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Reviews For: Yaesu FT-7100M

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Base/Mobile (non hand-held)

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FT-7100M
Reviews: 123MSRP: 499
Description:
Dual Band Mobile, V/V, U/U, V/U, Wide Rx, 50W/35W, 262 Memories, 2 Row Alphanumeric Memory Labels,

Product is not in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
131232.8
N5SKU Rating: 2002-11-16
Almost a year later and I find it still a great radio. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I like my FT-7100M radio. I've owned this radio almost a year now. It has worked great and still works great. It is easy to program and use when mobile. It has excellent audio. The only thing I ever found wrong with this radio was the helicopter noise on the main band when scanning on the sub-band. To me this was really not a problem, it was more of a nusiance. I returned the radio to Yaesu for the their fix, just because it was still under warranty. They fixed this little problem and returned the radio real quick. I was impressed with their fast repair turn around. I guess I must have gotton one of the good ones that they built. The serial number on mine 1Xxxxxxx. I would recommend radio. I plan to buy one their new FT-8900R radios as well.
KH7CZ Rating: 2002-11-09
1 year later, Still works! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
One year ago I posted a good review for this radio. And I still like it. None of the nightmares so many of the other hams seem to have had. I also have an old FT5100 and it works good also! Mark KH7CZ
AB0SF Rating: 2002-10-01
OK, but I should have bought and Icom Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought this rig a couple months after the price drop. Looking at the underside of the PC board, I gather that the version I got was one of the "improved" ones. There were several "Yaesu Bandages spanning various portions of the PC board.

But, to sort of come to Yaesu's defense, I wanted a relatively small, cheap, and broadbanded dualbander, and that is exacty what I got. It suffers from intermod., isn't the most selective radio in the world, but the audio is decent enough to understand, and the RX coverage is pretty good. The TX stability is more than adequate and the transmit audio is quite intelligible (No complaints, yet. Deviation 4.5 kHz.) What do you want for less than $300?

In all honesty, this radio will probably be replaced by a IC 207H or the IC 2720.
KB2RPJ Rating: 2002-10-01
Early Retirement?! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
In the first few months of having the FT-7100M, it has the best sensitivity of any mobile rig I've had. Until a few days ago it decided not to turn on anymore. THe power button is repetitively pressed and nothing happens. All fuses and relays are good. I e-mail Yaesu and I get, "the control head cable is loose." I find it impossible since the sits still in the shack. Has anyone had this problem and how was it fixed? What was the actual cause of the problem? The radio is not bad but the "tech support" is not up to par.
KB4LP Rating: 2002-09-26
Serial # 2Dxxxxxx Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After reading the many reviews of past problems with this radio, all indications were that units starting with serial number 2Dxxxxx were free of any problems. Deciding to take a chance I bought a unit with the 2D serial number. All seemed great at the home QTH but when tried mobile, the radio experienced severe intermod on the UHF side. It did not matter if the UHF frequency was the sub band or the main band. It was severe enough to render the radio useless on the 440 side. My town is not noted as a severe "intermod alley", although there are a couple of hot spots here and there. The radio was at it's worse in these hot spots where my FT-51 was quiet on the UHF side (it is a dual receive model as well). A fellow ham tried his FT-100D in the same areas and the 100D was as quiet as could be.

None of the other problems that plagued the early series of the 7100 were evident. On the contrary, it had excellent TX audio reports. The RX audio was also excellent (when not having intermod issues). The helicopter noise when scanning on the sub band was no where to be found.
THe radio programs very easy and many advanced features for the money. Perhaps this was luck of the draw and another 2D series would have worked great, but with the legacy attached to this unit, this ham was not willing to go any further with this particular model number. It was returned to the dealer after 3 days for a full refund. Other than the intermod problems on the UHF side, I had no other complaints. It seems solidly built.
WA6HDZ Rating: 2002-08-30
Built to a price Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Mine is a 1E-- unit with red and yellow dots in use since October 2001, made in Japan (some made elsewhere?). I've been lucky- no digital latch-ups (I think running off a stiff 13.7 VDC helps there), RX audio decent-and better with a real speaker. The scanning "helicopter noise" problem is very slight and helps me remember that the unused band is scanning. The programming just as good/bad as other rigs I own (Yaesu, Alinco). Front panel markings are impossible to see in dim light but that's fashion over function.

Bad news- 2m intermod performance is TERRIBLE used here as a base station with a Comet 3 band vetical on the roof, in a valley between two hills covered with commercial repeaters and transmitters. My old, beat up Regency out does it easily, but who wants to buy crystals at twenty bucks a pop? I think these rigs were designed as cheap mobiles for Asian consumption (think taxicabs!) with ham use as an afterthought. (A little reprogramming and a cheap plastic front panel is all it takes.) And if you use a mediocre antenna mounted low and surround it with cars and concrete buildings you might not notice many intermod problems. In the US we also have a lot of high power 151 MHz paging systems that are
a common cause of intermod on 2m, Asia has more 450 and 900-something pagers.

This is longer than I intended. Consider this rig as an average value for the price if you get one that's built right. Pay more for something else, you get more. I'm going to try a Par Electronics notch filter ($85) to knock down the intermod and I'll let you know if its the fix
DG2IAQ Rating: 2002-08-02
Solution for the quiet, thin mod ! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Today I got my FT-7100M, serial "1H160xxx".

I was very sensitive, cause of the bad experiences of all people in this review. But mine works fine. Oh dear, I'm glad...

The RX audio is very loud and clear with the external Vertex MLS-100 speaker. No CPU locks, RF or sound problems until yet. The receiver seems to be sensitive with very clear sound also for weak signals.

The FT-7100M replaces my second FT-90 at home in due to receive VHF + UHF similar. My first FT-90 will stay in my car.

But the TX mod of my FT-7100M was also too quiet, too bright and too thin to work properly with the original handmike MH-42B !
So I had a closer look at the circuit diagram, tried and found the solution:

***************************
Solder 100nF parallel to C2062 on Panel-Unit.
***************************

It's on the input of the mic.amp. and has a original value of only 5,6nF !!!
How should basses get through this less value !???

This modification will give the modulation more basses and increase the mod level drastically.
I first also replaced the original electret capsule with another which has a little more basses. But after the C2062-mod I would think, that the original capsule would be still o.k.

I'm going to modify the af tx lowpass filter too for better mod clearance, but I first have to get a service-manual for this to find out the positions of the parts on the PCB.

Today at the end I put on a modificated ZETAGI MB+5 desktop microphone. This combination sounds good for base use.


In due of my spare time I will put a short description of the C2062 mod with some pictures on my modification URL

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dg2iaq/

and I will also send it to

www.mods.dk


Hope to have this spare time soon, for all the FT-7100-"loosers".

Best regards.

JOCHEN
DG2IAQ
AC5DF Rating: 2002-07-30
Finally the radio it set out to be! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I baught one over a year ago. This is a follow up on my situation. After having all the problems with my 1xxx red and yellow dot rig, I sent it to Yaesu for the mods. It was gone over 3 months and came back doing ok but not perfect. Would still lock up some times and would scan crazy but I really liked it but was still not what I expected.
Then after about 3 months in service, It developed a 0-30 watt fluxuating problem during transmit but would still show full scale output but that was not the case. The recieve was going out,.... so many problems were developing after my upgrades had been done that it was perfectly clear to me that this radio was a piece of junk!
Hey... but good news was on the horizon that the 2xxxx's were out and Yaesu may be putting the 1's in the garbage were they belonged and sending us good hams a new radio???
Put the radio back in the box, shipped it to yaesu on July 7th and I emailed them asking them to please either send me a new radio or to just gut this one of all it's innards and make it a 2xxx.
Well, I guess by now yaesu has wasted all the time they are going to waste on these radios.
On july 18th they sent me a brand new radio, box, book, mic,powercord, mobile bracket, etc everything you would normally get. I have run it through the mill completely and can find absolutely nothing wrong with it at all.!!
I am one of the first to ever own one of these radios from the very beginning. My serial number is 2D200385. No dots no dashes. Just one very good radio that was just a little late being what it was supposed to be in the first place. Thank you Yaesu for finishing the developement of it and with the discontinuation of the FT-3000, this on is probly here to stay for a while.
73's to all.

----------------------
Earlier 4-star review posted by AC5DF on 2001-11-27

I baught a 7100m 100 days ago. It was the yellow and red dot when it got here. I promptly sent it to yaesu.....only kept it 3 days before I shipped. It was gone for 90+days... got it back yeasuterday. They fixed the sorry audio problem, they minimized the intermod tremendously, very little to no problem with the intermod. They took out the motorboat noise during scan mode. Made a pretty good radio out of it I guess.. friends say the audio is hot all of a sudden. From the looks of the ticket (repair) They must have replaced over 20 something parts. So... go ahead and take advantage of the bargin price and it really is a very ... verry nice radio. just as soon as you recieve it from the dealer go ahead and send it to yaesu and get it fixed because it probly is going to need it. I think I am going to have a pretty good radio after all. "Could not keep it but 3 days otherwise" I still believe in Yaesu.
KD5TGC Rating: 2002-07-19
Yes, it has some issues, but it could be worse Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Had I read everyone else's review before I got this, I probably wouldn't have. Thankfully, my experiences haven't been as bad as everyone elses.

I bought mine a few weeks ago. Blue dot, serial number starting with 1Fxxx.

Everyone reports that it sounds really good and clean - no deviation or overmodulation so far. That goes for simplex as well as repeater operation in VHF and UHF - including stuff a half a mile away and repeaters 40 miles away.

I've used it both mobile and as a base.

Yeah, it's got some issues with intermod, although it isn't *that* bad. And the helicopter noise when scanning on the sub band. The PTT button is a bit too sensitive as well. But the problems aren't that big of an issue, at least in my radio.

Maybe I just got lucky and managed to get one of the decent ones. If it continues to perform as well as it's doing, I'll definitely consider it an okay radio. And with a price tag of just over $200 for a dual band/dual receive radio - that's not bad - at least if you can get one of the less problem-prone ones.
W4LOS Rating: 2002-07-19
ANOTHER SUCKER FOR YAESU Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Well, I have just gotten through reading "9" pages of problems\comments on this radio. Boy, was I suckered in by the price drop on this "RADIO"!!!

My FT-7100M that I purchased has the BLUE,YELLOW,RED Dots with serial #1Exxx. If all the dot coding means all the rework?? has been done to correct the "Intermod","OverMod","ChopperNoise" scanning problem, etc... It ain't happening with this Radio?? The following lists the specific PROBLEMS I have had with this RADIO????

My particular FT-7100M has been locking up after manually pressing the "UP"\"DWN" buttons to scan programed Freq. causing the LCD to BLANK showing the number "7" only. I half to press the PTT a couple of times to regain proper display of Freq.

Spooky! On other occations this Radio?? after being left on for a period of 30-60min +\- COMPLETELY Locks up with no control at all! The only solution is to pwr. down and power on again!
At this point teeth are grinding down to the nub!

Somebody in a previous report mentioned something about a "TRIANGLE" in the display for memory func's. What triangle display, never seen it on this RADIO??? Tx audio output checked on simplex Freq. with very FLAT,HOLLOW,TIN CAN sound. Glad I am not using this RADIO??? in professional broadcasting.

This ???RADIO??? has been properly set up and programmed following the MANUAL?? to obtain the best results for Base station use. I have been in radio communications for the last 20 years off and on and can only say that in this case Yaesu Q.C. has really dropped the "RF BALL" on this one. Engineering Field testing is NOT to be done by the End user!!! I.E. Amateur\Ham. Of course that's what a lot of Hams like to do myself included ,but not at my expense for another mutil-million dollar company's poor R&D!!!

"AH", Mr. "COLLINS" where are you when need you the MOST!!!

This FT-7100M heading back whince it came not to return!!

73,86 over and out