Yaesu FT-2000

The Yaesu FT-2000 is one complex piece of ham gear. It seems that there is a real love/hate divide with this rig among hams, especially regarding the receiver performance. It is very daunting, there are about 100 different buttons and knobs on the front panel alone. (Compare that with only 17 on the front panel of a 1980 vintage Kenwood TS-120S!) On top of the dizzying array of front panel buttons and knobs , there are also about 150 different menu options hidden behind the MENU button. This radio is NOT for the casual "appliance" operator, which is what seems to get a lot of people in trouble with it. I still have not mastered all this radio will do, and I probably will never will.

Here is a page with how I have the FT-2000 menu options set, and the macros for the Digital Voice Recorder (DVR) set in the N1MM logging software.

I have had no real problems with mine (a very clean 2007 vintage) , which was bought from an estate re-seller on E-Bay. It already came equipped with the optional 300 Hz CW Collins Mechanical filter, much to my surprise when I opened the lid up. I joined the FT-2000 Users Group on Yahoo and that has been a big help to me, but I have made one minor hardware modification to the radio.

The FT-2000 has provisions for two separate transmit/receive antennas, plus a separate receive only antenna. I feed the selection of HF antennas into ANT1, the 6 meter yagi is tied to ANT2, and the Beverage is connected to the RX port. Some people have reported front end damage (blown FET amps) from close transmit antennas on ANT1 overloading the other ANT2 and RX antenna ports. Since ANT2 is shorted to ground when ANT1 is activated, I can't see where the problem is there. The auxiliary RX port though, is another matter. As a precaution, I added a couple of 1N4148 small signal diodes, cathode to anode and anode to cathode, across the RX antenna jack to essentially limit signals to less than 0.7V. The mod is VERY easy to do once the top lid is removed, as you can see below: