New FTX-1 Field and Optima Arriving in June 2025
In August 2024 I had posted about New FTX-1F Announced in Tokyo Ham Fair. Today I received an email from the local dealer from whom I had purchased my FT-710 AESS last year. Instead of a single FTX-1F announced last year, there are two versions becoming available in June 2025. FTX-1 series comprises of FTX-1 Field and FTX-1 Optima.
FTX-1 Field meant for field operations, as the name implies, comes with 6400mAh Lithium-ion battery and is capable of 6W/5W QRP power levels. If powered by an external DC power supply, it can give 10W, like the IC-705.
FTX-1 Optima is a base station and has an additional SPA-1 – 100W RF Power Amplifier and needs external DC power supply. Both versions are all mode wide coverage software defined radios for HF, 50 MHz, 144 MHz and 430 MHz amateur radio bands. Receviever part has wide coverage from 30 kHz through 174 MHz and from 400 MHz through 470 MHz, including FM broadcast and Air-band. Air band is for AM transmissions between aeroplanes and air traffic control. The 100W power amplifier is detachable from the Field Head. Automatic mode selection in VHF/UHF automatically determines whether the received signal is C4FM or FM and selects the appropriate mode. C4FM is a digital mode. C4FM is an abbreviation for Continuous Four Level Frequency Modulation, a special type of 4FSK or Four level Frequency Shift Keying, used in conjunction with FDMA or Frequency Division Multiple Access.
FTX-1 series has 3DSS (3-Dimentional Spectrum Scope) like my FT-710. It comes with high-resolution 4.3 inch TFT (Thin Film Transistor) colour touch panel display. Dual LED indicators are there above the MAIN VFO to show the current receiver status of MAIN/SUB bands. VMI LED (VFO mode indicator) presentS the current operation mode (MAIN, SUB and clarifier/split operation). “PRESET” mode is suitable for FT8 Operation as in FT-710. 1200/9600bps APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) data communication is available and there is Micro SD card slot as in FT-710. USB ports to support CAT (Computer Assisted Transceiver) control operation, audio input/output and TX control is also there, similar to FT-710.
Other than optional automatic antenna tuners, a couple of interesting optional accessories are GPS Antenna Unit designed to be attached to the Field Head and Bluetooth Unit designed to be installed in the Field Head for Bluetooth operation!