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| Reviews Summary for Yaesu FT-747 |
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Reviews: 37
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Average rating: 4.2/5
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MSRP: $1049.99
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Description: Budget HF Transceiver
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Product is not in production.
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AA1ZO
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 3, 2010 02:50
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I has it where it counts
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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This is a great old radio. It has all the filtering, a very effective noise blanker and a quiet but very sensitive receiver. The transmitter sounds very good on all modes. I have owned some of the big radios in the past. This radio will hold it's own with any of them. If you want a really good but simple radio that will get the job done, this is the one!
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G7IGB
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 18, 2010 07:12
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Ideal HF starter
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I've just bought a Yaesu FT-747GX for a newly licensed amateur colleague and I’m very impressed with this 20 year old HF transceiver which cost £150 (around 230 U.S. dollars). The serial no. indicates that it's a 1990 model and the rig came with the CW and SSB filters installed, which is a real bonus as these would be almost impossible to find nowadays. Received audio quality is excellent from the built in speaker, which is front facing and conveniently placed on the fascia panel. It was also nice to find a noise blanker which cancels out my local electrical noise, allowing even weak signals to be heard on 20m.
There’s no speech processor or VOX operation and only 20 memory channels, but you do get a ‘General Coverage’ receiver built in, with the option of switching to full transmitter coverage if required. Controls such as IF width, APF and Notch are not included, but with the very low noise floor and excellent sensitivity I didn’t really miss them, but the 10dB attenuator proved useful when switched in. Output power on SSB was over 100W on all bands and good reports were obtained using just a standard 500 ohm fist mike, but I'm sure that a Shure 444 or similar base mike would make transmission reports even better.
All in all, money well spent and an ideal transceiver for someone starting on HF.
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GI0ZGB
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 16, 2009 07:13
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Remote Head
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I got my 747 yesterday complete with a remote head mod.
I don't know if it employed the RMK-747 kit, I've never actually saw one. It looked a little like a home brew mod, but for all of that, extremely well done, and it worked perfectly.
The cable was Amphenol 36 Pin males which slotted into the female equivalent, one mounted on the upper front panel, the other fitted to the underside of the remote head.
The whole assembly looked a tad agricultural by todays standards with a two inch wide strip of velcro tape running the length of the head to presumably attatch to a matching strip of velcro somewhere in the truck, car or shack.
On TX using the MH-1 B8 dynamic mic, with two position tone control, recived very complimentary audio reports, as did the Datong "Blue Box" RF Speech Processor when set to ragchew levels, and noticably increased the average output when squeezing the audio to DX requirments.
On RX, in difficult conditions it suffered badly, but the ERA bandwidth audio filter helped enormously, as did the Datong FL3 equivalent. The rig operated perfectly with none og the gremlins outlined elsewhere in the forum.
All things considered I'm very pleased with my purchase, getting it for humble money, big bang for the buck!
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W3TEZ
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Rating: 0/5
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Jul 13, 2009 15:39
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Absolutely garbage
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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was given one for christmas one year and had nothing but problems with the radio. The crystals for the receive went bad along with the crystal trimmers and the radio has terrible receive drift problem that cannot be solved. Also now for some stupid apparent reason the radio does not transmit nor receive, absolute garbage. I also had friends that have owned other yaesu rigs and have had nothing but problems with them, excuse my language, yaesu sucks period, stick to kenwood and icom, they blow yaesu out of the water big time!!!
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N0PL
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 5, 2009 11:00
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Good Deal
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I was using a Kenwood R1000 rceiver by my bed and I wanted a receiver that had memories and some filters, etc. I bought the 747 for less than I could a receiver only! The 747 has memories and filters. It has a switch that will disable the transmitter so I don't blow my external preamp. Makes a great receiver and I can use it as a transceiver if and when I want.
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N7DXT
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Rating: 4/5
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Mar 8, 2009 00:25
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Basic but decent...
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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What can I say, you get what you pay for and for me this has been a rig that fit my needs and budget. Some folks I know can poo-poo the thing all day over it's lack of features, but if you're the sort who wants to just hang some wire & get on the air this rig will get you there.
I bought my 747 brand new at a hamfest about 20 years ago. When it was newer I used it on 10M packet and it did the job with no trouble, and otherwise used it a lot as a good, if not all that quiet, SWL receiver, so overall a lot of up time though not so much actually on the air (most of my Ham operating was done on VHF).
10 years ago I stored it away with most of the rest of my shack and only recently dug it out because something has given me the bug to finally get active on HF after 30 years as a Ham. I bought a shiny new MFJ-941E tuner & hung out a shiny new G5RV & hooked it all up with some fresh cables and it all worked great for about half a day then it started going deaf and dumb intermittently.
I struggled with that for a few days and found some notes about that particular symptom pointing to the in/out connections on the filter unit. In my rig the filter unit PCB through hole issue checked out good but simply removing and reinstalling the board fixed the problem and just that easy it's good as new.
On a more solid rig (like with a metal case) I might have tried a simple reseating (the old 2-4" drop to the bench top). Because of the plastic I have to rate it a 4, since really the flimsy construction is at the root of all it's common problems, and Yaesu could have done better even with plastic. But nobody should be surprised about that if actually having seen the rig before buying it.
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N0PL
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 4, 2008 08:31
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No Frills But GREAT RIG
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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This rig does exactly what it's suppose to do. No frills. No vox, keyer, RF gain, processor, etc. It's truly a plain Jane, so you know what you're getting when you put your money down. Built in filters for CW and AM (that work). FM board optional. Speaker quality is excellent (speaker faces you, like they should). I bought mine to use as a receiver by my bed (you can disable xmit by switch under the top cove so you don't blow your pre-amp). I've yet to install it by the bed as I'm having too much fun using it in the shack. I've got other rigs (TS-850SAT, TS-870S, Yaesu FT-900, FT-980, IC-703, all rigs are in-line at all times)but I've found the 747 simple and fun. If I find another one, I'll buy it. Cheaper to buy the transceiver than to by a receiver.
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CT2FPE
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Rating: 4/5
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Mar 5, 2008 15:39
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Good Start Rig
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I got my 747 in 1998 and used until Feb 2008,
It was a good starting, general coverage and all the modes.
The only issue was the dial button.
There are some mods. to it and they can be made without any dificulty.
A nice HF RIG for starters and expeditions.
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DL1MEV
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Rating: 4/5
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Feb 21, 2008 05:46
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Not bad
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I got mine 1988 and it served well. The antenna then was a broadband-(fan-)dipole under the attic, so using the attenuator on 40m was mandatory in the evening. The price-performance-ratio was good then, considering the built-in cw-filter and AM. Shure, for an avid dxer, who cranks the bands up and down all the time, this rig is only a makeshift for a limited time. The VFO-encoder is too frail for heavy use.
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NY4D
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Rating: 3/5
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Oct 10, 2007 07:44
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OK, but watch out for these problems
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've had several of these, some worked fine, some did not. When right, it's a great little radio with just enough features that there's a lot of bang for the buck. But there's a potential mechanical problem with all of these.
Over time, with use, maybe just age, the FT747gx front panel buttons will often not operate the actual switches and switch pads, which are actually located on the display board behind the front panel, as there is next to no mechanical anchoring of the display board to the front panel.
Over time, and with operation, this problem seems to get worse.
It is possible to build up the switch pads, and extend the plastic rods behind the pushbuttons, with some glue, plastic straws, and ingenuity.
This problem has also manifested on the metal case commercial version I've had, the ftc-80, which has the same plastic front panel setup. So much for "more rugged" because it has a metal case.
Another problem I've seen more than once is that the nar, att, nb, and mox buttons get wedged up under the front panel. To the unknowing, the mox button being so wedged can cause a lot of problems with the rig coming up in transmit...
I like this rig, and I'd give it a 4 were it not for the general flimsiness of the rig. With age it tends to need mechanical, let alone electrical help. So on that standpoint it rates a 2.
There are better choices for just a tad more money unless you are absolutely sure you're getting one where everything, both mechanical and electrical, works.
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