Time for a Review of the FTdx-1200

This is a shorty, a re-post of the review I wrote in July over at MTC Radio's site, where I'd bought a 1200 on an open-box deal back in late January.  There I gave it 4 out of 5 stars, and am sticking with that assessment.  It's very, very good, with a few things that could be a lot better.  OK, here we go.

Upgraded from an FT-450D and it's like night and day.  The triple conversion receiver and DSP filter out noise to where SSB rivals FM for local 80m rag-chews.  Turning to digital, all of the notch filter and bandwidth options make picking out weak DX signals easy, and eliminating the unwanted ones even easier.  Back to SSB, the speech processor gives a good extra punch that my sometimes thin voice can use.

Other things to note, this is a big, solid, heavy radio!  Inside, carefully laid out circuitry, with no compromises to reduce size or weight.  Looking at all the menus, everything is adjustable, 196 menu items worth of adjustable.  With some care you can dial things in exactly the way you want them.  The display screen is well designed too, with several useful optional layouts.  Finally, the memory features are very easy to use.  I can't stress enough how handy that is.

Now for the down sides.  The internal speaker sound muddy.  When SWLing in AM mode, the DSP is heavy-handed, even on its lightest setting.  A nice external speaker and a little contour treble boost cleared up those two problems.  The pre-programmed frequency offsets for digital modes are in the way if you want to tie into your shack computer and use FLDIGI, and the related menus are not easy to sort out.  Finally nailed it all down by using WWV's time signal as a reference.  One more ding, not enough back-lighting on the controls, and there are a number of small important black-on-black buttons.  Good shack lighting is a must with this radio.

Oh but now six months along and I've got my 1200 dialed in, and it's everything I'd hoped it would be.  Just work with it and it turns into a fine radio.  My old 450D was good, but this is a big step up.

ps, back here in September:  If you want a more technically complete review, there's a pdf copy the QST review from January 2014 at this link.  The most interesting part is the sidebar article there "Downconverting, Upconverting, What's the Big Deal?"  Scroll down a couple of pages, you'll find it, it's a full page.  Also, they have pictures there.