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When it comes to luxury, high-tech HF Base Stations that look like they could survive the zombie apocalypse, the Yaesu FT-DX101D is one of those radios that you would expect to see being used in a by the military or intel officers in a high-budget Hollywood movie.
The Yaesu FTDX101D is a high-end radio that transmits on amateur bands from 1.8 to 54 MHz and receives from 30kHz to 75 MHz.
A Prepper’s Look at the Preparedness value of the Yaesu FT-DX101D:
Right upfront, I’m going to tell you that this is no entry-level radio; even experienced hams will probably never use every feature on this radio, but if you are looking to up your game there is not a lot this radio won’t do!
Preparedness Perspective on the FT-DX101D – Here are some of the features we like:
- This probably shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering the $3500+ price point of this radio, but it’s one of the best performing HF rigs we have ever come across. Weak signals are clearer than pretty much any other radio we’ve tested, the RX DSP functions are great, and we really like the dual receive feature.
- The external monitor output is helpful because should the radio display fail during times of crisis, you can simply plug the radio into an external monitor and still operate the radio.
- There are so many features that we haven’t even got to explore yet it’s not even funny, but with that being said from a performance standpoint there isn’t another radio out there that can come close to the FT-DX101D.
Here is what we didn’t like about the FT-DX101D:
- When it comes to preparedness radios, we generally fall on the side of keeping the radio as simple as possible. There is no doubt this is a fantastic base station, and from the hobby aspect of Ham Radio, the FT-DX101D is about as good as it gets. That being said, I do worry about the average person being able to repair a radio like this should things go bad for an extended period of time.
- The 3D band scope is definitely cool to look at, but for us, it was more of a novelty that doesn’t seem to serve a practical purpose. For us, we get more out of a standard 2D scope and waterfall and it feels like the 3D display is only there to help justify the price tag.
- This is really for new users and those who are new to the hobby; this is not a radio that you can take out of the box and just start using. You need to read the manual, and even then you are going to be looking up videos and articles on specific functions of this radio.
Yaesu FT-DX101D Specs and Features
Frequency Coverage:
TX Frequency Ranges: 1.8 to 54 MHz Amateur Radio bands
RX Frequency Ranges: 30kHz – 75 MHz (operating), 1.8 – 29.699999 MHz (Specified performance, Amateur bands only), 50 MHz – 53.999999 MHz (Specified performance, Amateur bands only)
Output Power
5-100 watts (5-25 Watts AM Carrier)
Recommended Accessories and Add-ons for the Yaesu FT-DX101D
Antennas
Giving a recommendation on an all-band HF antenna for any radio is always hard — there are just to many variables to really suggest one antenna. 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.
Power Supply:
For this radio, we recommend an Astron 50 Amp Power Supply.
Antenna Tuner:
For end-fed random wire antennas or long whip antenna, we really like adding the YAESU FC-40 Automatic Antenna Tuner to our system. It makes use of the control circuitry built into the radio, which allows you to control and monitor automatic operation of the FC-40.
Find The YAESU FT-DX101D on Amazon
