Are You Considering a New HF Radio? by Rob Sherwood

This is an excellent presentation by Rob Sherwood and is a must watch if you are in the market for a new HF radio. It’s about an hour long, but well worth watching.

I just sent an email to Rob Sherwood and requested a copy of the slide presentation in the video.

While I appreciate the technical information he collects in his evaluations, those specifications/factors are not necessarily applicable to many amateur operators. There are aspects of radio performance that he doesn't measure as well which can influence one's like or dislike of a particular radio.

I'll have to watch the video a little later...

Take the time to watch the video.  Rob Sherwood made the comment that his chart was never intended to be interpreted as it is.

Rob directly addresses your point in the video. He essentially says any radio in the top 25 of his performance list is effectively the same from an RF standpoint so pick your poison based on other factors, all of which he covers.

That was worth the watch

and at 2x speed you can still understand him clearly and get through it quickly

22seconds in he says antenna is the most important part

1. FTDX101D/MP
2. FLEX 6700
3. FTDX10
4. FT-710
5. IC-R8600
6. K3S
7. K3
8. IC-7851
9. TS-890S
10. PT-8000A
11. KX3
12. ANAN-7000DLE
13. K4D
14. FTDX5000D
15. K3
16. FLEX 6400
17. FLEX 6600M
18. ANAN-200D
19. PERSEUS
20. IC-7610
21. IC-7300
22. FLEX-5000A
23. TEN-TEC ORION II
24. TEN-TEC ORION
25. TS-590SG
26. TEN-TEC ARGONAUT VI

Bolded current model transceivers for those looking to purchase new. That's the list.

I'd be comfortable riding that list down at least as far as the FTDX3000D as I've found that to be near equal to my 101D 99% of the time.

I can check off 4 from said list.

You should have watched the video before you commented lol.  Also, Mr. Sherwood has been saying that himself for at least a decade.

For the new guys, in simple terms, the Sherwood list rates receivers in order based on their ability to not get swamped(overloaded) by stronger signals near the one you're listening to.  That's it.

Like Gamma (and Mr. Sherwood) say, there's lots of other factors to consider.  For an example, I'll pick on the popular Yaesu FT-891.  I have one and mostly love it.  My use case is different than most though as it spends most of its life listening for QRP SOTA stations on CW.  Normally it 'hears' just fine, but put a strong CW station 2 or even 2.5 khz away (a huge distance in the CW world) and that weak station you were hearing just fine almost disappears with every dit or dah of the nearby strong station.  I've had too long of week already to search right now but I'm not sure if the 891 even makes the Sherwood list.  Does that make it a bad radio?  Nope, hardly.   It's one of the most popular portable/mobile rigs on the market...small size, easy to operate, great digital noise reduction, etc.... its just a limitation that it has when there is a strong signal on a nearby frequency and unless your searching for that ghost signal, it'll probably serve you well.

Here's a list of QST lab measurements

https://www.remeeus.eu/hamradio/pa1hr/productreview.pdf

...but again, there is more to it.

I sold my FTDX10 and went back to my trusty Kenwood 590SG.  The Yaesu has a great receiver, but I didn't like the ergonomics.

The TS590 is pure joy to operate, everything is perfectly laid out, and never once, have I wished it's receiver was better.

The Glock is an excellent gun, wonderful engineering, but I don't like the grip angle, or trigger.  I'll take a well tuned 1911 or M&P over it any day.

My FT891 has some annoying quirks, and my TS480HX makes me smile every time I use it

Like Colt653 states...ergos.

I have big mitts. While something like a TS-440S, IC-703/706, etc. is great from a size/portability standpoint, if I have to struggle to use the controls it's probably going to be a hard pass from me. At least from a constant use/fixed station standpoint.

Then there's the matter of listening fatigue. If the recovered audio sounds unnatural I'll not want to use the rig for long periods of time.

I liked his comment that a new ham doesn’t need a $4000.00 radio, but should spend his money on a better antenna.

Yeah anymore, from the RF performance  standpoint all modern rigs are stupidly good. It just comes down to your personal preferences mostly.

Yep, like everyone fellated the KX3. It's a fine radio for sure but meh... in real world application. It seemed like a cumbersome pain in the ass to me in actual use. The time I spent dicking with knobs and filters on the KX3 is eliminated with the CODAN 2110. Just key in or tune to the freq and the DSP actually works to make SSB sound like FM with an actual voice squelch to keep you from going mad listening to arc welding noises non stop.

K3 is on there twice.

Exactly this. We are so spoiled. It's all pretty much the same now.

To me, it comes down more to environment and antenna setup. I've made more contacts mobile with my noisy FT-857 with its shitty receiver than I ever have anywhere else. Why? It's because I was there at that place and time to catch it. One of the worst receivers I've heard is my Motorola MICOM. My god the noise is horrendous but I've heard so much on it only because it's on 24/7. It's like fishing. A shitty rod used every day will catch far more fish than the best tackle only used once a week. Persistence is the key.

My first HF rig was a TS-590SG. I bought it off eBay for less than $900. It smelled like cigars and I'm pretty sure it had boogers on it. I sold it and bought a FT-991A new.

The 991A is a fine rig and very useful, I have 3 of them now and enjoy them a lot, but damn I regretted selling that 590SG, so it didn't take me long to buy another one, new this time. I agree, it is a joy to use. The ergonomics are superb. Everything is right where it should be. It has every option you need and few that you don't. Someday soon I'm sure it will be discontinued and I'll probably buy another one new in box to just keep as a spare or maybe a future gift. I think in many ways it is a better first HF rig than the SDR options from the other brands. Not that it's a better performer, but it's better for learning how to operate and with it's added connectivity you'll be less likely to out grow it. It's strangely to set up for digital modes too, literally 1 menu setting.

Damn it, I'm not editing all that so I added #26.

You could just turn down the RF gain a little on any SSB radio.

Rob often measures radios more than once, particularly if there are years between them (old example vs. new example). Sometimes the variability in production quality can be a bit disappointing.

If you go to his website and look at the full list you'll also see in this case the top K3 is really a K3S while the lower ranked example is just a plain old K3. So a typo on somebody's part

http://www.sherweng.com/table.html

Yup totally.

I use old janky shit, mostly cuz I like it tho. My "modern" rigs tend to collect dust.

I have more fun with my GRC-109 than my modern shit. Bzzt Bzzt Beep Beep Bop pop.

There is no RF gain on a MICOM 2-R.