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Reviews For: Yaesu FT-818ND

Category: QRP Radios (5 watts or less)

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FT-818ND
Reviews: 16MSRP: 980
Description:
The new FT-818 incorporates all the many basic and attractive features of the ever-popular FT-817ND while providing upgrades desired by many existing owners. The FT-818 provides 6W of solid output power with an external DC power source. The supplied Ni-MH battery pack (SBR-32MH) has been upgraded to now provide larger battery capacity - 9.6v/ 1900mAh. The recent launch of several new satellites is a certain indicator that the large global community of satellite enthusiast are going to be very delighted to learn that the FT-818 includes a Built-in TCXO-9 oscillator that gives the FT-818 fantastic frequency stability (±0.5ppm)
Product is in production
More Info: https://www.yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCatID=102&encProdID=36B7B98621AF7554C9A03C8B190C5079&DivisionID=65&isArchived=0
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
35163.9
5B4AMD Rating: 2021-02-20
One of the best qrp radios Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
One of the best qrp radios out there. I had a 817ND but i sold it, which was a major fault by me. I bought it back a couple of months ago. I really believe that 817 had a little "quitter" receiver ,and 818 is a little noiser.

Great radio! I won't sell it again, well for now at least!????

73s
VE2TH Rating: 2020-07-22
Swiss knife of QRP Radio Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This review is for the Yaesu FT-818ND. As I finally sold my FT-817ND, and replace it with the ft-818ND.

Ok I won't repeat all the points in my post of 2018-06-20. I upgraded for the 3rd time in 20 years, because I'm, always satisfied of the quality of this radio. The do it all etc.

The difference is: 6 watts of power instead of 5 watts, The TCXO 9 high stability oscillator built in, gives a better stability. and the new supplied NIMH rechargeable battery 9.6V 1,900 maH.

The warranty is now 3 years.

This time I put a 300Hz cw filter, which is for me, much better than the 500 Hz I had before in other models,
Becaise I want to try it, and also the 500 Hz is now discontinued. Very satisfied with this one.

First option I would like to see in this model is:

1- Instead of the old NIMH battery, a LifePo4 could be much better.

2- Or better, there is enough space Inside to put a 10:1 antenna tuner, like the one in the KX3, instead of the battery.

It is just an idea, as I never use the internal battery, so I would prefer a good internal antenna tuner.
I use for years a LifePo4 12.8 Volts 9.6 amps, 122.9 Whr for years from K2BATTERY.COM

Why they didn't change much after nearly 20 years ?

Because it is very good, and when a product is popular and good like this one, why not keep on the production ? it is very simple, it is like HOT-DOG. It is always popular amongs the QRP'er community.

We are in the year 2020, FT-817 was first sold in year 2000.
The FT-817ND came on the market in 2008 or so.
12 years later the FT-818ND was available in Canada in january 2019.

Over the years some internal parts were no more available, so they decided to upgraded with some new parts like the TX final transistors and other parts, etc.

The other reason is this small peanut whistle was so popular and still is, for nearly 20 years.

At the beginning, Yaesu hoped to sell about 5000 units in the first 3 to 5 years. In 2014, they sold nearing a QUARTER-MILLION FT-817's, I Wonder how many are sold now in 2020?

That is 250,000 radios sold!!! I don't believe there has ever been another QRP radio of any brand so popular, and so complete, almost.

This is a do it all radio, at a fair price. By the way, I have had no issues in nearly 20 years of intensive use of it. I always use it with simple wire antennas cut for the bands of operation,ajusted with an SWR Analyser, and I always check the SWR, when transmitting.

So, as you can read , I'm always in love this this fantastic peanut whistle, and I'm sure it will be forever.

Before going back on the air, when I say it is built like a brick, yes it's really true. Just check the You Tube channel of Peter VK3YE. You will see often close-up with sand on it, as he is most of the time on the Australian beaches doing QSO or making a lost of test building simple antennas that works.

Try it, sure some not all of readers will like it.

72/73 Michel VE2TH, The QRP'er for 58 years now.-



G4VRR Rating: 2020-06-20
MEH Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I wanted an '817 since they were first introduced, but I'd never sat down with one. Retirement came along and a pension pay out required a "treat", so I bought the "new improved" FT818. In retrospect I wish I'd sat down with it. The extra watt is stupid, it increases the current draw and for so little gain and excludes it from QRP radio designation, and we've lost miliwatt transverter drive into the bargain. The battery improvement was pointless too- 1900 mAh when it's trivial to put in 2,500 mAh low self discharge cells. The charging circuit was barely acceptable nearly 20 years ago, in today's market it's just a joke. Having to guess how many hours to charge for (especially on a partially depleted pack) is unforgiveable. The instruction manual offers zero advice as to how long to charge for, nor the current draw from the supplied "wall wart" nor any conversion efficiency empirical fudge factor. As others have already noted, it should be at least a LiFePo4 pack (or similar), or glory be- ship with a battery access flap that would facilitate three 18650 cells- it only needs a pressing to accommodate a couple more milimetres. Come to think of it, the charger which won't run the radio on TX is a cop out too. The DC socket configuration draws 4mA with a plug inserted and flattens the pack in a week which is crazy, and depending upon the resistance across the DC coaxial plug you insert, the backlight timeout may or may not work. The charge light from the FT817 doesn't illuminate in the FT818. There's still the old FT817 lamp on the panel so why not? The manual refers to it. According to the ARRL report, it has poor image rejection on UHF. The FT817 was better. Let's hope it was a one-off rogue result ...

Is it just me or is the dial lock button a waste of valuable front panel real estate? Could have been a tune button? Or perhaps a front rear antenna socket switch? Anything useful other than that dial lock button. Hell it could have been configurable!!! Who uses it that couldn't just enter the settings menu? Pedestrian portable operators perhaps? Legions of them about ... Do you really need a dial lock button when shuffling along with a "counterpoise" wire trailing behind? The lack of FT857/897 frequency input at the mic socket is an epic fail. The MH-59a8j mic doesn't even do "up / down" on this radio (yet the "fast button still works?) You still can't fit two IF filters when W4RT managed it years ago.

Now down to the wish list where costly re-engineering probably gets a toe hold; the DC socket should have been changed to a PowerPole by now. Really it should. The mic. should have an electret element. Some speech processing is long overdue on such a flea powered radio- others have fitted RF processing into microphones so come on Yaesu. Noise reduction- BHI can do it so why not? A simple battery isolation switch would paper over the cracks of many of the noted DC power related characteristics, maybe that daft dial lock button could be used- implemented in software perhaps? No- better to fix what's wrong. Current draw on RX is too high for a portable radio these days. I do not believe that any of the foregoing is wide of the mark, although you'll always get fan boys and folk in denial, but I reckon I have been objective.

So, to be fair- it is what it is and with a great legacy too, and there would have been uproar if Yaesu had summarily discontinued it. I would have given it five stars two decades ago but be honest- nowadays it "needs help". Kudos to them for sticking with the design, but not just to milk as much as they can from the market as it seems to me. Thanks for the TCXO by the way, but in most instances it's barely necessary. As a Swiss Army Knife radio it still has no competition, although other radios easily perform better but cannot match it for DC to light portable capability. I just had to buy one, I waited long enough- and I enjoy a love-hate relationship with mine, but if I HAD indeed sat down with it in a shop instead of mail ordering it I would never have bought it (that was due to buying an Elecraft T1 with it as a deal, and my local emporium wouldn't supply the T1), and now that I've scratched that almost two-decades long itch, I certainly would not buy it again either. For me the benefits just about outweigh the negative aspects because there are workarounds for nearly everything, and despite what I've written- it's a keeper (unless I get a good offer that is), but Yaesu should have addressed at least some of these anomalies by now. There's still an awful lot of fun to be had with the little Yaesu so go ahead and enjoy. One day though, you'll tumble that you really shouldn't have to tolerate all this in 2020.
AB9GO Rating: 2020-06-19
Review of 817 & 818 battery charging circuit. Pitiful in 2020. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The FT-817, FT-817ND and FT-818ND are fine QRP rigs and I have had my original FT-817 since 2003. I was looking at the new FT-818 to use in addition to my aging 817. The one thing I have hated since the introduction is the STUPID battery charging scheme. Yaesu is a company that has sold equipment with automatically rechargeable batteries for decades. A battery charger that can sense the charge state and adjust the charge time automatically. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Yaesu carried the manually configured, timed charger over in the 818ND. What other product in 2020 requires the user to GUESS how much time the battery requires to reach a full charge without overcharging. For that matter what product did such in 2002? The FT-818ND will happily allow you to change a fully charged Ni-Mh pack for another full cycle, just push the button. Yaesu WHY didn't you put an auto charger in when you changed models? How about a new battery chemistry too while you are working on it? Something like a MODERN Li-ion or Lifepo4? You use these in other equipment you manufacture, why not this product? I like the 817-818 line. I do. It is a very good small QRP shack in a box rig with a strong accessory aftermarket. Yaesu totally and unbelievably blew it on the battery charger. Come on Yaesu. What were you thinking?
VK3LZ Rating: 2020-05-28
Best compact shack in a box Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I upgraded from a Yaesu FT-817 to my new FT-818. The 818 is slightly improved over earlier versions (slightly being the operative word) and I'm not sure there is enough difference to warrant a new model number, calling it an FT-817 Mark III would have made more sense. Nevertheless nothing else on the market comes close to having all HF bands plus VHF and UHF all mode in a small, light, portable battery powered radio... nothing. This radio is in a market segment of one but it's not perfect, the display is tiny, the receiver lacks effective noise reduction and the internal batteries are low in capacity but given the size and weight I can forgive that. 4 stars not 5 because of these issues.
GRUMPY2021 Rating: 2020-05-28
Never disappoints. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
The radio simply never disappoints. I compare it to a PC running Windows or a PC running Linux. Windows is user friendly point and click (think IC-7300). This would be like Linux. You control every aspect of it with menu choices. Once you study the manual it clicks and all makes sense. Very apparent why they didn't change much from the 817...hard to improve this model. Built like a brick *****. Just love mine. Will never sell it.