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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
WS9K Rating: 2002-04-27
Defective, sent back the dealer Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
See My April 6th post " LOVE IT...so far so good. "
After a about a week, My FT7100 started going nuts, display locking up, or LCD display going out at times. the radio would be on and receiving or scanning, but you couldn't see what frequency it was on.
Sometimes it sounded awfull and other times everybody said it sounded fine.
I called the dealer and asked to exchange it for a Kenwood TM-G707, a rig with less features but better reviews. it should arrive Monday.

I love Yaesu, but I'm REALLY disappointed in this experience. when it worked it was wonderful, but it was like Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde.

Hey YAESU, bring back the FT5100 & get your quality under control ! ! !
Derek
KF9WY


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Earlier 5-star review posted by WS9K on 2002-04-06

After reading the reviews here I was concerned about getting this rig.
I called AES and HRO and they both said that the new ones were fine, not seeing them come back as returns, they offered me the $150 coupon, making it under $300 shipped. I decided to try it, with the understanding that if it's a lemon, I'd return it and get something else.

I just got mine Friday, ran it to the cig. lighter the first night, on the way home form work, got some reports of over deviation.
Today I ran the DC from the battery and grounded the chassis.
I went into the menu and turned down the deviation (TXNAR), now everyone says it sounds great.
Thanks for the heads-up K5SWA, I read your review below.
It scans fast and the alpha-numeric is easy to program.
Mine came with one green dot on the box and the SN is 1H160276.
So far... so good.

If I run into any trouble with it, I'll write another review.
I've been out of ham radio since the mid 1990's, I'm just starting to get back into it and buy radios again.

LA5UBA Rating: 2002-04-26
Great radio ! Time Owned: N.A.
I am very satisfied with my radio, have owned it
for 4 weeks. No problems at all. Have tested the rig in home environment with Diamond x-500 antenna
(uhf / vhf). Maybe som intermod. outside of amateur bands.

KC2IGS Rating: 2002-04-25
It lasted a week! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Hello all,

Wanted to write this review to warn others like myself who are willing to take a chance with this rig: until Yaesu does officially recall these "DEFECTED UNITS" do not buy!!!

I own a Kenwood TM-G707a that I am very pleased with however, I wanted to buy a rig that had simultaneous receive. FT-7100 was right for the money.
So below are my expriences while using FT-7100 mobile in NYC:

Pros: TONS of Features for the money!

Cons:
Speaker audio can be compaired to Karaoke singer in the restroom stall.

Intermod is a KILLER even after setting up the electronic squelch all the way and turning manual squelch almost all the way on VHF and UHF (NYC is a nice town check out the intermod at its best) would like to mention that TM-G707A is nice and quite in the same spots.

That's pretty much all. Since the radio is on its way back to the store as we speak. Kenwood here I come again! :-)

After reading numerous BAD reviews here and at other places, plus hearing things on air I new I was entering a gabmle when I desided to buy it but I did. As another HAM here so nicely put it I played Russian roulette thinking I would be one of the few to catch the golden fish. It didnt happen.
Mind you my box had no color stickers AT ALL!!! Serial number was way above any number mentioned here (so rig was pretty recently manufactured) and country of manufacture was Japan.

Purchased April 16 2002

Returned April 23 2002

P.S. Its a shame. I do own a Yaesu VX5R and my Dad owns FT-920 both top of the nutch rigs I enjoy! But this was just the pits...
KD4ZOY Rating: 2002-04-25
Can this be for real? Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After doing quite a bit of research on what I wanted, I narrowed it down to this one and the Kenwood TM-G707A. What a disappointment in the Yaesu after reading this review.

I called Yaesu to see what the deal was. I was told YES - we did have a problem with Motor boating, Intermod, etc - but it has been fixed!

I said - great! Then found out there are still old "bad" units out there. How do I tell? You can't. They do not have the records. They apparently have been doing many of the mods in house and then sending them out. I was told if the dealer received it this year it SHOULD be ok, but no guarantee. Apparently the backlog on getting them fixed is well over 6 weeks now.

Not sure how a company that usually produces pretty good products could do this.

N3UP Rating: 2002-04-23
1st & last Yaesu! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought my first NEW Yaesu last friday 4/19.
By Saturday, less than 24 hours later, I was on my 3rd!

The first one had RX audio problems right out of the box. It was very strange. It had no RX audio on UHF when in V/U mode. It didn't matter if UHF was main or sub band. It was receiving, just no audio...

After spending a few hours with the manual to make sure I didn't have some obscure menu option set wrong, I discovered a pattern.

In addition to no UHF RX audio at all in V/U, it had no audio on the main band when in U/U mode.
And there was no audio on the sub band when in V/V mode.

I discovered all this at 11Pm! It went back to HRO first thing Saturday morning.

The exchanged it no problem.

Now for #2

I hooked it up in the parking lot, and found the RX to be working. After finishing the paperwork, off I went. About a mile down the road, I tried to get into a 440 repeater that required CTCSS. NO CTCSS on 440! CTCSS was fine on 2 meters.

30 minutes later, round 2 in the parking lot.

#3 seemed to be working fine, and a contact on 440 received no unusual reports.

By Monday, I had loaded up the memories thinking all was well.

Not so!
QSO's with some folks I don't talk to much didn't notice anything, one guy asked if I had changed something and I told him I got a new rig. He said it sounded different, not bad, just different.

Later that same day, I started getting reports of bad audio, ranging from clipped & distorted to sounds like you're 5Khz off.

Changing the TXNAR setting lowered the audio level, but did not remove the distortion.
Another fellow on the machine has a 7100 and they say we have the same sound.

It seems like there is some overloading in the mic amplifier stages. That seems to explain why the TXNAR setting doesn't help.

I have had some intermod problems, but nothing that I didn't expect after reading the QST review.

It actually behaves somewhat better in my work vehicle where I have 110W on 31 Mhz and 25W on 500 Mhz and all the antennas within 12" of each other.

The 3rd one has Red, Blue and Yellow dots and serial #1E80405.

I think maybe a reduction in the audio level from the Mic may fix the clipping. I get the most comments from those who I talk to regularly that know what I sound like on my Icoms. Most who don't know my "real" voice don't say anything.

The general description is that the TX audio is "mushy" and lacking in clarity.

I bought the 7100 to replace an Icom IC-2340H in the truck. I love the 2340, but I have repaired the connector on the display board 3 times now, and the old eyes are not getting any younger.

I would really like the rig, except all the problems have ruined the new radio experience.

If Icom had a dual RX dual bander in the $300 price range, I wouldn't be writing this.

When I bought the 7100, the salesman told me that the Kenwood V7 was on sale for the same price, but I stayed away from it because of several guys I know had lots of problems with microphones. That and the funky blue display and oddball shaped faceplate didn't do much for me.

I hope that I can get this straightned out, cause I'm stuck with this thing for at least a while.

I do know one thing, I'll likely never buy another Yaesu.

K6ZZZ Rating: 2002-04-21
This thing SUCKS!!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
It arrived on Friday, and today is Sunday...it goes back on Monday.

I get static bursts (I assume from within itself) while scanning with a FULL squelch.

The tornado S-meter sticks (FULL SCALE), while the radio continues to scan.

And once it is scanning both bands, I cannot get it to stop...unless I turn off the radio. I tried UP/DOWN buttons and tried keying the mic...NOTHING. I had to turn it OFF to get control of the radio.

The volume knob also has a mind of its own...turned down all the way...it still was punching thru the speaker at about 1/4 turn (but the volume knob was turned completely down). I had to turn the knob approx 1/3 up and back down again to get the volume down.

I told myself a few months ago, that I would never get another Yaesu. But I thought (hoped) that maybe they worked their QC problems out. I guess I should've stuck to my guns...it appears Yaesu is still turning out NEW radios, that need to be sent in for service as soon as you get them.

Mark my words, this time...I'll never buy a new Yaesu again.

John / K6ZZZ
KC0MMX Rating: 2002-04-21
I sent it back Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is my final answer to the Yahoo FT-7100M. I got tired of most stations telling me I was over modulating with the mic. Most of the time I had to hold it around 8 inches or more from my mouth or turn the mic and talk into the rear of it to prevent the overmodulation problem. The motor boating was due to the opposite band running in scan mode. I belong to a club that uses a remote base to all the HF bands and when the remote is operating I can hear all the noise and audio problems with this unit.

All in all it wasn't a terrible unit but it was worth the extra money to invest into the Kenwood TM-V7A. Only thing I don't like about that rig is it doesn't have automatic repeater splits built in for the UHF band. Other than that it's a terrific radio!! I will place a review on that model.
N0GOM Rating: 2002-04-16
Still chuggin... Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
See my previous post.. Still chuggin since January.. Never had a lick of trouble.

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Earlier 4-star review posted by N0GOM on 2002-01-23

My FT-7100 has not given me a lick of trouble since it's installation. My unit is has a yellow dot and a red dot (anybody know what the red dot is for? Yellow is explained here in this forum).

This radio replaced an Icom 3230H, and the intermod is no worse, power output is fine. My only 2 issues are that my dad says it sounds like the deviation is set too high on the transmit, (however, this has yet to be accuratly tested. but it's an easy set on VR1002 on the schematic)and there are no instructions (or picture) of the remote install kit. Can someone tell me how to get the display off the radio?

I don't use the scanning feature. Taking it out of band was a 10 minute job, and it is SOOO much
easier to control and program than the IC-3230H!

I'm still waiting for the software to program the unit, so it will have "similar" memory locations to my FT50.

FYI - this is my FIRST Yeasu mobile, and my FT-50 was my first Yeasu portable (no probs there either).
KG4IDA Rating: 2002-03-28
Pretty Good Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I used the 7100M as a base station at first and later in the car. Despite the many problems reported I have had no problems with the radio. It has plenty of power, excellent receive audio and so far no intermod. The signal reports have been good. The backlit mike is great. The only nit I have is the menus. Maybe I was lucky and got a good one but I like this radio.
VR2YYG Rating: 2002-03-26
As a base station OK? Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Will the 7100 perform well as a base station use at home? Will the intermod, audio, etc. problems still occur? Anyone using 7100 as base
station and experience no problem?

Any major reception improvement in
using this mobile as base station as compare to using a handheld, like the VX-5?

Thanks for the helps!

73
PCYS