Mt Washington Wx CAM
New Yaesu FT-991 HF/VHF/UHF Multimode Portable Transceiver
Yaesu has released their new FT-991 HF/VHF/UHF Multimode Portable Transceiver. This new transceiver is a 100 Watt HF and 50 Mhz and 50 Watt 144/430 amateur radio transceiver for portable and mobile operations. This rig is really a replacement for the old Yaesu FG-847. I have seen street prices from $1,590 to $1,700. The Yaesu has DSP in HF/VHF/UHF with two Roofing Filters at 3 KHz and 15 KHz. The Yaesu FT-991 transceiver is NOT a Down Conversion Receiver, so the receiver will not be as good as the FTDX-3000 or the Kenwood TS-590SG. So far at the time I am writing this, Sherwood Engineering has not tested the FT-991. In an interesting note, the Elecraft K3 with the new Synthesizer Board ranks a very close number 2 on the Sherwood Engineering Receiver Tests. The updated FlexRadio Systems 6700 barely surpasses the new Elecraft K3 108 dB to 107 dB on the Dynamic Range, Narrowed Spaced test. This new transceiver has Roofing Filter technology that has been proven in their other lines. For the money, the Kenwood TS-590SG is hard to beat for one of the best receivers around and the best in its class, even though it just covers HF and 6 meters.
The FT-991 has a 3.5" Full Color TFT Display and has an Advanced Spectrum Scope just below the display. It has a USB connector to go to your computer for CAT control and firmware updates. Does this sound like SDR (Software Defined Radio)? It is a multi-mode transceiver with operations on CW, AM, FM, SSB, and Digital. The digital modes include Packet, PSK31, RTTY, and C4FM. C4FM is Yaesu's version of Digital Voice.
I for one do not like the fractured implementation of Digital Voice. Each radio manufacturer has its own encoding. Some of the primary digital voice encoding methods are APCO-25, D-STAR, DMR, and FreeDV, which is Codec2. Project 25, which is also know by P25 or APCO-25, is a standard for digital communications used by the federal, state, and local public safety agencies in the U.S. and other parts of North America. P25 is being deployed in several phases, each with advantages over the other. Phase 1 radios employ Continuous 4 level FM, or C4FM that is used by Yaesu. D-STAR is an FDMA and GMSK digital voice and data protocol that the Japan Amateur Radio League developed in the late 90's for amateur radio. This method had been deployed by Icom. It uses a proprietary AMBE Codec. DMR or Digital Mobile Radio, is an open digital mobile standard used by the European Telecommunications Standard Institute. It is used in commercial radios world-wide. FreeDV is an open source application that allows your to use digital voice on SSB via a low bit rate. Anyway, back the Yaesu FT-991!
The high speed floating decimal DSP (max 3000 MIPS / 2250 MFLOPS) utilizes the Texas Instruments TMS320C6746 DSP chip. It provides very good interference rejection in HF/VHF/UHF bands. So this is not just DSP for the HF bands. The Yaesu FT-991 measures 8.8"(W) x 3" (H) x 9.9" (L) at just 9.7 pounds. It has a high speed internal antenna tuner with 100 memory channels. It also deploys a High Accuracy TCXO at +/-0.5PPM resolution.
Known Specifications:
- Display: 3.5 inch wide LCD with High Speed Spectrum Scope
- RX Frequency Range: 30 KHz to 56 MHz, 118 MHz to 164 MHz, 420 MHz to 470 MHz
- TX Frequency Range: 1.8 MHz to 54 MHz. 144 MHz to 148 MHz, 430 MHz to 450 MHz
- Transmitter Power: 5 to 100 Watts, 2 to 25 Watts AM
- Receivers: One (1)
- Modes: A1A(CW), A3E(AM), J3E(LSB, USB), F7W(C4FM), F3E(FM), F1D(PACKET), F2D(PACKET)
- Roofing Filters: Two (2), all Up-Conversion
- DSP Processors: 1 @ IF-DSP TMS320C6746 DSP chip (3000 MIPS / 2250 MFLOPS) from Texas Instruments
- Receiver:
- Triple-Conversion Superheterodyne: SSB/CW/AM
- Double Conversion (FM/C4FM) Configuration, 1st IF is set at 69.450 MHz
- Roofing Filters 3 kHz and 15 kHz as standard equipment
- IF WIDTH and IF SHIFT provides great QRM Rejection
- CONTOUR, DNR, IF Notch and APF (Audio Peak Filter, CW only)
- Interfaces:
- 2 @ Antenna Connections
- Linear
- Tuner
- RTTY/Packet
- CAT Port (Serial)
- 1 @ USB Port
- Built-In CW Keyer
- Power Supply: 13.8 Volts at 22 Amps, NOT INCLUDED
- Antenna Tuner: Built-In Automatic Antenna Tuner
- Weight: 9.1 Pounds (~4.13 Kilograms)
- Price: Street Price between $1,589 and $1,700
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