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Reviews For: FDK Multi-750XX

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

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Review Summary For : FDK Multi-750XX
Reviews: 3MSRP:
Description:
20 watt 2 meter all mode transceiver
Product is not in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0032.3
PA1PDB Rating: 2011-05-26
Good radio. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This was my first 2M SSB radio. I bought it second hand on a radio market in 1992.

After a few years the audio failed. Caused by a cold solder joint.
I use this radio mainly for SSB operation.
In 1995 I connected a DIY 6m tranverter to the radio and I made lots of nice DX QSO's on 6m.

For use with FM the radio isn't easy to use because of the channel spacing and lack of memory channels.

I know there are nicer better radio's but this was my first radio and had/have a lot of fun with it.

G8WWD Rating: 2010-02-17
A box of dry joints! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
In the 80's I was one of the few unsuspecting individuals who bought one of these. Initially, it looked good, but for a mobile rig it was awful. In those days I was a service engineer on computers and I did mobile for 95% of my operating.

The rig basically had IMHO very poor build quality and the vibration from working mobile in an average car made it fail quickly with dry joints. I was forever opening it up and looking for yet another dry joint to solder properly.

The innards looked like a cheaply built transistor radio from the 60's with many components haphazardly mounted onto the boards. The boards themselves had loads of flux still on them - obviously never having been removed after flow soldering. Wiring was all over the place with a few tie wraps to try and tidy it up. To be honest, it looked like I had bought a prototype!

It was not long before I swallowed my pride and admitted that I had been a fool to buy one of these. I'd been tempted by the cheap price, but you get what you pay for! I bought a Yaesu FT-2700RH to use for mobile, and left the FDK at home for base station work. Even then, it was unreliable. I still have the FDK rig as a reminder of bad purchasing decisions!!! LOL.
KU4QD Rating: 2001-10-07
OK, but there are reasons FDK isn't a big name today. Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
My shack is full of unusual Japanese radios, so when I saw one of these on EBay and the price didn't go up out of sight, I took it. In fact, it was about the least expensive 2m all mode rig I've seen in recent years, so I thought I was getting a bargain. In some ways I was, but in other ways I wasn't.

FDK has sold rigs in the US, under it's own name briefly in the '70s, then under the ITC and KLM names. (Remember the KLM Multi-2700? That was really an FDK.) They did sell under their own name well into the 80s in Europe and at least som e in Canada. There are some really complimentary web pages about the 750 series of rigs, and this was the last of that series.

The Multi-750XX is a largish mobile transceiver covering the full 144-148MHz range of the 2 meter band. It puts out 20 watts, SSB, CW, or FM. It was contemporary with the Icom IC-290H or Kenwood TR-9130, but it has fewer features, notably no memories at all, and is physically larger. There is a tone switch meant for tone burst, but it's not hard at all to wire a PL board to that switch. The rig does the standard 600KHz offset for FM repeaters, and odd splits can be worked between the two VFOs. An up/down mic. is standard. The rig can scan the band despite the lack of memories. The rig has a bright blue LED display and a bar graph S-meter.

The most interesting feature available (which I don't, unfortunately, have) is the matching Expander-430X transverter, which the rig can control , creating a really large dual bander. Cross band satellite operation would be a snap with the transverter, and if you have one you'd like to part with I would love to hear from you.

The receiver of the Multi-750XX is sensitive enough, but it is subject to overload from very strong stations, similar to the Yaesu FT-480R of the same period. As a result, if you live near a contest op running high power during a VHF contest, you'll find it impossible to operate anywhere near him, if at all. This is why I can rate the rig a "3" at most, though for most casual 2m SSB or CW operation the rig is quite pleasant to use. Mine has also recently developed a display problem with the last digit, though I can still tell what frequency I am on and use the rig. I suspect that is merely do to old age, rather than any design flaw, and I do intend to have it repaired.

Many 2m mobile rigs of the '80s suffered annoying (but not fatal) flaws. The Yaesu FT-290R was a bit hard of hearing. The FT-480R overloaded. The Icom IC-290A was prone to feedback if you turned the volume up in the car. This rig is definitely in the same category, flawed but usable. You can certainly make a lot of contacts with an FDK Multi-750XX and have fun, but there are certainly better choices out there, unless you just plain need to have a rig that's "different".