Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: Yaesu FT-7100M

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

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
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
KE6JQH Rating: 2002-05-28
I almost gave this radio a good review.... Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Why, oh why did Yaesu have to change from the 8100? The 8100 was a spectacular radio, the 7100 is a horrid disappointment. I started thinking mine was okay because I hadn't had any reports of distorted audio, then I separated the control head for the first time. It's now at Yaesu for repair. I'm afraid Standard Radio has had more of an impact on Yaesu than Yaesu has had on Standard. One more company sacrifices quality to the beancounters.
KE4OZK Rating: 2002-05-28
So far, so good! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Purchased a 7100 last week from HRO in Salem, and specified a serial # starting with "2." They were very accomodating, found such a radio and shipped it out to me. I installed it in my car with a Glass-mount dual band antenna and the separation kit. I will agree that the separation kit was very overpriced, but the radio was a good deal, so I guess it is a wash.

So far I have not had any of the problems that everyone else has talked about. Supposedly the "2" serial number radios have all of these problems fixed, at least according to Yaesu. There is some intermod on the sub band, but no more than I have experienced with any other radio. Scan speed is great, receiver coverage is great. I have not had any "helicopter" noise while scanning. I have had good reports on the audio.

Programming is not as easy as it could be, but I plan to buy the computer cable and that should simplify that task.

I was very hesitant about buying the radio as I saw many people have had bad luck. On the other hand, there were some people who had good luck as well. It seems that in general we are more inclined to write a review when we have issues rather than when the radio is performing well. This reasoning, combined with what Yeasu told me about the "2" radios, pushed me towards buying this unit. So far I can't complain. If anything does develop, I will adjust my rating accordingly to be fair.

73
AA6GZ Rating: 2002-05-27
Programing Software Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Radio is still working good. Just got the programing software for the 7100 and it works great. It must have if you dont want to go through the troubles of manually programming your radio. The software ADMS-2G is $40, includes the cable you need.

73 Carleton - AA6GZ

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by AA6GZ on 2002-05-10

I agree with the luck of the draw. I guess I just happen to get a radio thats deciding to behave. Im sorry for some who are having problems. This is my second post just to let yall know my 7100 is still working fine.

Carleton
N0XLF Rating: 2002-05-25
Well... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Got a green dot 1H1 serial number - Major display lock up problems both when scanning VHF/UHF and not. Have also had it lock up in transmit mode. Intermod is more noticeable than other radios, but not debilitating, at least in a non metro area. Reports of mic being slightly hot, but not to the level of unuseable. Waiting on Yaesu to hear about the lock up problems, which is my major complaint. Hard to find as many features for the price, but you take a chance with this radio...
KC8TTG Rating: 2002-05-25
So far so good Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
There's lots to this radio. I got one from AES with the blue dot starting with 1E for a serial number, and so far so good. Can some one describe some of your problems so i can double check to make sure i dont' have any unseen ones yet. Has not locked up, and has been working fine. I had no problem programing, although i learned you have to program the PL and power output at the time too if you want that saved.

I'll follow up in a week or so to let ya all know how i'm doing.
K9XYZ Rating: 2002-05-08
Still no problems Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
My 7100 is still working great no problems so far been installed mobile since purchase with almost daily use. Apparently when buying this rig it is the luck of the draw, some of us got good ones, others, well.....It does appear that Yaesu definatley dropped the ball on QA of this rig, they need to get all the defective ones off the shelves and fix the problem.
73, Terry

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by K9XYZ on 2001-12-20

I've had mine installed mobile for over 2 weeks now, did'nt try it as a base as it's not a base rig. I love the rig it scans fast, great features, easy to use. I get no more intermod than I have on any other rigs. Dual banders in a mobile do get some intermod no matter what make or model. It states in the manual if you are using it as vhf/vhf that intermod rejection will be a little less. But not bad even then. I get in to all the same repeters as always up to 50 mile radius or so. This rig definatley worth the current price. People need to take time to read the manuals and not expect every rig to be perfect. There are no perfect rigs or we would all have one.
73, Happy Holidays
----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by K9XYZ on 2001-12-08

Just got mine today great price of $269.00. Mine has red, yellow, and blue dots. Lots of great features, the receiver on mine is as good as the ft 90 I've been using mobile for 2 years. Intermod no worse than any other duel bander. Receive audio is excellent esp. with external speaker. Have gotten great TX. audio reports also. Fast scan speed, great LCD display, also got the seperation kit which enabled a great mounting location. No problems, so far.
73
N4UZZ Rating: 2002-05-07
Update on experience Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Well, so far my green-dot rig has been fairly okay. As I indicated in my original review a little over a month ago, the rig tends to go a little haywire when scanning VHF and UHF simultaneously for a while - the display starts doing strange things. Looks like a CPU gets discombobulated. A restart fixes that. But audio is good both tx and rx, the rig is loaded with features, and the receive is soooo wide. So, still - so far, so good.

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by N4UZZ on 2002-04-07

Mine came with a green dot, so let's hope that this is a good sign. It is a hot little unit that has worked very well so far. I bought it because of the modest price and extensive features. I have operated and tested it and gathered the following impressions:

Here are the positives:
- excellent receiver sensitivity
- good tx audio (by report as well as repeater play-back testing)
- easy to learn and quick, intuitive operations
- nice fast scanning
- easy quick channel lockout from scanning
- separate squelch and volume for each band
- separate scanner in each band so you can chat on one VHF freq and scan UHF at the same time
- very wide receive range (but see negative below)
- will remember tx power settings for each memory location
- for me the buttons are a good size

Here are the so-so items:
- built-in speaker pretty okay (it's not like my Alinco DR-510, but then what is??)
- tx audio can get very messy when you get too close to the mike, the mike is a little hot


And here are the negatives:
- receiver isn't the best when it comes to image rejection, I would call it on the low side of mediocre
- as a result of the above, band scanning outside ham bands will often lock you on noise, scuzz, birdies, images, etc
- for public service you pretty much have to put specific freqs into memory
- mike DTMF buttons recessed and hard to press
- some situations can produce display lock-ups requiring powering off and back on (once every 40 hours of operation)
WF6O Rating: 2002-05-07
Happy, Happy — Joy, Joy Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Today, the UPS truck showed up with a brand-spankin' new FT-7100. I guess they decided the one they had for 3 months was a basket case. This new one (Serial # 1H160207) has the green dot on the box, and the first report was from a friend who said this one is greatly improved over the other. So, maybe it's not so bad after all! I'll be paying close attention to all of the problems mentioned in previous posts to see if something comes up.

----------------------
Earlier 2-star review posted by WF6O on 2002-02-27

Some of you have seen the previous post about my FT-7100 going back to Yaesu for the 2nd time. I got the radio back from Yaesu on February 1st. I immediately put it back in service, expecting all to be well... Not so! Seems Yaesu did the same repair they did the 2nd time around... 2 IC's, a chip resistor, and 6 chip capacitors. And the radio still behaves badly. The first one I called was my buddy, AB6LI. His IMMEDIATE reply was, You got your Yaesu back, didn't you?" I asked him, "How could you tell?" The reply — "Still sounds like it's off frequency, there's some sort of sub-audible hum on the signal and it generally sounds like you're talking on a tin-can telephone." He was in the neighborhood the following day and whipped out his service monitor to check it out. The sine wave looked terrible! For comparison, we put my Icom IC-207 on the air, and it did great!
I called Yaesu and was told to return it, again, with a letter to John Lynn, and they would take care of me. That was February 4th. I shipped it out, they received it February 6th, and I haven't heard a word.
My confidence in their service department resembles the just-concluded slalom competition at the Olympics - it's going downhill at a world record pace.
Now down below this window is an area to check how long you've owned the rig. Does that mean total time, or time I've actually HAD the radio? If it's total time, about 5 months. If you count the time It's been at Yaesu, it's more like 3 weeks.
KB3FWW Rating: 2002-05-05
Very Good Rig after AM fix. Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I purchased this radio (1D040701) Jan. 28, 2002. After a week on my bench I had most of the problems already reported here. I emailed Yaesu and was told a fix was available. I returned the radio on Feb 9, 2002 and received repaired radio during the last week in March. I installed in car the next day and have not had any problems since.
W2CZ Rating: 2002-04-27
No Change ...its bad as bad gets Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Had a chance to help a new ham with this radio and while trying to be optimistic, I was sadly mistaken. Like the radio I bought and returned it too was noisy to the point of being useless.

This radio is as bad as bad can get!

----------------------
Earlier 0-star review posted by W2CZ on 2001-09-06

I got the radio on Sept 5 and knew it was was going back after an hour of using it. The noise is unbelievable I was using a repeater on 147.060 and could hear a repeater on 146.910 almost FULL SCALE. If you live in the rural ares you may get by but this radio is useless in large RF prone areas. Furthermore the detachable front panel does not detach, Memory skip mode does not work.
What I find hard to believe is that this was one of the models Yaesu re-worked and improved?

Save your money and forget you heard of this radio. I know I will not forget the noise on this useless box!