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Reviews For: Yaesu FT-8000R

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

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FT-8000R
Reviews: 21MSRP: 659.95
Description:
VHF radio
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.vertexstandard.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00213
G0EGA Rating: 2004-03-02
It is the weakest link! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Don't bother to buy it. Poor construction, cheap parts the list goes on. If you drop it, you're buggered!
KD4SAI Rating: 2004-01-13
Big punch for such a small compact rig! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have purchased this rig on eBay about 2 weeks ago for about $250.00 shipped and I have enjoyed using it very much. Mine has had all the preventative maintainance and modifications and revisions completed to make its performance way above the standard for these models. I have been using full 50 watts of output power most of the time with no overheating and have received unsolicited excellent reports on my signal and audio. I found this rig to be a very stable transceiver and looks like it will keep on providing excellent performance on demand. Mine also had the Tone Decode option installed. If you do plan on purchasing these models make sure you inspect the inside to make sure the solder connection is good near the finals and while you are at it if you are not lucky enough to have an updated and revised version have a well experienced technician do all the revisions and modifications to keep this rig working great for as long as you own it.

I must have lucked out and found a great rig and I would be happy to buy another one when ever I have the chance to.
KA4AJA Rating: 2003-09-14
JUNK! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I am a slow learner! I had FOUR of these radios. All have had the same problem: bad controls. yeo Yaesu must have used the cheapest pots they could find! If you jiggle it and get it just right they work! Poor quality control! Never buy a Yaesu!
KB9PEG Rating: 2003-03-22
No 2 meter transmit. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Forgot to mention, if you have no transmitt on 2 meters (not sure about 440) A trace burns out that feeds the main power module. You can't see the trace until you dissamble the radio and look at the underneath side of the 2 meter board, towards the edge of the main power module may see a break in a trace. Simply solder a jumper wire in it's place and you will be back on the air in no time. This can happen if you get long winded and maybe the S.W.R isn't the best it could be. This is a common problem with this model. 73, KB9PEG tntexterminators@hotmail.com Note: I am looking for another FT 8000 for my boat. E- mail me if you have one for sale. Thanks,

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Earlier 4-star review posted by KB9PEG on 2002-09-17

I'm going to keep this breif because everybody else has had great reviews about th radio and I do like the radio with one exception. If you run two rigs in your mobile and the antennas share the same ground there is a chance that you can blow the front end of your ft 8000. It seems that Q1002 the first stage amp.(it's an extremely sensitive F.E.T) and it is prone to blowing out with a strong near by R.F signal. It doesent matter if it's 2 meters or 10 meters. I live in the city of Chicago and trucks or cars on the C.B. band with alot of power will damage the front end and leave you with low recieve on 2 meters. I'ts happened 3 times to me so far. Once on 440 which uses the same first stage F.E.T. (Q2001) and twice on 2 meters. Yaesu/ vertex standard will send you the F.E.T for free but the part lies on the under side of the board and i'ts diffucult to remove because of the "through lines" that connect both boards together. I asked Yaseau tech support if this is a common problem and he said yes, there is a service alert for the problem and there is a fix.You must install a diode part # G2070003 and coil L1690400 I am still waiting for the fax from them so they can tell me where to place the components. If ya don't believe me call Yaesu vertex/standard and ask for tech support and ask them about the problem I have just described the # is 714-827-7600. If you send in your radio the labor rate is 100.00 dollars per hour! Ouch! Working on these new surface mounted radios is like micro brain surgery, seriously you need a magnifying glass a steady hand and low wattage iron and common sense and the job can be done at home. With the schematic of course. Other wise I love the radio!!Kb9peg tntexterminators@hotmail.com
KC5QFE Rating: 2002-06-27
A great dual bander Time Owned: more than 12 months.
----Hi all. I guess I am one of the few people that absolutely love this radio (and have had no trouble with it)! I have had this radio since 1996, and have had no problems with it at all. I have used this radio in a pickup truck on and off road, and also for a base station. I am known for long winded conversations, so yeah, the radio has gotten kind of warm, haha (plenty of high power use, too). I just love the cross band repeater feature, very handy for those times you happen to be in the woods or whatever.

----Also, in my opinion it is a fairly easy radio to operate and program. I can't remember how many memory channels it has, but it's quite a lot. You can listen to one band at a time (2meter, or 70Cm) OR, you can recieve both bands at once. It has wideband recieve (A.M. aircraft recieve also!) Yaesu did a good job with the instruction manual, very easy to learn. About the only thing I don't like is the 800Mhz public service sensitivity. I wish it was a bit better. Of course, considering the specs. say it is only guaranteed in the ham bands, I can't complain too much. This radio has served me well the past 6 or so years.

----There have been many people that say the quality control on this particular radio was not very good. Fortunately, this is just not the case with me. In my opinion, Yaesu scored on this (short lived) dual bander! Easy to operate, full of features, etc.
VK2JRE Rating: 2001-10-22
Nice, but reliability could be better Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought my FT8000R used, at a field day (hamfest) It is my second one. I sold the first one, as I was annoyed with intermod problems. I bought another one (about a year later) as I still like the radio. Its intermod rejection outside of the 70cm band is not so good as I do a lot of listening out of the ham bands.(It switches in filtering in the receiver within the range 430 to 450 MHz). As for appearance, it is a good looking radio. Nice easy to read digits, and nice panel layout. I repaired one for a friend, his developed an intermittent fault in the 2m xmtr. I found no ALC volts to the PA, and suspected the APC transistor (have seen this before in a FT8500). I replaced it, and the fault recurred. It turned out, after much fault finding, to be a heat related intermittent through-hole plating join between PC tracks near the ALC transistor, which gets quite hot (especially on low power settings). Repairing the join fixed it. My own FT8000 developed a fault in the 2m RCVR - when it was hot, say after TXing a little, the RX would fail - no signal and no audio. Turned out to be loss of volts to the IF stage, was found to be again intermittent through-plating hole in the PCB. It looks like the quality of the PCB material used is not so good. I have also found the sub miniature connectors on the VOL/SQ PCBs in the front panel can become intermittent if these controls work loose (this was in yet another FT8000). I like the features such as X-band RPT, dual in band RX and PC programming but Yaesu could have included an attenuator as this is very useful in high RF intermod areas (in which I live).
KC0IWV Rating: 2001-01-10
Old rig in a new shack Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Picked one up at a reasonable price used and the radio was in very good condition. Wanted to free up my Icom-746 to do just HF duties in my Ham shack. I already had a separate UHF/VHF antenna to use it with - separate from my HF Vertical.

Overview: Same as the 8100 except no detachable face - less memories, and no programable buttons on the mike.

Positives - Very good transmit/recieve capabilities - the dual reciever function is great -

Easy to learn how to operate and program. The TX power wattage seems conservative - (claims 3 watts on low power - but I am measuring about 6!)

I like the fact that you can attach two external speakers - one to the VHF side and one to the UHF - which helps distinguish which band you are listening to.

Very nice separte volume and squelch level knobs -easy to use.

Good police, weather, and aircraft extended recieve range. Very nice - readable and large LCD display.

Negatives: Noisy fan that always goes on as soon as you hit the PTT. (Even when the radio is stone cold. In a quiet Ham shack this drives me nuts....ok ok I'm stressed out ok.....If anyone has any ideas on a quieter replacement fan let me know...

No Text tags to identify memory locations. With my newer radios - I've learned to like this.

Would prefer to have 5 watts 20 watts 50 watts power settings instead of 3-10-50 - this was fixed on the 8100. No big deal.

Some hiss heard from the external speakers even
with the squelch is on full - worse on the UHF side for some reason.

All in all a good rig if you can pick one up used at a reasonable price.

I would recommend it even with it's minor quirks.

KD6SQW Rating: 2000-11-26
Great radio with lots of features Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought my 8000r in 97' and it has worked flawlessly since. At first I used it with a magmount in the car.As of 11/2000 installed a roof vertical and it now picks up everything. However, I have noticed that there is MAJOR vhf intermod@220mhz, and deosn't even recieve actual 220!Also above 900 it sucks, below 440 sucks, but the ham bands are fantastic{great sensitivity}. I don't know if this makes a difference, but I modded my radio to the mars/cap mod and while it didn't expand recieve at all, now it Tx's 130-180 and 410-480!!Oh well. **Important, does anybody know if this process changes the recieve at all?I'm paranoid that I may have changed something for the worst.Thanks**

Overall I am totally happy with the radio and don't see why I would ever sell it!
WB4TWX Rating: 1999-12-11
THIS RADIO IS A DISAPPOINTMENT Time Owned: unknown months.
I loved this radio as much as any radio I have ever had with it's features and wide coverage. However, I could not keep it operating long enough to enjoy it. I have five documented returns
to Yaesu for repairs. On one trip it lasted four
days and I had to send it back again. The only person to get any good out of this radio was the UPS driver that was hauling it back and forth from me to Yaesu. It broke again so I decided that was enough so I sold it to a repairman at a
give away price....
W5IUA Rating: 1999-10-26
Flexible rig with lots of memories and features Time Owned: unknown months.
I have both an 8000R (3 years) and an 8100R (1 year). My 8000 has only been out of service once ($65) to fix UHF audio problem. Due to incredible frequency coverage this rig has, it appears to be sensistive to undesirable noise or tones on certain frequencies. I suspect this is radio specific, as my 8100 seems to have its own set of "birdies" compared to the 8000.

Feature-wise the radio is fantastic. It has everything I would need or want, with the possible exception of Alphanumerics to designate repeaters [sigh]. The adjustable display and up/down mic are great also. The medium power setting is 20 watts vs. 10 watts on most dual banders (50-10-5?Who thought that one up?).