FT-897 vs KX3 transmission bandwidth

I'm trying to talk with old friend Ralph, VK3ZZC, who's in Melbourne, about 1,000km away. He's on 10m which is a band I've never used before - so that's an interesting experience.

So far, no luck, but Patrick, VK2PN, kindly agreed to a contact so I could make sure my signal is getting out. Recently I purchased a second hand FT-897, a portable rig with built-in high capacity batteries and have been using that. Patrick wasn't too impressed with the transmission and sent me this image from his panadapter.

He rightly complained about the out of audio band signal and urged me to go and get the KX3 for comparison. The FT897 is running 20W and the KX3 10 so the signal levels are different but take a look at this:

The KX3 seems to transmit much more in the right band and suppression of the opposite side band is clearly superior. It's a much better rig.

Now, the FT897 has an optional SSB filter which can be used on transmit and I'd be interested to know if that helps. Thanks Patrick and do check out Ralph's web site - it's most interesting.