What better way to work the LZ DX contest than with a FT-1000MP?

I'm sitting here listening intently to a QSO on 40 metres (7.133 LSB) with a station in Sri Lanka and, for once, I am actually hearing the DX station, albeit only just. The station is 4S7NE, and he is quite faint but audible some of the time.

The reason for the sudden improvement in my receive capabilities? It might be down to the installation of a Yaesu FT-1000MP in my shack, in place of the Kenwood TS-570D which has been the main rig here for the past 9 months. I am trying the Yaesu out but I can tell you that based on its performance so far I will be buying it, no doubt.

I worked 20m for the Bulgarian contest (LZ DX) today in the single op single band category and found the performance of the FT-1000MP to be fantastic against the Kenwood. There's no doubt it's a serious rig. This is what Amateur Radio is all about - sitting in front of rigs like this listening to the world on HF. Oh yes.

I have only 36 QSOs on 20m for the LZ contest, and a few on 40m which will be disregarded when it comes to calculating the result. But I've only just started down the road of contesting, and I have a very humble station, working 40m and 20m on a half-size G5RV and sometimes working 20m, and very successfully 17m, 15m and 10m on my old 11m Antron 99! Yes, it tunes on 20m!

So I will probably get up in the morning and work some more for the LZ, with hopefully a few multipliers thrown in. So far I have worked only 8 LZ stations, but they are few and far between in fairness.