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Reviews For: Yaesu FT-897 & 897D

Category: Transceivers: HF Amateur HF+6M+VHF+UHF models - non QRP <5W

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FT-897 & 897D
Reviews: 340MSRP: 1049.95
Description:
It is the world's first multi-mode high-power base/mobile transceiver designed to fitted with internal batteries (optional) for portable use. The coverage is HF 160 to 10 meters plus 50/144/430 MHz VHF/UHF. Receive is 0.1-56, 76-108, 118-164 and 420-470 MHz. 7.9x3.2x10.3 inches (200x80x263 mm).
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.yaesu.com/amateur/ft897.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
353404.6
ZOULAS Rating: 2010-10-09
Great Radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Love the radio, its easy to use, I get great signal reports. Many options including battery and built in power supply. This raqdio has a huge following. Really not sure what the previous poster is talking about. If he can't figure out how to use a radio, perhaps Ham Radio is not for him. In any case, I highly recommend it. This is probably the best radio under $1000.
GB001 Rating: 2010-10-09
Too Many Issues. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
A poor radio with many issues. This is trying to be jack of all trades but master of none.

Pros:

can't think of any.

Cons:

Very menu driven & fiddley to operate.

Poor RX audio with noise issues.

poor speaker.

Poor TX audio. Fed up with reports of, sounds like your speaking with your mouth full, sounds like your mouths full of crisps or is your head in a bucket.

processor soon goes into distortion.

poor noise blanker.

In fact this radio has the worst TX audio I've come across. Wish I'd listened to a few before I bought one. Since I sold mine, when I listen to other ops using a 897 or 857 they all seem to have audio issues, usually sounding dull & bassy with no clear tones or highs.

Now using a Kenwood TS480SAT which is night & day different & addresses all the issues I came across with the Yaesu.
M3IUC Rating: 2010-09-20
good radio Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
i like this shack in a box, its a rugged easy to use radio, some people find the menue hard to use but its not that hard once you have used it a couple of times, audio is a bit tinny so i use a ext speaker that sorted that out, the modle i have 897d can only be widebanded by cutting and adding jumpers but why would you want to do that anyway.i use it mainly on 2 meters and 80 meters i have had good audio reports with the MD-100 mic. both on fm and ssb. bought mine for £400 secondhand worth a lot more than that as it was only 11months old but the seller couldn't get on with it. i also bought the ftl meter for the radio as it makes it easy to see swr modulation and power etc etc.
HIGHLANDER Rating: 2010-09-14
Buy one!! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Teamed up my FT897D with the AT897 tuner from LDG and the AC power supply from Yaesu. What a rig. I cant add more to what folk have already said, apart from its performance from DC Battery supply.

I didn't by the Yaesu battery packs. Too expensive, and too small. So I use a dedicated, weighty, deep cycle Gel 200 AH battery. Yup its' huge, but great for transportable use in the truck. Somehow this rig works even better on battery. Unbelievable, but true. The rig responds to a clean power source.

Get one. The rig I mean, although you could get the battery as well to make it better.
W0DKM Rating: 2010-09-11
Great allrounder! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
These newer Yeasu's come out of the box and sound loud and noisy, Tinny SSB says it!
If you want to not play with the menu setting get a Icom or Kenwood. I have been using a FT817nd at work and portable with great performance. I wanted to try the FT897d. I use it at work and mobile and portable. She is a bit heavy with the batteries installed. But I was hauling an extra battery with the 817 anyway.

BS aside.

Now get the manual out page #25 IF shift info. You will see adjusting the IF shift improves the receivers sound, HA. Now if you like the audio better adjusted off default. Then read the manual at the bottom of the IF shift info.
To go Page #57.

Menu No-015 you can adjust RX carrier offset.
I put mine at +150hz. this is for LSB only receive only. SWEET!

Menu No-017 adjusts the LSB receive only.
I put mine at at -150hz. SWEET!

You can do the same type of adjusting for your transmit audio. Dare you.

I like the W4RT BIG PUNCH MIKE, BEST ADD ON AVAILABLE. 2.3 FILTER HELPS. I dont CW.

The battery set up is great except for the cost. Thats where they make their money.

Reminds me of going to a movie theater, Ticket $7.50, Soda $4.00, popcorn $6.00.

This is a great rig when adjusted the DSP works great and has a bunch of adjustments.

ENJOY

W6CJ Rating: 2010-06-25
Needs a Few Improvements Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had this radio for a few years and gave it a 3. I'm a hard reviewer, work in civilian and military radio communications, so I may have less tolerance for some things in a design.

PROS:
MARS.
Adjustable display intensity and color.
Good starter radio.
Might be a good trans-portable radio for MARS, Emcom, etc.
Alpha channel labels.
Works great with West Mountain Radio Plug & Play soundcard interface.
Works great with SCS PTC-2EX Pactor/TNC modem.
Two rear ports with PTT and fixed audio for CAT, soundcard interface or Pactor modem or TBC, so no need for "Bubba-rigged" wires running to the front mike or speaker connectors when you QSY to digital.
Options such as the FC-40 wire antenna tuner, for wide coverage Emcom and MARS antennas.. the FC-40 is not one of those limited-coverage, hambands-only internal antenna tuners.
Options include internal batteries (but power is limited to 20 watts if you use these).
Good CW keyer, a lot better than the stammering keyer in my TS-2000X!

CONS:
Weird sounding receive audio, too tinny or hissy on SSB - too bright or else too muffled on FM, have to play around a lot with the DSP and it still isn't right, Yaesu might have taken into consideration that the radio would -actually- be listened to, and perhaps over long periods of time.
Would like a better DSP; watching the effect of the DNR on a PSK31 "waterfall" it looks like all Yaesu did was to have their DNR DSP reduce audio around the 1 KHz and 1.7 KHz spectra.
Many of the individual colors in the color display are not usable; dark reds, purples and blues and some of the color features in the menu may leave you 'stuck' with a useless color so that feature cannot be used; Yaesu could have allowed more user settings with colors and menus.
My FT-897D would hang, and reboot sometimes, when I tuned the memory channels past a Non-Amateur VHF frequency in one of its memories. I made changes in the memories and this does not happen as much, but very annoying and unacceptable by non-Amateur standards.


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Earlier 2-star review posted by W6CJ on 2007-05-12

I purchased my FT-897D, internal batteries, extras and FC40 wire antenna tuner to evaluate for emergency comm, portable and Army MARS operations. I have been using the radio regularly on SSB, FM, as well as with a soundcard interface and SCS TNC for digital modes.

What I found objectionable is when used on a certain VHF Army MARS frequency, after releasing the mike, the radio emits an annoying pop in the speaker (or phones!) and then reverts to another frequency memory. OK, dial back to the problem frequency and it may work fine for a few transmissions, or for a few days, or may jump memories again. (Yes, tried power supplies, antennas and other remedies which would occur to a Public Safety radio professional - and no resolution of the problem)

On HF-SSB, CW and digital, combinations of DSP functions and filters don't give much better results on power line noise than an old Icom IC-735. I think powerline and other impulse noise blanking could be better.

The display colors. Initially, you think 32 colors are great, but some are too hard to see or are in weird combinations of features. Nice if there were more user selection such as colors forindividual memories, or better S-meter and VFO color combinations.

The channel memories allow for special shifts for the digital modes to resolve the "dial" versus "emission" frequency issue. TCNs can be used on a rear connector, so no mickey-mouse problems with front-panel mic/spkr changing levels and TNCs. If you run a TNC or soundcard with freq control, it uses the CAT port which is also used by the antenna tuner controls. Answer- use an SGC tuner to free up the CAT port.

Get the programming software and cable. Take advantage of alpha labels for your FT897D memories. Save different templates of frequencies for different operations or travel routes.

The outdoor whip and wire tuner, the FC-40 is a good idea. Unlike indoor coax-only tuners with limited tactical use, this tuner will load field wire antennas of most lengths on almost all ham/MARS frequencies. Leave the coax, baluns behind and pack antenna wire instead.

M0GNA Rating: 2010-06-24
Outstanding. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I use my 897d as both a base and mobile/portable rig.I can't fault it.Great robust build quality and neat design.Difficult to find anything negative to say about it..
KE5DFR Rating: 2010-05-18
Great little rig Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Like an earlier post noted, the 5 rating is reserved for the perfer radio...but this ia good solid 4.5 PLUS.

It was originally in my truck with the ATAS 120 antenna and a Larsen Dual band antenna. I moved it to the house when I started working with digital mode and set it up with HRD and my netbook. (I replaced the truck radio with an FT857 which does a great job from the truck)

I have used it on most HF bands using my Butternt HF9V and my Carolina Windom 80 Special and the LDG 200 Pro tuner. I am using the Hiel Proset with the #4 mic on SSB and get great reports on signal and audio.

Only problem with it was I burned out a surface mount fuse on the CAT port when I was getting digital mode seet up. Local radio shop replaced it pretty cheaply. Not a seconds problem with it otherwise.

As for a single all purpose radio, you can't beat it...rugged, dependable and priced right.

My Kenwood TS 830 Gold sat on the shelf unused for several month, so I sold it. The FT897 can't compare to the old TS 830, but it does so much more than the old TS 830.

Ken
VE2BBC Rating: 2010-05-15
Simply perfect...!!! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
After 17 years on the air and many, I mean many radios, from FT-77 tp FT-1000D mostly Yaesu radios, I put this little gem on my desk in my office and it does everything I want and perfectly, I took this radio out of the shack and it's fun to combine work and radio..at the beginning, the menu is a little bit tricky to undestand but once you catch the logic of it, it become simple to operate, I just love it....
K2JX Rating: 2010-05-11
Good Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
My FT-897D replaced an aging (1999)FT-847 as my back up all mode rig. I have both Collins filters and the TCXO installed and modified the rig for USA-CAP-MARS as per Yaesu. Works great, can't compare to my Ten-Tec Omni-7 but it's half the price, half the size and very portable.

Yep, the display is rather smallish, but once you have it adjusted to your liking you forget about the size. I like the Yaesu blue back ground myself. One thing I don't like and miss from the Ft-847,is that the 6 meter antenna input is on the HF antenna and unlike FT-847 you can't change that to fall on the VUHF port in sofware. No real big deal. I solved that problem using an Alpha-Delta coax to switch between my VUHF antenna and HF antenna input on the FT-897D for 6 meters only.

VUHF (2-440) has a separate antenna port. The receiver is rather noisy on the HF bands and can be quieted soem by using the DSP. Power out eceeds 100w HF and I get great audio reports on SSB using the Ten-Tec Heritage mic. CW & Data are OK too using a SignaLink USB sound card controller. No issues with the menu's or set-up.

All in all for the price I paid, less than $1000 brand new it does all it's advertised to do. Lately it has been the rig of choice.

K2JX