by comparison is only 3150mAh, but it has an RX period of 8 hours, so that suggests that the current consumption is almost twice as high on the FTX-1. Personally, I always carry an external LifePO4 13.2V 8400mAh battery when out and about.

YEASU FTX-1 OPTIMA

For those looking for a Portable and Base station, you can opt to spend a tad over £2,000 and invest in the OPTIMA version of the FTX-1. It's basically the same as the Field version but it has a 100W amplifier with a built-in ATU.

You can stick it in your shack at home and when you want to operate outdoors on a POTA/SOTA outing, just clip off the front panel and away you go! Well, I say 'clip off' but in reality there are five connection cables to release.

Some people have baulked at the £2069 asking price, but the fact is, you're getting a tailored 100W AMP/ATU for an extra £470 which will work not only on HF, but will also give you a juicy 50W on VHF/UHF. That's cheap!!!

This is the option I've went for. It makes perfect sense to me. In fact, before the Optima was announced, I was seriously considering cancelling my FTX-1 pre-order because of the poor spec compared to the 705. I just found it hard to accept that this all new, all dancing radio didn't include WiFi for remote-control, Bluetooth or GPS. And even worse than having to pay extra for GPS, I had to have an ugly dongle sticking out of the side of my lovely FTX, begging to be snapped off, possibly causing damage to the radio 😲 And fitting the BlueTooth option involves sticking it to the radio with 3M double-sided tape!😲 God help you if you have to remove it for whatever reason.

Yaesu really annoy me with their penny-pinching antics, such as their well known rip-off SCU Leads, etc, and so it came as no surprise that you even have to pay extra for a little carry handle on the £2069 Optima 😡👿

Anyway, despite my apparent negativity (did I mention that the FTX-1 was launched without Wires-X connectivity and with broken APRS?), I committed to buying the Optima and to pay for it I sold my Elecraft KX3 and my SunSDR2DX. Am I happy I bought it? Yes! It really is a nice radio. I've seen lots of videos demonstrating many faults and glitches, but I'm hoping that all these faults will get sorted out in due course with firmware updates.

The FT-991A used to be one of my favourite radios but I couldn't live with its inability to run Wires-X directly on a PC. To me, the FTX-1 Optima is effectively the FT-991B and I very much welcome all the (long awaited) updates it brings to that particular radio. 

Finally, as a ShortWave Listener radio, the FTX-1 does pretty well. It doesn't have quite the same receive range as a 705, but it includes everything that most SWL's would be interested in, including Ham, Broadcast, Air and Marine bands. The RX range is 30kHz-174MHz and 400MHz-470MHz, all modes!

I think the Optima will spend most of its life in my shack as a Base Station and the IC-705 will continue to spend most of its life in my RuckShack. No doubt I'll take the FTX-1 outdoors occasionally, but it's likely to be on POTA type outings rather than SOTA type.

I'll update this page when I've had the radio longer and after a real significant firmware update.

As far as I'm concerned, Yaesu marketed this as a premium Field Radio but dropped a Beta on us. Outrageous! Yes, all new radios have minor issues and if you paid a couple of hundred bucks for a budget Chinese radio, you'd likely be more tolerant of glitches, bugs and omissions, but when you're paying top dollar to one of the world's leading manufacturers, your expectations are (quite rightly) much higher.

What will annoy me is if all the initial-release faults can't be resolved by software changes and they quickly bring out an updated "Gen-2" model with new hardware. Oh boy, that better not happen!!     

Thanks for visiting the page and (hopefully) leaving a comment below about your own experience/opinion.

73, Tom, M7MCQ.

  

 ISSUES AT LAUNCH:

• Poor APRS Reception
• No APRS REPLY function 
• Non-Functioning WiresX
• CW Sidetone noise on Optima
• CW Memories lost
• Occasional TX Fail - need to reset radio
• Poor Bandscope sensitivity
• Screen Tuning Cursor disappears - need to reset radio
• Dodgy Menu operations
• PTT dropping during transmission
• Other

KANGA ROCKROSE CW KIT

Hi all, this is a Quick Look at the RockRose CW Transceiver Kit from Kanga. I’m a rank amateur and my electronics knowledge can be described as little to none, so I only write this to demonstrate that even a dummy like me can enjoy putting together simple kits like these. There are only around thirty components in this kit, so it’s not going to take long to build, although you will spend a little extra time calibrating it and you will need another transceiver to do that.

So the tiny RockRose from Kanga is a 3W single-band CW transceiver which comes with a high quality SMD-populated PCB which uses IC-Sockets to make construction easier. The components are all well packaged and separated into groups. There are two toroids to wind.

The kit includes a very nice (black) aluminium case which goes together very well and even comes with some rubber feet. There’s even a magnifying glass included in the kit!

There are no printed instructions in the box, so you will need to download them from the Kanga website - making sure to download the correct one to match the band you chose (40M, 30M or 20M).  I opted for the 40M crystal-controlled version and I also purchased the optional volume control. I must say that the instructions are absolutely tip-top and provide all the information you need to build a working transceiver - they include lots of handy tips and interesting background info on the RockRose design.

The kit arrived quickly and was well packaged. It took no time at all to populate the pcb and there were no issues whatsoever. I started by winding the two tiny toroids - they both had the same number of turns (in my 40M version, anyway). I always do this task first for some reason - it’s like ‘get them out of the way’ 😂

After that, I installed the DC Socket, making sure that it was perfectly aligned so that it mated up with the aperture in the case. This is very important, so only solder one pin of the socket and then try the alignment before soldering the other two pins. The same care should be taken installing the 3.5 mm jack-sockets and the two switches. Alignment is important!

From there, I populated the rest of the board as per the instructions and carried out the very useful multimeter tests along the way to make sure I had got things right. I almost got caught out despite a red warning in the manual by inserting a capacitor in the wrong location!

On the pcb there is C8 and C8’ and it’s very important that you don’t get them mixed up. To be honest, I think the labelling should be changed and the idea of using an apostrophe be dropped for eternity!

Before I knew it, the kit was built and it was ready to calibrate. As I said previously, you need another transceiver for this, so I pulled out my lovely IC-705.

I had to connect a dummy load to the RockRose and turned the power right down as instructed in the manual. Using a paddle, I transmitted in short bursts to see what frequency it was transmitting on. Using the 705 made this a super simple process, because I could see the signal on the panadapter and easily make the necessary tx-trimmer adjustments on the RockRose to make sure I was transmitting on 7.030MHz.  I then transmitted on the 705 and adjusted the RockRose RX-trimmer to make sure the receiver was aligned correctly. 

Following that process, you flick the A/B switch on the front panel and make sure that the radio is transmitting 800Hz higher. During the trimmer adjustments, it’s easier if you have some tiny plastic screwdriver bits - otherwise metal bits will introduce some noise during the tuning.

With the calibration completed, it’s time to adjust the radio’s power output to a usable level. I followed Kanga’s advice and avoided operating it at full power - I chose a setting of 2.5W using a QRP power meter which I calibrated with my IC-705.

With that job done, it was time to put the pcb in its case and run some tests on the Reverse Beacon Network. At the time, I had no choice but to connect the radio to a compromised vertical using a tuner (Elecraft T1) and will have to do more testing later outdoors with a resonant antenna in more favourable conditions, but for now, this will have to do. 

Now bear in mind that for this first test, conditions were appalling! I could barely hear any activity on air and I switched to the IC-705 to make sure it wasn’t the RockRose, but it wasn’t.  Anyway, I pushed on and made some CQ TEST calls. The furthest I reached was SE5E. 

    

Although I was hoping for more spots, it does at least prove that the RockRose is fully functional and my tiny 2.5W signal has travelled 850 miles in terrible conditions using a compromised antenna. I very much look forward to taking this with me when I next go out in the field, where I’m sure it will perform superbly.

I highly recommend this little radio - it’s a great kit, using high quality components and comes with superb build-guidance. It features a built-in keyer, Auto-CQ, adjustable key speed and has a flexible voltage input range of 9-14V.  I use a triple 18650 4000mAh battery pack.

I’ve bought a few Kanga Kits including the ROOSTER and TRANSMATCH and have never been disappointed - quite the opposite!

If you’d like to build one of these kits, visit Paul’s website.

Thanks for looking at my blog - leave a comment below.

73, Tom, M7MCQ.

 

 

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KIT BUILDING!

There's little that I like more than having an electronics kit sat waiting for me to make a start on it. Typically, I buy one and then leave it on a shelf for a good while, waiting for the perfect time to begin construction, with an equal mix of apprehension and excitement.

I know practically nothing about electronics and yet I've been building little 'hobby' projects for years, starting with Veroboard kits in the 80's and 90's from Practical Electronics magazines and similar publications (do you remember the Penfold series of books?). I have many fond memories of dashing down to my local electronics store (Modern Radio in Bolton) to give them my list of components as prescribed by the project author.

I never really understood what I was doing, but I thoroughly enjoyed putting the 'puzzles' together. Sometimes I got it right and sometimes I ended up walking to the trashcan. Even when things didn't work out for me, I was never really disappointed enough to quit - in fact it made me more determined to get the next project right. Many of the kits I made back then had pretty obscure uses, but some were related to my main hobby of SWL. Happy days 😊

In more recent times, I've turned to proper kits as opposed to magazine projects. Things which are made professionally and are related to Ham Radio usually. The first kit was a simple transistor radio based on a famous design from the 60's. This was a gift from my wife and I really enjoyed putting it together. It sits on a shelf nearby and is regularly used. It's a Tecsun 2P3 and is available from Amazon amongst other places, for less than £30. It takes no time at all to knock together and is just light fun.

After that, I discovered QRP-LABS and decided to try building their QDX Digital Transceiver. It was in high demand and it took me a while to get hold of one. I loved this kit so much that I ended up building another one. They perform magnificently and the quality of the kits is extremely high (and so too is the documentation and support from Hans Summers). It's an easy to build kit and should present few problems. For me, the toroid-winding was a little difficult because I'd never wound them before and I dreaded it! But now I realise just how straight-forward they actually are.

The QDX builds taught me quite a lot and formed a good foundation for my future builds. Next up was a QCX which I stumbled upon at a Radio Rally. From memory, it cost me a tenner and although there was a big problem during the construction of this kit, it taught me some valuable lessons in patience and perseverance.

 

Around the same time I discovered KANGA kits and ordered their 2W Rooster CQ Transceiver kit. This was a cheap, very simple build and was good fun. I've since ordered the new RockRose Kit.

In addition to the above transceiver kits, I've also built a couple of the Kanga antenna transmatch units, which work really well and are easy to build.

My next QRP-LABS kit was the wonderful QMX, but boy, it was a tough build!! Having said that, it worked straight away and I was quite pleased with myself considering the fact that the twin (stacked) PCBs in this radio are tightly packed with components, leaving almost no space between them. Unless you are desperate to build a tiny transceiver, I would advise you to skip this kit in favour of the PLUS kit below.

And so my next Hans Summer kit was the QMX PLUS which is infinitely easier to build than the regular QMX. The reason for the ease of build is the much larger design which uses a single PCB. Having said that, some of the solder pads on this board are incredibly small, making it difficult to get your soldering iron to make equal contact with the pad and the component. The large ground plane adds to the difficulty. Other than that though, it's a pleasure to build this kit (although my kit had a faulty PCB) 😮.

Another enjoyable kit was the EXPLORER from Radio Kits here in the UK. This one had over 800 soldering points but it didn't feel like there were that many. I really enjoyed this one, even though I experienced some issues. I'm pleased to say that the designer was incredibly helpful with troubleshooting ideas and pretty soon the radio was up and running.

Next up was a compact ATU from AliExpress. Cheap, cheerful and effective! Capable of handling 100W (they say), so definitely capable of handling 25W of constant carrier operations such as FT8, leaving a wide safety margin. You can find these all over the place and they're very easy to build.

I've also put together a HERMES LITE II PLUS kit which isn't much of a kit at all - more of a modular design which involves very little work at all. Having said that, I did a couple of mods on mine. These are superb SDRs by the way!!

Finally, I recently put together a portable FT8 kit requiring no computer to operate - it's a self-contained transceiver with a colour touch-screen and a tiny output of 0.5W. It is easy to construct and works amazingly well!

So that's about it. I've really enjoyed tinkering with these kits and look forward to building more as and when they become available. The QMX PLUS has been particularly rewarding because it has turned out to be an incredibly capable transceiver and the latest firmware has added SSB to the mix. If you only ever build one kit - make it this one!

And if you're not feeling very confident, please - just have a go!! What's the worst that can happen?

Thanks for visiting the blog.

73, Tom, M7MCQ.

DX-FT8 TABLET TRANSCEIVER

PORTABLE FT8 ANYONE?

While browsing AE5X's excellent blog, I saw a post about a forthcoming product which is due to be made available some time in early 2025.

It's a portable QRPp 5-Band FT8 Transceiver Tablet with a touch-screen. It covers the 10, 12, 15, 17 & 20M bands and puts out less than 1W with a 5V power supply (perfect for using with a small USB Power Bank). It's going to be less than 7"x4" in size which pretty much makes it a pocket-radio! I just love this ultra low-power stuff - it's what keeps me interested in the hobby.

Following further enquiries, I immediately placed a pre-order for one from K5BCQ and it will hopefully be shipped out in February. These kits cost around $40, so no big investment required.

In the meantime, I have also ordered (and received) another item which you have to obtain separate to the kit - the STM32 Development Board from Digikey.

 

I'm very much looking forward to building this kit and will review the completed product in due course. You can find out more about this project by visiting THIS WEBSITE.

I’ve created a FACEBOOK GROUP for anyone who wants to share info/tips/help on that platform. I’d be delighted to see you join, if it’s of interest to you 👍

 

UPDATE JUNE 2025

Due to many other commitments (and changes in my life), I've only just been able to dig out the kit and put it together.

It went together pretty quickly and easily - the instructions on the GitHub Page were clear enough to me, but I have seen people posting instructional videos who have got it wrong(!) so beware.

Your first job is to unpack all the components and lay them out to check that nothing's missing. In the 5-BAND kit, there's only an SMA antenna socket, two switches, a DC Jack and a 3-pin Male/Female connector.

You also get a DC lead, some inline-pin connectors and the nylon screws, nuts and posts. Please note that the photo above shows the screen board which you buy separately from Digikey/Mouser, etc.

Make sure when you're soldering the inline-pin connectors that you locate them on the right side of the PCB!! I've seen videos where people have soldered them on the component side of the board - which is wrong - read the manual and only solder a couple of pins before checking that everything's straight and flush...

Some have installed the CR2032 battery case the wrong way round - why, I've no idea! There's a clear diagram printed on the PCB to show which way it's fitted 😮

The trickiest part for many people is soldering the 3 wires to the audio socket (above) and to the 3-pin connector (below)...

With these 3 wires (not supplied) you just need to bear in mind that the the center-pin is GND and the other two are I-OUT and Q-OUT. It's not mission critical if you get the I and Q the wrong way around - it will result in no reception and can quickly be resolved by flipping the connector. It's basically swapping between LSB and USB.

When I'd finished putting the kit together, it was time to switch on by connecting a 12V supply to the DC connector. This will produce a screen like the one below. At this point you need to install the firmware as described in the instructions.

Once you have the firmware installed, you need to FORMAT a micro-sdcard (I used a 4Gb card) and create a StationData.txt file as per the guide.

When I inserted the sdcard and powered up the DX-FT8, it initially resulted in an error message - No Callsign, No Locator. This was because I had formatted the card using the 'QUICK FORMAT' option, so I reformatted with that option unticked.

With that issue sorted, the next switch-on revealed that there was no audio and no waterfall. 😭😭😭

I requested help on the IOGROUPS page and thankfully, someone called Ward Weaton came along to point out that his had also been deaf and it turned out to be one of the chips on the board that wasn't soldered properly! With that information, I reflowed the solder connections on all eight pins and hey presto!😁

Once I was happy that the DX-FT8 was fully operational, I installed the top and bottom covers and left the radio running for a while to see what happened. I had no choice but to use a very compromised vertical antenna, but nevertheless (and despite shocking band conditions), the radio (in beacon mode) attracted confirmed contacts from as far as Belarus.

Checking in on PSKreporter, I could see that the tiny output of the DX-FT8 was being detected as far as 5,436km away!😲 Excellent!!

When the band conditions get better 😒 I'm very much looking forward to taking this to the top of a hill with me and seeing how much DX I can log with such little power. Love this QRP stuff 💖

By the way, there's a 7-BAND version available now.

73, Tom, M7MCQ.