Click on picture for larger image
Its amazing how many have taken
this picture for their own use !

Operation wise the MVT-9000 follows a similar pattern to the earlier sets - if you own a MVT-7100 for example you could probably drive the MVT-9000 without much reference to the manual and for those new features you would soon be able to work them out if you wanted. The keys are double function and the FUNCTION key is now a button by itself above the screen rather than part of the main keypad.

The LCD screen is probably on of the best on any handheld scanner at the moment. Unlike the AR8000 which is an all over Matrix screen the MVT-9000 screen is a cutsom LCD display with two VFO's and status information with the lower third which is used for the bandscope, signal strength meter or alpha tagging is a two line Matrix display.

On power up the display shows "Yupiteru MVT-9000" over two lines - this start up message can be configured to say anything you wish and although easily changed putting your name and phone number my just be worth it ! There are 20 search banks and each can be assigned up to 9 characters for description. There are also 20 Scan Banks of 50 channels each - each scan bank can be assigned a description and within each bank each channel can also be assigned up to 9 characters. When a channel is recalled in manual mode the display alternates between showing the bank name and the individual channel name.

Yupiteru in their wisdom have chosen not to update the "Delay" feature and it remains a Global setting - in other words it is either On or Off and a delay cannot be assigned on a per channel basis. The default delay remains at around 1 second with optional delay at 3 seconds. The other feature Yupiteru have left off is Computer Control. It would have been nice to see but it isn't there so I guess thats that !

Senstivity and selectivity are good - internally the receiver is very well made with a good deal of RFI protection. Audio is crisp.

Performance on the HF/SSB frequencies is very good indeed and this is helped by the use of a high quality Murata CFJ455K5 2.4kHz Filter (the same range used by AOR in the AR7030 !). With the excpetion of the MVT-7200 which uses the same filter there is no better wide band scanner available at the moment on HF/SSB that the MVT-9000.

The PRESET feature is not enabled on the Export version (and not referenced in the manual) - with good reason really as the PRESET modes and step sizes are defined for the Japanese bandplan which is not really suitable for use elsewhere. For example, enter 360.50MHz (which most of us would prefer in AM, 25kHz steps as this is Military UHF Airband) will result in FM, 12.5kHz steps being selected. The PRESET setting for Medium Wave is AM, 9kHz steps which is not ideally suited to some areas.

The PRESET feature is enabled/disabled by one surface mount component on the logic Board. If the PRESET feature is something you would like enabled this can be done at no additional charge. Additional details and the location of the relevant components can be found here.

Main Features

• Full coverage 530KHz - 2039MHz
• Modes of NFM, WFM, AM, NAM, LSB, USB & CW
• Step sizes of 50, 100, 200 & 500Hz. 1, 5, 6.25, 8, 9, 10, 12.5, 15, 20, 25, 30, 50, 100 & 125KHz
• Twin VFO
• 1000 memory channels in 20 banks of 50
• 20 Search Banks ("Numbered" A~J & a~j...where have we seen that before !)
• EEPROM memory
• Multi function Large LCD Display including 9 Character Alpha tagging of Banks & channels
• Real Time Bandscope
• Similar family keyboard layout & operation to previous MVT models
• Power requirement 4 x AA cells internal or 12v DC external
• Size 66(w) x 155(h) x 40(d) mm
• Weight 410g