WORTHY SWAP?

[Sonar]

I bought my ft 950 for $600. The guy I bought it from used the money to partially fund his ft dx 1200 purchase.
He's been using the 1200 for almost a month. He wants to take the 950 and $300 in trade for the 1200.
According to him he's not happy with the recive of 1200. His exact words were "I like the recive on the ft 950. It's better than the ftdx1200". I don't know how the ft 950 receives because I haven't used it yet and won't be until my new antenna install. My research and YouTube clips were what led me to wanting the ft 950 in the first place (my first hf).
Doing the swap will equate to me buying a 1 month old ftdx1200 for $900 not including the cost of the mars mod.
I did some research and read some other complaints about the recive on the 1200 as compared to the 950.
Anyone have experience with both transceivers?
I'll be using the 950 strictly on 11 meters (no license). I guess it would be easy asking if a month old ftdx1200 is worth $900/$1000 and is the difference between the 1200 and 950 worth $300/$400? The 950 had the mars mod when I bought it and the 1200 doesn't.
I'm guessing it's going to cost about $100 to get it on 11 meters. Bringing the cost to a k. And maybe for a rig that might not recive as well as what I already own.
The 1200 looks a lot nicer but looks aren't everything. Are they in this case? Thanks 73.

 

[M0GVZ]

I bought my ft 950 for $600. The guy I bought it from used the money to partially fund his ft dx 1200 purchase.
He's been using the 1200 for almost a month. He wants to take the 950 and $300 in trade for the 1200.
According to him he's not happy with the recive of 1200. His exact words were "I like the recive on the ft 950. It's better than the ftdx1200".

Nobody is happy with the receive on the FTDX1200 apart from those who bought one as their first radio. Why would you want to pay $300 more for a radio where even the seller says it is a worse receiver?

Don't get too excited by the waterfall display on it. Its a mickey mouse one that mutes the receive audio when its working, the colours are crap, you can't alter its sensitivity so if you live somewhere where its noisy you won't see weaker signals anyway and for 11m is wasted. Its not an Icom 7300 or a Flexradio display.

 

[Tallman]

I would keep what you have. Higher tech would be wasted on 11 meters, and you would be giving up a better radio for a lesser one.

 

[w9cll]

So let me get this right.. you want to trade a rig that is working great for one the seller says he is not happy with and will perform worse according to the seller? Do you get distracted by shinny things?.. seriously re-read your post and answer your own question. Don't get caught up in bling....

 

[Sonar]

Nobody is happy with the receive on the FTDX1200 apart from those who bought one as their first radio. Why would you want to pay $300 more for a radio where even the seller says it is a worse receiver?

Don't get too excited by the waterfall display on it. Its a mickey mouse one that mutes the receive audio when its working, the colours are crap, you can't alter its sensitivity so if you live somewhere where its noisy you won't see weaker signals anyway and for 11m is wasted. Its not an Icom 7300 or a Flexradio display.

I knew the screen/waterfall is of little if any use to me due to the fact that I'm only operating on 11 meters but I do lots of "'freebanding" so knowing when other frequency's are active might be a nice option.
Now that the cycle is ending it's a possibility I'll be getting my license. I've done a bit more research since my op and found many complaints about the ftdx 1200's recive issues. I'm going to pass on the swap. I'm going use the ft 950 for now and if I decide to upgrade it will only be when and if I get my ticket. Several locals already own the 7300 and it's obviously an excellent transceiver especially in that price range. If I didn't get the 950 at the price i did I might be the happy owner of a 7300. I hope the near future brings Kenwood to offer an hf thats comparable to the 7300. I'm someone who has always enjoys listening to kenwoods and their audio. I also own a ts 450 and might make the ft 950 the backup. I'll decide that once I begin using them. The end of the cycle was a game changer as far as operator's who got into the hobby somewhere at the height of dx propagation. Equipment and their prices have been affected tremendously. I won't be surprised to begin seeing the 7300 going for $700-$900 on the used market soon enough. I'm lucky enough to be in an area where there's many locals (AM and SSB) on may channels between 1 and 40. I'll enjoy the local rag chew until the next cycle. Of course the time I spend on the air has been cut to a third. I do enjoy dxing more than the local stuff but I still like operating my equipment and that's enough to keep me interested. 73

 

[Sonar]

So let me get this right.. you want to trade a rig that is working great for one the seller says he is not happy with and will perform worse according to the seller? Do you get distracted by shinny things?.. seriously re-read your post and answer your own question. Don't get caught up in bling....

After listening to and rarely complaining about the double conversion front-end on my madison I don't think a triple conversation receiver could possibly give me any reason to dislike it. I've decided to not do the swap with the 1200's recive issue not really being a deciding factor. I purchased a west mountain dsp speaker for use on my madison and even though the 950 has dsp I'll be using the external dsp speaker on it anyway. I'm not sure if that type of device would help the ftdx 1200's recive issue but I'm sure it couldn't hurt. Like I said I'm sticking with the ft950 and sure I'll be very happy. The money I spent on it can't be beat. IMO Thanks. 73

 

[M0GVZ]

A bit of a hint with the FT950. You'll notice there's a function called CONTOUR. It can be used to attenuate frequencies in the received audio passband but it can also be used to boost them. If you set it to around +6dB and adjust it so its working around 2000Hz it'll improve the intelligibility of incoming SSB.

For transmit, follow these settings for the TX EQ from Bob Heil. They work great even with a stock mic. Don't go mad with the PROC and I had mic gain set to 10 o'clock position.

http://www.heilsound.com/amateur/support/dsp-settings/all-things-yaesu

ALSO MOST IMPORTANT seeing as people seem to be obsessed by judging a receiver by the S meter reading:

When you have the narrow roofing filters selected (3kHz, 6kHz) they have a 6dB insertion loss. This means your S meter will show a 1-2 S point reading LOWER than it will without the 3/6kHz roofing filters inline so if you don't think its receiving as well as you think it should compared to what other people are saying they're getting then check that.

 

[Sonar]

A bit of a hint with the FT950. You'll notice there's a function called CONTOUR. It can be used to attenuate frequencies in the received audio passband but it can also be used to boost them. If you set it to around +6dB and adjust it so its working around 2000Hz it'll improve the intelligibility of incoming SSB.

For transmit, follow these settings for the TX EQ from Bob Heil. They work great even with a stock mic. Don't go mad with the PROC and I had mic gain set to 10 o'clock position.

http://www.heilsound.com/amateur/support/dsp-settings/all-things-yaesu

ALSO MOST IMPORTANT seeing as people seem to be obsessed by judging a receiver by the S meter reading:

When you have the narrow roofing filters selected (3kHz, 6kHz) they have a 6dB insertion loss. This means your S meter will show a 1-2 S point reading LOWER than it will without the 3/6kHz roofing filters inline so if you don't think its receiving as well as you think it should compared to what other people are saying they're getting then check that.

Thanks for the information. I can't tell you how many articles I've read on where to begin as far as the best starting settings for the ft 950. I've yet to take it out of it's box. Being it's my first hf I'm a bit intimidated by controls and menus. I received a quick reference guide with the transceiver but help from someone who's used or uses the ft 950 is a great help. Thanks 73

 

[222DBFL]

Listen to how they are telling you to set it up as far as receive and transmit. It truly is amazing what you can do. Get rid of a lot of unwanted noise and BS. And have great transmit audio with a stock mic! I run the stock mic and use slight compression and correct mic settings as well as RF gain, NR, and ATT, as well as the PBT, to keep noise to a minimum and incoming signals every readable. Like said, you might not show the same signal, but the audio is almost the exact same as far as loudness goes. Setting it up right will take some time, so don't rush!! And enjoy that radio!! Read the manual and then slowly mess with the settings, making small adjustments and seeing what they do. JMHO's. It took me a long time to get used to my IC746. And I still learn things everyday!! Glad that I do, as it only makes it a better radio to me. Glad I got away from spending $3-$400 on new exports and spent what I did on my Icom!! As well as my kenwood ts140S as well! Totally worth it!! Anyways, again, have fun with the radio and again, take your time setting it up!!
73 and God Bless.