A Useless Appendage

That's what UHF/VHF is in a QRP rig. Useless. It's a marketing gimmick.

"Icom, why didn't you build a tuner into the IC-705?" Icom: "Hey look, it's got UHF & VHF!"

"Yaesu, why didn't you design your new FTX-1F field radio so it gets an IP rating?" Yaesu: "Hey look, it's got UHF & VHF!"

Building UHF & VHF bands into their QRP rig offerings reflects laziness on the part of the product design teams. Why? Because it gives the design teams the excuse to not get other, more important things right. Like an integrated tuner, like an IP rating for water resistance, like better RF shielding, like more power output, like a better form factor.

I don't care a damn about 70 centimeter or 2 meter capabilities in a QRP radio. If I want to talk on those bands at low power I've got HTs that do a much better job. If I want more UHF/VHF 'oomph' I've got a selection of 50 watt mobile rigs that do a better job. And it's not just me. Over the past few weeks I've talked to a number of IC-705 owners, and they all report that, other than using it to occasionally hit local repeaters, they never use the UHF/VHF side of their radios. 

Like I said, it's a gimmick. 

It looks like Yaesu is about to release a radio that, in form and function, is little more than an IC-705 clone. Icom got lazy with the design of the IC-705, and Yaesu is doubling down on laziness by copying the 705's capabilities, and little else. The FTX-1F's packaging may be a bit more clever, but at the end of the day it really won't do anything that the IC-705 already does.

"Let's just throw in the guts of an HT, toss it over to marketing
 and call it a day"

Think of what could have been. A highly refined HF-only portable field communications package that offers real performance under all conditions, and puts out enough wattage to make a difference. Yaesu is aiming at the wrong target with the FTX-1F. They're aiming at the IC-705. Instead they should have been aiming at the Elecraft KX2, and taken the opportunity to define a whole new class of radio.

Yeah I'm pissed. I'm almost 68, and it looks like I'll be dead before either of these two companies get it right.

 W8BYH out