It surely looks like it will be a nice radio some day if you like a big bruiser with loads of knobs. I don't. Yaesu has a design philosophy of "when in doubt, add a knob". But that's OK. I don't plan to buy one.
I would cheerfully bet a significant sum of money that the radio will not be available at the very earliest before July of next year, and more likely 2011. So why is it being advertised now? It is an attempt to stop the K3 parade - to freeze sales. The term in the software industry is "Vaporware" and for our European brethren, "Vapourware". And it serves the same purpose. Yaesu did the same for the FT-9000 - it was announced and advertised a year or more in advance of delivery in order to slow down the Icom 7800. (And I bet the FT-9000 will now quietly go away. The 7800 is eating the 9000's lunch, and dealers hate the 9000 order policies.) On the other hand Yaesu was shipping FT-2000's very shortly after it was announced. Why the difference? The FT1000 was selling well and Yaesu did not want to cannibalize sales of the FT-1000 until stock was pretty well depleted and the FT2000 was ready. They pulled off the transition rather neatly. I think it a very safe assumption to say that the photos of the FT5000 are of one very expensively hand-built prototype that is an empty box inside the panels, that there are lab models of the radio that do pretty much meet specs, and a furious design effort going on to deliver the promises. I predict that the radio WILL be shown at Dayton - inside a screwed together acrylic box. Actually it is a pretty simple choice - you can wait for a box of promises or buy a proven radio today. 73 de Bob Locher W9KNI ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
