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Reviews For: Yaesu FT-817

Category: QRP Radios (5 watts or less)

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FT-817
Reviews: 297MSRP: 769
Description:
All band 160m thru 10m plus 6m, 2m and 70cm, all mode QRP rig with internal batteries. PL259 on rear, BNC on front.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.yaesu.com/amateur/ft817.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
002974.6
EXPRO Rating: 2004-08-16
Excellant rig Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I had one of these right after they first came out but sold it due to having problems working the small buttons, anyway surgery corrected my clumbsy hand problem and lo and behold my wife gave one of the FT-817ND rigs to me for my birthday a couple of months ago. I have been having the time of my life with the rig. I use it in the shack and even take it out in the back garden on nice days and work all kinds of dx. I don't feel its very fair for a inexperienced QRP op to give a great radio a low rating. Spend a little time on improving antennas and operating skills instead and you will see what a great radio this is.
N0XE Rating: 2004-08-16
Great Time Owned: more than 12 months.
It is so common to see some Qrp reviews where the radio is down graded and in truth the problems and issues are not the radio but running Qrp itself and unrealistic expectations. This is a very nice do all little Qrp rig and the difference between 5 watts out or 10 is not going to show up much on the other end. Qrp is that, QRP! !low power and it is going to be a challenge and is not for every ham, and especially the new hams who are just getting started in ham radio and HF. It is probably best to wet your teeth on a good 100 watt rig and then and when you are ready to switch and try some more challenging aspects of the hobby, then maybe look at Qrp. This radio performs very well and for what you get it is probably the most full featured packed Qrp rig around and with the new and used prices as they are today, pretty hard to beat. The key to any Qrp system or any QRO for that matter is really the antenna system and using the best modes to match both good and difficult conditions. CW and PSK will probably always work much better at low power then using SSB and AM or FM. This is one of the reasons so many Qrp Ops, use those modes and can do so well with such low power. This radio has been out for some time now and has a very good reputation for reliability and if you need a little boost on VHF, say 2 meters just add one of the small 35 watt amplifiers that are so cheap and your little qrp rig can also become a very nice all mode VFH rig as well. You can probably do the same thing for 440 and since most of the 6 meter openings are pretty much going to be sporadic E skip for some time, 5 watts on that band will probably do you for most openings. Toss in it's general coverage receiver and I think you would be hard pressed to find a much better value for your money. I have used several of these little rigs and never had any problems with any of them and have worked many stations to include plenty of DX. They should only be compared to the service they are designed for and similair radios, they are not going to give you the punch of a Icom 706, or an Icom 756 Pro or a Yaesu FT 1000, they are not suppose to, what they can give is a whole lot of fun and a lot of radio that is very small and portable. The fun factor can be off the scale if you understand what the radio is and what it isn't.
73 N0XE
MINKEY53 Rating: 2004-08-16
Rather disappointing ....! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I spent a long time reading reviews and talking to people before I invested in one of these but it failed to live up to the 'hype'.

I tried several antennas including long wires with ATU's, a Miracle Whip and even a Royal Discone which could be used to transmit on 2M and 70cms.

It has all the bells and whistles but just no guts. A bit like a porsche with a 1.9 diesel engine. They really need to give it a minimum of 10W output similar to the Icom IC703.

I didn't keep it more than 6 months as I just gave up on HF and it barely reached the local repeater on 70cms and 2m.

Maybe a Tokyo HF50 would have helped but that's no good for M3's and why should you have to spend another £250 just to make any contacts.

I think I'll stick with 2m and have just exchanged it for a Kenwood G707.
K0AMZ Rating: 2004-07-15
Great little rig Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have had it six months and work only SSB. 36 states and 5 countries plus over 1000 mile per watt. What can I say except love it. Don't use internal batteries, when portable 7ah gell cells.
IK1LJN Rating: 2004-07-15
High performace for the size Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I bought it to use mainly on VHF/UHF for local QSO at home and for general use when travelling.
I added a W4RT 500 Hz filter which improves a lot the reception in CW and, now, I am often attempted to use it in my shack for QRP in HF bands.
The menu interface is perhaps too complex but, being the rig so small, some compromises are accepted.
The internal battery maybe could be improved in capacity.
The overall impression is positive and I would buy again
KR5N Rating: 2004-07-10
Love it more & more Time Owned: more than 12 months.
One complain about this little rig is the short operating time on the internal batteries. Many operators will lug along an external gel-cell pack to overcome this problem.

Duracell now makes NiMH AA cells in 2050 mAH. They cost about $9 for a set of four at your favorite neighborhood discount store. With the AA battery tray, this will extend your operating time. The Yaesu NiCd battery that came with my rig was only 1000 mAH.

There are still some 1800 mAH cells on the shelves. The dealers want to clear them out. Be sure to read the package and get the 2050 mAH cells!

PS - I did the "green wire" mod to enable charging the cells in the battery tray. I have had no problems with this mod. With the increased battery, it may be necessary to run the charger for two 8-hr cycles...!
KU4QW Rating: 2004-06-21
My Only Radio Again Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had two of these, I bought one the day they came out and used it for two years, never had a problem with it, no mods. I had a bunch of radios come and go, and traded my 1st 817 for a FT-100.
Didn't like not having a FT-817, so now I've had my new one for over a year, and no problems. I've done one mod, the quickjump software mod to allow 60meter transmit, and still no problems.
I use the yaesu 500hz cw filter, and that is all you need with this radio to have a great do it all rig..
OZ9MZ Rating: 2004-06-19
Excellent Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I´ve used the Yaesu FT-817 for more than a year and it´s my primary station! I also have a Drake line but I really enjoy working with an all mode station this small. I´ve added the CW filter to run PSK31 and it´s working great too. I bought it with a 1650 Ni-Mh Accupac wich gives more on the air time. It´s a truly amazing tiny amateur radio, sturdy and reliable and considering it´s size it´s got everything built in. I´ve built a speech processor into the factory mic and it´s working great except from the fact that it´s very HF sensitive when working with an antenna setup too close to the FT-817 and with high SWR. I´m using the LDG Z-100 on HF which i also highly recommend!
TG9AKH Rating: 2004-06-18
Outstanding Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This is a great little radio. Purchased mine almost a year ago. The FT-817 has turned out to be very useful when travelling, especially in rural areas.

My only criticism is that internal batter doesn't last very long. Most of the time I end up powering the radio using a car battery. Perhaps we should think of the internal battery as a back up power source...

I would definitely buy the FT-817 again.
WB1BPV Rating: 2004-05-21
My favorite Toy Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had the FT817 now for almost 2 years.Its still my favorite radio.The finals blew once(I screwed around with the "secret" menu, so my fault).I had them replaced.Since band conditions have been so crappy lately, I have become interested again in CW and not 100 watt cw like I did when I first was licensed almost 30yrs ago, but QRP(5 watts and less).I am using a homebrew buddipole and/or a Miracle whip antenna.I have made a few initial contacts, but not full Qso's due to QSB,QRM or QRN, but at least I know I'm getting out.I have reset the secret menu to the factory settings and am looking forward to making more contacts.I have been mainly on 20meters cw when portable.I will be in Georgia this weekend and plan on trying QRP cw on 20meters from the hotel room.Should be interesting.Other than that I use it for 2meters, 440 and 6 meters with mediocre results(due to conditions, not the radio).It has a hot receiver and I wouldn't trade it for anyhting other than maybe an FT817 upgrade.Buy it, try it and if you have the patience and enjoy the frustrations of QRP like I do, you will love this radio.Hook it up to a 3 elemnt beam and it works like a 50 watt radio.Check EBAY for the best prices.Mine was about $650 with a packratt interface, miracle whip antenna, ATX walkabout, programming software and a W4rt battery pack installed.Features of the big boys in a portable, what a concept.Only thing I would have liked is for the DSP to be built in and also maybe have the option of running 10 watts in case 5 doesn't do the trick and also a noise blanker that actually blanks out noise.I use the IPO for that and it seems to work fairly well.Otherwise, it can't be beat for the price.Email me if you want to setup a cw sched.