Mark:
Au Contrare
The real question is if you want to buy a radio that was unfinished when it was first released and still is subject to a number of serious deficiencies that have resulted in a serious decrease in its sales price.

The FT-2000 is the subject of a substantial controversy. You can read my complete review of the problems tha led to me selling mine on the eHam foums.

One has to be very careful who to listen to regarding the FT-2000. The oiginal forum called the ft-2000 group became a place where anyone who offered any criticism of the rig was subjected to insufferable flaming and slander. Even one of the original moderators of that group, a highly respected RF engineer, finally became so disgusted he quit. As a reault unless you are simply an ESSB fan you will not get any honest evaluation of the FT-2000 on that forum and virtaully all of those who are technically qualified have abandoned it.

A second open forum called the FT2000_new was formed where serious criticism and evaluation of the rig has taken place without the flaming that was the hallmark of the original forum. Several of the participants in that forum are incredibly gifted techs and rf engineers.

While Yaesu has offered a series of software and firmware updates to the fT-2000 you can read the reuslts on the FT2000_new forum to the effect that when one lump is pushed down another pops up. So some of those who are serioulsy trying to overcome the original limitations of the rig have resorted to mixing and matching the releases - a daunting task indeed. Moreover Yaesu has not made any effort to resolve the hardware deficiencies in the rig.

For example, it was discovered early on that the 3 kHz roofing filter was seriouly flawed and that the 3 Khz was measured at 3 dB down the profile instead of 6 dB as is the industry standard. In addition, even with that measurment deficiency the 2 kHz IMDDR was simply not state-of-the-art, even if it was accepted as -68 dBm, which is also in doubt as confirmed by several highly qualified techs including Rob Sherman. (Note even Sherman was flamed when he reported his findings).

Recently several mods have been proposed and installed using INRAD filters and another one is in the works with an even better filter design. Even with the INRAD filter the 2 KhZ IMDDR was increased to over -80 dBm, which is much better for contesters but still not as good as the K3 for example.

Many contesters have been very critical of the FT-2000, particularly those in europe. Numerous problems with intermod distoriton have been reported with some claiming that the rig was simply not usable in highly congested contest situations.

In the end it depends on what you intend to do with the rig. I suggest you read the messges opn the FT2000_new forum to get a better understanding of the problems suffered by its owners.

I was very sorry to have to part with what is otherwise a beautiful rig. But until Yaesu steps up to the plate (as they have with the 9000 it will be my last Yaesu rig.

BTW, the rig I replaced it with is the ICOM 756 PRO III which I have set up in an SO2R configuration with a Kenwood TS-940SAT. (My article on this setup is sechduled to be published in the National Contest Journal Sept. Oct. issue).

73
Bill
W7VP

--- In wwdxc@yahoogroups.com, "JAMES ROCKEY" <roccoj1@...> wrote:
>
> Well if you want a discontinued radio that cannot be updated, the Pro III is
> it. I have the FT-2000 great radio. They have really improved it . It is
> firmware Updateable.
>
> JIM,WA7SRZ
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: wwdxc@yahoogroups.com [mailto:wwdxc@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Mark
> Tharp
> Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 7:08 PM
> To: wwdxc@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [wwdxc] pro 3, or FT-2000
>
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> Anyone have pros, and or cons, on the two rigs, Looking to trade out the old
> iron, and would like some feedback on the two radios.
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> FT2000, not the D, so can run on 12 volts,
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> and IC-756 pro 3.
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> thanks..
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> Mark
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> Mark J. Tharp
> KB7HDX
> ARRL Section Mgr. EWA
> http://www.arrl. <http://www.arrl.org> org
>