The RSGB runs a series of short weekday evening contests. The VHF+ ones are on Tuesdays, multi mode, but the bands change, whilst the HF ones flip day and contest mode, but are always on 80m. Last week’s HF contest was 80m cw, and presented a good opportunity to test the ts-480 in remote mode, As usual, I didn't have much time to play and was only available for the last 10 minutes of the contest making about 15 QSOs. Nonetheless I learnt a few valuable lessons.
As suspected, a real front panel makes all the difference to S&P operation so the move to the ts-480 was the right one. I used the naked bare bones 480 in contest conditions with the inbuilt dsp. Whilst the AF dsp works just fine, much better than my FT-847’s , there is clearly no substitute for real IF filtering so I have just ordered a 500Hz filter ready for the WPX contest this weekend.
As suspected, a real front panel makes all the difference to S&P operation so the move to the ts-480 was the right one. I used the naked bare bones 480 in contest conditions with the inbuilt dsp. Whilst the AF dsp works just fine, much better than my FT-847’s , there is clearly no substitute for real IF filtering so I have just ordered a 500Hz filter ready for the WPX contest this weekend.