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Show all reviews of the Yaesu FT-8900R
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of the Yaesu FT-8900R.
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N6TGK
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Rating: 4/5
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Feb 10, 2003 15:50
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Best Yaesu Mobile I've owned yet
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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My wife gave me this radio as an early Christmas gift about two weeks before Christmas so I could install it in my truck before we went to TX over the holidays. Previously I used an FT-8100 which served me well, although it did have to go to Yaesu once for an audio problem a year after purchase.
The recieve audio sounds pretty good on my external speaker, but I couldn't tell you how it would sound on the internal speaker since I never used it. I've received good comments on the TX audio, although I haven't used the radio on 10 meters so I can't comment on the reported poor audio quality on that band. I modified my microphone a little by taking it apart and removing the plastic disc that sits between the front housing and the mic element. A friend of mine said the audio sounded fuller after I did the modification.
The radio receives well on the bands I've used it on. As a bonus, whenever I tried to use my FT-100 on six meters I would always get a 5-6 noise level on the meter whenever the truck was running. The FT-8900 doesn't have that problem so now I can hear all the 6M repeaters I have programmed into it.
The menus take some getting used to, but I still found I was able to navigate around the controls with minimal reading of the manual. There's a lot of menu options and it seemed to take forever to get to the one I wanted sometimes. Mostly, that was caused by the small tuning knob but then I realized I could use the UP/DWN buttons on the microphone to scroll through the settings. That made it much easier.
While the memory configuration was one thing I was disappointed with, I've gotten used to it. With my FT-8100 and other dual band radios I've had in the past, you had x number of memory channels per band. That's not the case with the FT-8900. You have 799 "regular" memory channels that you can program as you see fit, except for channel 1, which must be a 2M or 70cm repeater (something to do with the priority watch feature and the "right" band only being able to do 2M and 70cm, while the left band can do all four bands). Aside from the channel 1 issue, I've found that configuring the memory channels in this manner makes sense. On my FT-8100, I didn't even come close to filling all the memory channels for 2M and only had 10 memories filled on 70cm since 90 percent of the 70cm repeaters in Southern California are closed. With the FT-8900, if I only have four or five 6M repeaters to program, it's nice to know that I'm not "wasting" another 95 or more memory channels on that band. I also like the fact that I can just type in the memory channel I want on the keypad and go to that memory channel (when in memory mode), or I can punch in the frequency I want (when in VFO mode). Alpha tagging is also a nice feature, something the Icom 2720 didn't have.
This is where the product review section of eHam is nice, because very rarely do QST or CQ ever print anything negative about a radio. No radio is perfect and the FT-8900 is no exception and that's why it gets a 4 instead of a 5. I've read some of the gripes about the 8900 here and on other sites. Some were warranted, others were stupid...like the one poster who complained because the MARS/CAP mod didn't "open up" the radio to allow 11 meter operation. In my opinion, if you want 11 meter operation, get a CB radio. They're really quite cheap.
For the most part, most negatives about a radio are personal preferences and not an outright problem with the radio (with the exception of a few...the 7100 comes to mind). In the case of the 8900, while I have no need for 11 meter operation, I do wish that the "extended" receive also included VHF low band. Beyond the fact that I like to listen to the California Highway Patrol since I live here in San Diego, the VHF low band can be a good indicator when there's an opening on six. Even though this radio only does FM, it's still possible to get some contacts on Es. Another thing I would've prefered is to have deleted 10M and added 220, but I also realize why that wasn't the case since this radio is sold in countries other than the U.S. and we're the only one with a 220 band.
All in all, after the 7100 fiasco, I think Yaesu has done a pretty good job on this radio. I think the optional detachable face plate parts are over priced, but I'll live with it. The radio comes with everything else you need for a darn good price, which at the time of this post was $389 at HRO. This radio would make a good first "rig" for any new no-code Technician. It would allow them to use 2M and 70cm with the added bonus of using 6M.
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