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The Yaesu FT-450 is one of the radios that made the top of our budget-friendly HF Radio list. The latest model, the Yaesu FT-450D is a simple to use an entry-level rig that makes a great base station for emergency communications.
A Prepper’s Look at the Preparedness value of the Yaesu FT-450D:
The Yaesu FT-450 is sold an entry-level multi-band HF Radio that covers the 160-10 meter bands plus 6 meters. While it’s considered entry-level, from a preparedness standpoint we think this radio has a lot to offer, and like we always say, “the more bells and whistles the more shit you have to worry about breaking!”
The Yaesu FT-450 is a solid HF/6M transceiver which we think makes a great emergency communications base station. While there are radios that offer more bands and better audio, at this price point this radio is really hard to beat.
Preparedness Perspective on the Yaesu FT-450 – Here are some of the features we like:
- For a new HF Radio, it gives you a lot of bang for your buck and is one of the cheapest HF base stations on the market.
- At this low of a price point, we were really happy to see that the radio also covered the 6-meter band, making this a major selling point for us.
- The radio is extremely easy and fast to set up in the field (which is always a plus for preppers) and has some great TX and RX even with some very basic antenna systems. Overall, it’s a great receiver, with good filtering and when transmitting we got a lot of great audio reports from around the world with the stock microphone at 100 watts.
Here is what we didn’t like about the Yaesu FT-450:
- We would have liked to see backlit buttons, but in no way was it a deal breaker or affect the performance of the radio.
- We would have like to see a tilt arm to raise the front of the radio up off our desk.
- In an urban setting, it wasn’t the greatest at handling local interference and made it a problem hearing weak signals over the noise.
Yaesu FT-450D Specs and Features
Frequency Coverage:
Transmit: 6-160M Amateur Radio bands
Receive: 30Khz to 54Mhz
Output Power
100 watts RF output on all HF bands and 6 meters.
Recommended Accessories and Add-ons for the Yaesu FT-450
Antennas
Giving a recommendation on an all-band HF antenna for any radio is going to be hard — there are just so many variables that there is no good way to say, yes this is the antenna you need to buy. That being said, we know we get a lot of new hams on the site so if you are just getting started something like the MFJ-1778 G5RV Wire Antenna is a good place to start. The antenna covers 80-10 Meters, and will get you started and will be an antenna you can count on and grow with.
Power Supply:
For most of our base stations, we use an Astron RS-35M-AP power supply. We like to use Anderson Power Poles, so we like the Astron because it’s the standard connector on that power supply.
Antenna Tuner This radio does have an internal antenna tuner, but internal tuners can be a bit wonky. I run all my radios through an MFJ Enterprises Original MFJ-941E HF Antenna Tuner with Mini Cross Meter
Find The Yaesu FT-450D on Amazon
