I had saved and saved to upgrade from my Heath HW-16 to a better radio, luckily I found a Yaesu FTDX 560 at the Strikers Grove Ham Fest in Ross, Ohio, this was in the early 70s. The 560 was only a year or two old and the price was with in my budget. It came with the matching speaker and external VFO. I had a home brew two element 15 meter yagi constructed from old TV antennas and a bradcast band varible capsiter mounted on a roof top tripod, no rotor but pointed at Japan it was a pile up every evening after work. It was a slight bit hard hearing on 10 meters but a receive preamp cured this problem. I worked the world with the home brew beam and a fan dipole. One quirk that took some getting use to was the reverse reading S-meter, but after a short time it was un-noticeable. This was about the end of the Yaesu tube era. It was a great radio but I traded it for another glow in the dark Drake R4B and T4XB that severed me well for many years. I have not seen a Yaesu FTDX 560 in years at a Ham Fest, but if I seen one I may bring it home just to remember some of my very early fun years in Ham Radio. .... My QRZ WB9OTX page
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