| W5GNB |
Rating:  |
2020-10-23 | |
| Had it for YEARS ~~ and Then !! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I still have mine after 15 years. It was a LOUSEY radio for the first 12 years, Drift, birdies, erratic power levels ~~ THEN we had a Flood. The radio was sitting on the garage Floor and was buried in six feet of water for about a week. After it dried out some several days after it was "rescued", it has worked PERFECTLY ever since ~~~ it must be a blessing from above, that's my only explanation .... LOL !! |
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| WB0RXL |
Rating: |
2020-09-08 | |
| Good secondary or beginners radio |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Purchased used from EBay under $ 200 several years ago. After a couple of years it developed the well documented PLL freq drift issue, but found a replacement board on EBay for only $ 60. (I may trouble shoot the old board someday.) Front speaker developed an intermittent. Replaced transistor then discovered a jumper wire simply laying on the solder pad on the back side of the main board. (How long had it been that way?) Rig has been solid performer ever since. Key point is this rig can be successfully repaired. Internal speaker audio sounds good. The main point is that is a radio that can be worked on. As others have mentioned it has a "plastic feel" because of the case, but otherwise it's a fun radio to use. |
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| N2ZD |
Rating: |
2020-02-09 | |
| The “Plastic Fantastic!!” |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
This is a fun radio to use because it’s so wacky to begin with. Plastic, silly looking, Notched VFO, is it gray? Is it green?
Nevertheless, this radio works. It’ll do 100 watts, decent filtering for a low end rig. Try to find an FM board for it if you can or one with an FM board already in it.
Every time I get rid of one of these, I buy another. I love them! The only issues I’ve found is cold solder joints and Twinkie fingered hams who shouldn’t open radios needing repair.
If you’re a new ham with no repair experience, this may not be the rig for you unless you have an Elmer.
If you find one is good cond and it works, then go for it. They run around $300 or so. Give or take.
It’s a kooky radio, but that’s what draws me to them.
RX is typical 80’s, so is TX but pretty pleasant to use. |
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| K7LZR |
Rating: |
2019-04-27 | |
| Refreshing change! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This is a great radio. About 30 years ago, a friend bought a brand new FT-747gx and was showing it around so I got to play with it for awhile. I had a Yaesu FT-101 at the time and I wasn't too impressed with the little FT-747 because it just didn't have that heavy metal feel like the FT-101 of course. The plastic case was a wet blanket for me too. And it didn't have near enough knobs & switches & features for my then taste.
Boy was I ever wrong. I recently had an old, battle scarred, non-working FT-747gx given to me by a friend who must now downsize. I cured all of the little radio's ills, and here is my revised opinion :).
The FT-747gx is a really refreshing radio to operate. No multipurpose knobs. No menus. No overcrowded multicolor touch display, and no plethora of DSP settings. Just enough features to work well on the HF spectrum. You get general coverage receive, two VFOs, 20 memories, noise blanker, attenuator, and here's a real treat - you get three IF filters(AM, SSB, and narrow CW) from the factory!
This radio is similar in operation to many 1980s & 90s era marine HF SSB radios but with a few added conveniences for amateur radio. In fact there was a commercial version of this radio minus some of the above named features, the FT-80C.
Performance? Very good. I find the receiver to be very quiet and sensitive. Besides on the air, I tested receive sensitivity using a calibrated HP 8656A signal generator. At 14.1 mhz on USB, I was able to hear the generator signal down to -127dbm which is the low limit of the generator without external attenuators. Ditto on all other bands. Selectivity is good with the supplied 2.4khz SSB filter, and CW selectivity is quite acceptable with the supplied 500khz narrow filter. AM sounds really nice too and SWLing with this radio is a pleasure. Audio on all modes is pleasant using the built-in front panel speaker.
Transmit performance is just as good - output power on CW is variable from milliwatts to just over 100 watts on my radio, and a simple modification allows this variable power on SSB as well. Transmit audio is clean and fresh sounding with the supplied hand mic and I've gotten glowing reports.
I'm glad that I got a chance to revisit this little rig from the past and it has quickly become my daily user radio. This once again proves that newer isn't always better, and I've come to appreciate the simplicity.
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|
| GM4SVM |
Rating: |
2015-08-21 | |
| Good for mobile (in its day) |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I bought one of these when they were not long out to replace the TS520S in my car. Yes kids, we used valve radios in cars back then. The 520 had a built in inverter so you could run it off 12v. The FT747GX was quite cheap, but worked well on SSB. Mine had the FM board which was being given away free at the time. Its shortcomings were:
- Inability to reduce drive power on SSB.
- RF feedback issues when used at home.
- Receiver noisy by todays standards (I had an IC735 at the time that was much quieter)
- No CW break in.
Some people don't like the click step tuning dial, but in the car this was very useful and easier than using a dial lock switch. I used this radio every day for a year or so with good results. They seem to be popular with CB people these days so the used prices are a too high for what they really are. I believe the FT840 inherited some of the circuitry from the 747 but with the difficulties ironed out. |
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| K7XFM |
Rating: |
2014-01-24 | |
| No nonsense radio that performs well! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I recently purchased an fairly clean FT-747 for $150 with a serial number indicating that it was manufactured in 1988 (over 25 years ago). Other than encountering the common problem of VFO frequency drift, this radio is a rock-solid performer. I was able to remedy the frequency drift by simply cleaning the variable capacitors that were causing the problem. The FT-747’s electronics are easy to access and work on.
I have not experienced the reduced sensitivity that effects some of these radios. However, a simple modification to correct the issues is available if necessary. Furthermore, a modification to allow adjustable transmit drive in SSB is easy to perform and a worthwhile enhancement.
I have used the radio to make great voice and digital contacts using CAT and a Signalink interface.
Overall, the simple radio has an effective layout that makes the radio easy to navigate. It’s truly a no nonsense radio that performs well!
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| AA1ZO |
Rating: |
2010-06-03 | |
| I has it where it counts |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| This is a great old radio. It has all the filtering, a very effective noise blanker and a quiet but very sensitive receiver. The transmitter sounds very good on all modes. I have owned some of the big radios in the past. This radio will hold it's own with any of them. If you want a really good but simple radio that will get the job done, this is the one! |
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| G7IGB |
Rating: |
2010-03-18 | |
| Ideal HF starter |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I've just bought a Yaesu FT-747GX for a newly licensed amateur colleague and I’m very impressed with this 20 year old HF transceiver which cost £150 (around 230 U.S. dollars). The serial no. indicates that it's a 1990 model and the rig came with the CW and SSB filters installed, which is a real bonus as these would be almost impossible to find nowadays. Received audio quality is excellent from the built in speaker, which is front facing and conveniently placed on the fascia panel. It was also nice to find a noise blanker which cancels out my local electrical noise, allowing even weak signals to be heard on 20m.
There’s no speech processor or VOX operation and only 20 memory channels, but you do get a ‘General Coverage’ receiver built in, with the option of switching to full transmitter coverage if required. Controls such as IF width, APF and Notch are not included, but with the very low noise floor and excellent sensitivity I didn’t really miss them, but the 10dB attenuator proved useful when switched in. Output power on SSB was over 100W on all bands and good reports were obtained using just a standard 500 ohm fist mike, but I'm sure that a Shure 444 or similar base mike would make transmission reports even better.
All in all, money well spent and an ideal transceiver for someone starting on HF. |
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| GI0ZGB |
Rating: |
2009-07-16 | |
| Remote Head |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I got my 747 yesterday complete with a remote head mod.
I don't know if it employed the RMK-747 kit, I've never actually saw one. It looked a little like a home brew mod, but for all of that, extremely well done, and it worked perfectly.
The cable was Amphenol 36 Pin males which slotted into the female equivalent, one mounted on the upper front panel, the other fitted to the underside of the remote head.
The whole assembly looked a tad agricultural by todays standards with a two inch wide strip of velcro tape running the length of the head to presumably attatch to a matching strip of velcro somewhere in the truck, car or shack.
On TX using the MH-1 B8 dynamic mic, with two position tone control, recived very complimentary audio reports, as did the Datong "Blue Box" RF Speech Processor when set to ragchew levels, and noticably increased the average output when squeezing the audio to DX requirments.
On RX, in difficult conditions it suffered badly, but the ERA bandwidth audio filter helped enormously, as did the Datong FL3 equivalent. The rig operated perfectly with none og the gremlins outlined elsewhere in the forum.
All things considered I'm very pleased with my purchase, getting it for humble money, big bang for the buck! |
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| W3TEZ |
Rating:  |
2009-07-13 | |
| Absolutely garbage |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| was given one for christmas one year and had nothing but problems with the radio. The crystals for the receive went bad along with the crystal trimmers and the radio has terrible receive drift problem that cannot be solved. Also now for some stupid apparent reason the radio does not transmit nor receive, absolute garbage. I also had friends that have owned other yaesu rigs and have had nothing but problems with them, excuse my language, yaesu sucks period, stick to kenwood and icom, they blow yaesu out of the water big time!!! |
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