dear bg4iht,
as compared to ft-1000d, ic-780 and ts-950sdx, ts-950sdx is having the biggest background noise that make you very difficult to receive the weak dx signal.
however as i said, the operation features, filter selction - ts-950sdx is the best - most versatile - you can select any bandwidth in both 8.83mhz and 455khz if if you installed all 8 optional filters.
for fm, ts-950sdx is the best among ft-1000d and ic-780. the most quite one is ft-1000d ( if compared to ic-7800, then ic-7800 is minimum 3 to 4 db quieter as i did one a/b comparison in guangdong ham qth with ic-7800 and ft-1000d already)
display is quite colourful and not too much fan noise and the heat disspiation is quite low.
but i did have one terrible experience that i try to tx without the antenna tunner on line and it burn the whole pa module and make ts-950sdx down for half year as it is quite expensive to let it repaired by kenwood hk. i bought all the parts form both japan and usa, the total fixing cost is about hkd 1,000- but the total service time is over six month !
same as ft-1000d, it can have the true sub-receiver but it should be same as the main receiver band - such as if main band is 10m, then the sub band is also 10m. but for ft-1000d, then the sub-receiver can be any band - 160m, 80m or 10m all ok.
some hams said that the ts-950sdx can not for full qsk keying, as the switching delay is having some minor problem. since for me, i do not work much for cw, then qsk problem does not harm me so much !
anyway if compared only three radio, ft-1000d, ic-780 and ts-950sdx, the background noise, ft-1000d is the lowest, then is ic-780 and the last one is ts-950sdx. but for convenient operation, ts-950sdx is the best, second is ft-1000d, the last one is ic-780. but if for chasing the near bu dx cluster, then ic-780 is the best as it installed the spectrum display ! similar like ic-7800, ic-756 pro etc
the second hand of ts-950sdx is not difficult to found, but if you want to installed all 8 filters, it may be quite difficult as some filters stop production for long time. for me, i take more than 3 to 4 years to buy all 8 filters !
the ts-950sdx is the best match with the sm-230 monitor scope ! i just have one also. i also have tl-922, sp-950, sw-2100, mc-90 and mc-60. they sit together like the ts-950sdx promotion catalog ! sometimes i just want to take one photo and compaed to the catalog and try to find some difference. the collection for all items for ts-950sdx make me to take more than 10 years to finish !
rgds
alfred kwok vr2sa
