EB5AGV's Yaesu FTdx-5000 page

A dream come true

Yaesu FTdx-5000MP

This page is devoted to my Yaesu FTdx-5000MP HF/6m transceiver. I hope you enjoy it!


Back when this rig started selling, it was only a dream for me to get one. But now time has come and I have got a close to new (8 months old) FTdx-5000MP.

I ownned most of the larger Yaesus of last decades, except for the 9000 and the 5000 (now this last in no longer a miss). My main HF station has an NS-filtered FT-2000, an oldie but goldie FT-1000D, an FT-1000MP MkV with FTV-1000 and then some more large Yaesus (FT-990, FT-920, FT-980, FT-ONE, FT-902DM, FT-101ZD, ...).

I have sold my second FT-2000 (a 'D' version) to partly fund the 5000 and also to have a place to locate the new rig. Luckily, there was some extra horizontal space which the 5000 has nicely filled.

I am eager to compare this rig also with other treasures at my shack, as the Kenwood TS-950SDX or the Flex-5000A. Of course, each rig has some advantages over the others but it seems to me that the 5000 will fit nicely at the very top of all these rigs.

I will post more info as soon as I play with it !


Unit as received

The rig was perfectly packaged in original box and came along the SM-5000 with its cable set, an unused MH-31 hand microphone, an FH-2 remote control keypad, a set of connectors, a power cord and a User's Manual.

I had already selected its position on my main radio station, so here you have it already placed there:

FTdx5000MP on its location

I have checked installed firmware and it has the following:

So both MAIN and DSP are outdated. Next step will be to update them.


Firmware update

I have built a dedicated cable for the FTdx-5000 so I can leave it connected for CAT use. I have used shielded stereo microphone cable, as only needed lines are RX, TX and GROUND.

CAT cable connector

I have put some ferrites to prevent RF feedback:

CAT cable

With that cable, I have updated MAIN firmware to 0119 and DSP firmware to 0537 which now (8th August 2011) are the current ones.

The PGM switch on the rear of the unit is a bit tricky, but with a plastic tuning tool and a mirror it has been easy to manage.

All the updates have worked without a glitch, as you can see here:

Firmware version display

So now is time to begin learning to use the rig :-)!


More to come soon!!!

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