The FT-950 front panel.
by Josh Rovero, KK1D
Updated: July 4, 2010
The FT-950 front panel.
FT-950 Specifications from Yaesu or from Universal Radio.
The FT-950 is a mid-sized (14 inches wide, 21+ pounds) HF and 6-meter transceiver suitable for fixed operation. You could take it portable in a pinch. Power output is 100 watts on SSB and CW; 25 watts on AM. On CW, it offers full or semi break-in in addition to manual T/R switching. It has an iambic CW keyer built-in as well. The 950 requires an external 13.8V 22A power supply. It comes with the MH-31 hand microphone, and sounds just fine with it.
The FT-950's receiver is triple conversion, with IFs at 69.45 MHz, 450 KHz and 30 KHz. Three roofing filters are provided in the first IF, and 32 bit DSP handles the chores in the 3rd IF. The receiver specs are actually as good as those of the twice as expensive FT-2000, and better than other rigs in its price class. And the receiver lives up to those specs -. it sounds great.
Some functions of the FT-950 are hidden in the menu system, and would be better available as a front panel control -- like output power control. And some connectors were changed from the FT-857/897 style to mini-DIN style, so that even though it can be used with the same Yaesu FC-40 external auto antenna tuner, new cables are required. And it doesn't work (yet) automatically with the LDG auto antenna tuners that work with the 857/897. The 950's internal antenna tuner only matches SWRs up to 3:1, so I recommend a full range external tuner.
The FT-950 rear panel.
The FT-950 can be computer-controlled. It works well with hamlib applications, including fldigi and grig.