On 2008-02-05, The Shadow wrote:

"blue box thief" "blue box wrote in message
in...
Hi all,

I am in the market for a new radio, and have been looking at some
different radios from the point of view of:

output power
ATU (internal, optional)
general receive coverage (at least 0-30MHz full coverage)
receive quality
internal filters (optional filters also)
ability to run on emergency power (I wish to use it for RACES-emcomm
usage)
ability to run as a home station

I want to run this radio 80% of the time as home station, and 20% as
emcomm
station.

I have been looking at the FT-450 and it seems to be very capable and fits
most of the above requirements.

I have also been looking at the Yaesu FT-897, which seems to be a more
mobile radio.

I am still making the decision, but I was wondering if anyone has either
radio
(or ideally both) and could give some opinions (constructive please!).

thanks in advance,
bernard
ei8fdb

Over 227 reviews of the Yaesu FT-897 at URL:
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/2432

Over 37 reviews for the FT-450 at URL:
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/6583

Hi lamont,

Yes, I have read both sets of reviews from eham (also looked at QST, and, I think,
the PW review).

The most logical reason for the more 897 reviews is that radio has been out alot longer
(4-5 more years?) than the 450 (it was released sometime last year).

Does anyone have any first hand experience/opinions of either of these radios?

thanks

blue box thief wrote:


Hi lamont,

Yes, I have read both sets of reviews from eham (also looked at QST, and, I think,
the PW review).

The most logical reason for the more 897 reviews is that radio has been out alot longer
(4-5 more years?) than the 450 (it was released sometime last year).

Does anyone have any first hand experience/opinions of either of these radios?

thanks


Just one, do NOT buy the D model of this radio, or its twin, the 857.
The only real change was they made it impossible to do the software mods
on it. To put it another way, if you have the 897 instead of the 897D,
you can easily add the 60m "channels" to normal memory locations after
doing the software mod.

That being said, both the D and non-D models have some serious hardware
issues, all of which are fixable. The processor isn't one, it's simply
a 100 gain op amp that starts to clip as you turn it up, no filtering,
no nothing. Fixable with 4 or 5 resistors and caps as I remember. The
finals bias currents are normally not set properly at the factory.
Simple to fix. The drivers, which are the FT817 finals, have the same
problem they did in the 817, they tend to blow up under certain
conditions. To be fair, it's very rare, and fixable with a voltage
regulator. The ALC time constant is way to fast, which causes dropouts
in during portions of words. This one is very easy to fix with a single
cap. There are some others that are less of a problem.

I own an 897 and an 857D, and they do not work at all alike on transmit,
though they are theoretically virtually identical. Both are very good on
receive for the design, and essentially the same. The 897 is great on
transmit, and the 857D is, to put it bluntly, absolute crap. I am
fairly certain that this is due to the bias on the finals, but will not
be able to confirm that until I can take it in for realignment. I will
do that, and then have the other mods done one at a time to see how the
transmit audio changes.

For more information on the 897/857, see the DG2IAQ document. I found a
copy on mods.dk. It may be available other places. It is very well done.

tom
K0TAR

On 2008-02-07, Tom Ring wrote:
Does anyone have any first hand experience/opinions of either of these radios?

Just one, do NOT buy the D model of this radio, or its twin, the 857.
The only real change was they made it impossible to do the software mods
on it. To put it another way, if you have the 897 instead of the 897D,
you can easily add the 60m "channels" to normal memory locations after
doing the software mod.

I like software mods, once you don't brick the thing

That being said, both the D and non-D models have some serious hardware

SNIP

Ok, thanks for the information regarding the D/non-D models. Note made.


I own an 897 and an 857D, and they do not work at all alike on transmit,
though they are theoretically virtually identical. Both are very good on
receive for the design, and essentially the same. The 897 is great on
transmit, and the 857D is, to put it bluntly, absolute crap. I am

Interesting Tom. I have heard bad results from the 857D, but not anything
about the 857, as it is discontinued I think.

Have you any experience of the 817? I had thought about picking one up for
SOTA type stuff. The dollar is a good price for me at the moment

For more information on the 897/857, see the DG2IAQ document. I found a
copy on mods.dk. It may be available other places. It is very well done.

Yup, I have used mods.dk before. It is a good website.

blue box thief wrote:

Have you any experience of the 817? I had thought about picking one up for
SOTA type stuff. The dollar is a good price for me at the moment


I owned an 817 for about 2 years, and wish I still had it. I used it
for PSK31 a lot. I had a Z11 tuner velcro'd to the top and they were a
good pair. It got traded in when I purchased the 897.

tom
K0TAR

On 2008-02-07, Tom Ring wrote:
I owned an 817 for about 2 years, and wish I still had it. I used it
for PSK31 a lot. I had a Z11 tuner velcro'd to the top and they were a
good pair. It got traded in when I purchased the 897.

Yes I have read about the combination of the Z11 and the 817.
I might have a look and see if I can get an 817 as well as the 450.

thanks very much for your help.

b
ei8fdb