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DL4NO
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 24, 2005 02:06
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Report of a happy owner
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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The FT-817 is an amazing piece of equipment: If you want a portable tranceiver for all bands and all modes this might be for you.
It will not replace your home station. 5 W of output are not much and a "grown-up" shortwave antenna will most likely show you the limitations of the receiver. You could improve the technical data using a preselector and a PA. But in my opinion that does not make sense.
The FT-817 finds two quite distinct uses here: As a 2m/70cm FM mobile/portable rig and to do a few CW QSOs on holidays.
In my car I have a 40W PA an a Diamond MR-77 magnet base mount antenna on the roof. This combination works extremely well. The receiver is very sensitive.
On holidays I connect a QRP matchbox and some kind of antenna. I experimented with 20 m of end-fed longwire and a 6:1 balun feeding coax mostly radiating into the sides of a montain. The alternative was a 2x10 m dipole no more than 2m above a flat roof. This time I used a twisted-pair section of thr dipole wires to feed the antenna. Both configurations would not have helped to win a contest. But I had entered the plane to relax and do a few CW QSOs on the side.
Officially the FT-817 has built-in keyer electronics. I decided that they are useless because the speed adjustment is buried in the menues. Sensitivity and and CW filter switching are in the same menu and therefore single-push items. but the QRQ/QRS switching (!) is far away.
Another downside are some reports of dead PA modules. They seem to burn out if you leave batteries in the unit for a longer time. The FT-817 does not have anything that qualifies for a real power-on switch and as the voltage drops there seems to be a point where a bias voltage goes crazy. O.K. remove the batteries before you pack away the rig.
If you google for FT-817 you will find that this rig has quite some enthusiasts behind it. I'm one of them.
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