When I first got my foundation licence I was lucky in that a friend sold me a used FT450D at a seriously good price. Since then it has been in regular use. But now I also have the TS2000X I am somewhat torn. Currently the TS2000X is plugged into three antennas, the loft wire + tuner, and the loft 2m and 70cm big wheels. I had been using an FT817 for 2m and 70cm but that is now sat on the floor all disconnected. Poor thing.

But what to do with the FT450D… I do like the radio, it’s very easy to use, nice display etc. and quite compact. Ok, not compact like the ‘817 but it’s a 100W rig. But the TS2000X does everything I need in just one set, so do I sell the ‘450D? Decisions…

I mean, I don’t need both, I won’t use both together… or will I? Well, yes actually, I can run the ‘450D on HF and the ‘2000X on VHF, especially once I finally set up my external wire (the long one not the current short one). And the ‘450D is connected to the Linux box with the ‘2000X connected to Windows. So I can run both.

And I am reminded of those photos – you know the ones, someone in the US with a 100 foot workbench and several thousand transceivers (ok, a bit of an exaggeration there).

So I am keeping both. So there.

Now… the ‘2000X does FM on 2m and 70cm so another question is do I sell the FTM100DE? I mean, I rarely use C4FM. Nah, who started this selling question anyway?!

New (to me) arrival in the shack… something I’ve been toying with getting for some time now. This is a TS2000X and has the 1296MHz option installed. It will take me a little while to get acquainted with it but it brings more capability on 2m and 70cm and adds 1296. I’ve been using an FT817 on VHF for FT8 etc. up until now and generally running it at 2.5W – fun, but I wanted a bit more juice up there.

The Signalink from the ‘817 is ready to go, just waiting for a CAT cable and some coax plugs as I’ve used all the ones I need. That will at least give me time to read about the rig before playing…