| K5PYT |
Rating:  |
2024-08-16 | |
| Good Compact Shack-in-a-Box, but Speaker a little lacking...... |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I once chatted with a ham on 40 meters who told me (after I bought this radio) that the best thing he liked about the FT-857D was the sound it made when he threw it in the dumpster. Thankfully, I haven't had his experience with this radio. I wanted a compact "shack-in-a-box" to take with me on RV trips and this radio fits nicely in that role. I plan on using it for POTA as well. The only reason I didn't rate it "Great!" was the speaker. Maybe it's just my Tinnitus, but I feel like the speaker is lacking and I needed either an external speaker or headphones when working contacts outdoors. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with how it performs across all bands. It would be nice if Yaesu came up with a newer model this size (not as big as the FT-991a) that also supports C4FM, but for now, this will do. |
|
| N3IPN |
Rating: |
2024-08-08 | |
| Great Compact Multimode |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Owned since new, immediately installed in dash/mobile..... used 7 yrs mobile, in sun, and cold, then into house/base... worked well mobile... yes lil noisy receiver... turn IPO on(preamp off), helps immediately...better yet add the SSB filter, its better yet... I do own the ICOM-706mk2, with an SSB filter... I like it too... The Yaesu Menu structure is way easier to configure as you like vs the ICOM menu structure. Multifunction Row "Q" in the menu will help you set up the radio to your liking...(A,B,C keys are programmable)... enjoy!
So, it's 16 years later.... still an indoor rig.... starting to get intermittent pixels... still 100% now my PSK rig... just got mobile stainless ball mount....might be mobile again soon!! Still 5 * with faults...like my 817.. |
|
| KE4AMQ |
Rating: |
2024-08-08 | |
| Good but not great |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I like the 857d its a good rig, I have it in my truck but the external speaker volume is low. Also had a problem with the screen had to get a new one which was expensive to say the least. |
|
| VE3AQT |
Rating: |
2023-11-17 | |
| A swing and BIG miss |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I thought I was moving ahead in the radio world when I bought my pair of estate FT-857 rigs. They looked worn and tired but on the bench were close to spec so for 13-15 year old rigs that seemed OK. Operation them was easy only because I had an FT817 which was close enough in function to give me a jump start (These rigs better be close to each other, who wants or needs to relearn everything about rigs when you move up, the knowledge from the "cheaper" units should carry forward, otherwise why stay with the same brand? why not try another brand if you have to learn it all over again?) Enough ranting. I didn't find the 857 series to best the FT-100D model. I actually gave the FT100 the edge in several measures I personally use. The display, though only a cosmetic thing means a lot. When my 857 went tiger stripe I really started hating them. Some choices, any action was going to be costly, selling at a big loss, paying a big sum for a new display or buying a newer rig and hiding the 857 and pretending they don't exist. I chose buy another rig when a clean FT-100D surfaced. My 857 are in a closet, soon I think to be flogged for whatever I can get. I dislike them so much I refuse to give them a new life with a new display. The original display was a crappy gimmick anyhow, the proper "color" when SWR was right among other Crayola nonsense. Who determines when SWR is "right?" Who chose the color for that display mode? Why wasn't a simple but clear and reliable display like my FT-100 mated to the modern features of the 857? Too many questions. I think Yaesu was busy drinking their own Kool Aid after producing some killer compact rigs. I would love to own some of the newer Yaesu rigs but the Icomm 7300 is on my buy list if anything ever kills off my IC-7000. I have no modernish' Yaesu on my buy list, and that's mainly because of the poor displays on the 8x7 lineup. Mind you, had I gone the 706MkIIG route with dissolving traces I would have hated those rigs equally. If I don't like looking at something I sure won't enjoy using it. |
|
| K5TED |
Rating: |
2023-04-12 | |
| Good rig |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
The first time I saw a picture of this rig, several years ago, I noted then and there that I did not like the look or the layout, and it seemed the buttons around the tuning knob doomed the radio to a narrow niche of users.
Fast forward to last month. 6m is coming alive, and my only 6m capable rig was a FT-817ND. Fun for QRP. 6m doesn't lend itself to QRP often just yet, so I started looking around.. I was almost set on a FT-450AT, when I found a deal I couldn't resist on that internet auction site.. $600 plus shipping for what was promised to be a new in box FT-857D. I figured, what the heck... 100w out on 6m, and DSP (albeit AF, not IF like the 450), and could use it as a spare 2m 70cm as well.
I can say I'm absolutely satisfied. I've been using it for phone and 6m digital modes with the new WSJT8 package. The CAT control makes it a "big" rig on my computer screen, and it sounds great on the air (I've been told), with a Astatic 10DA desk mic.
After using the front panel controls,I have to give kudos to the Yaesu engineers for creating a really easy to use layout, menus and all.
edit: not long after, I got a I5XWW 455kHz>12kHz IF converter that plugs right into the filter slot and gives you about 12kHz of panadaptor and SDR all modes/filters/performance with HDSDR. Made a lot of difference in the receive. |
|
| W5NM |
Rating: |
2023-04-11 | |
| Noisy Receiver |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
This is a great all around radio and I have had mine for many reliable years with absolutely no problems.
Mine has a very sensitive 2 meter receiver.
The biggest weakness of this radio is a noisy h.f. receiver.
I took mine off the shelf recently and used it for a couple of weeks and it performed flawlessly.
Found that after listening to a FtDX101D and various other hf radios that the 857 causes listener fatigue rather quickly.
All in all this radio has been a good investment and I have enjoyed it for many years.
Its worth more now than when I bought it.
Carmine W5NM |
|
| LU7BSE |
Rating: |
2022-06-26 | |
| Good Radio!!! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| The only good thing about this radio is that it is super compact, noisy receiver, a lot of noise and more noise, very small display, very complicated menu functions, good transmitter but very hot, after a few years I sold it, my ears hurt when listening its reception, in vhf and uhf, is passable nothing special |
|
| KO4PJW |
Rating: |
2021-03-16 | |
| Super radio once your get the menu down. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Purchased new and used in a large go box which is now my primary Shack Radio. This radio is excellent quality and I get many compliments on my signal and and voice on all bands. I hit Canada down to the islands off South America on 20m and 40m using CW. 2m and 70 cm are all band as are all HF bands supported. Read the manual and practice using the menu and you will be fine. I have both filters installed and picking up signals is not an issue. Great rig!! |
|
| VA3IPG |
Rating: |
2020-12-10 | |
| a working horse! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I purchased this radio in spain about 12 years ago. it has thousands of hours of usage on it. only had a problem that was caused by me(i put some extra power close to the antenna and made it deaf on 2m/70 cm bands). after 12 years of usage, the display shows some missing lines(normal for its age) so i have it doing psk31/sstv ans some times vhf ssb when the propagation allows it. i think after all, that its a great radio to buy even in second hand. mine deliverys 210w full power since the first day in my house. of course i have a good antenna tuner to protect it, so i never had an issue regarding that. |
|
| WB7VTY |
Rating:  |
2020-11-21 | |
| Great Radio with disappointing reliability |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
Since Ive owned a FT817nD for 10 years with nerry a hickup, I have wanted an 857D for a long time. When I heard they were going extinct I bought one along with the CW filter about 9 months ago. After I got the rig setup, I instantly loved it. For 9 months Ive used it on the desk as my main rig on a daily basis and chased a ton of SOTA stations, and taken it portable a couple times. Lots of band changes and 95% CW with a fairly low break in delay so lots of fragile little relays getting a work out. You can see where this is going. This was an outstanding radio, right up until the receive became intermittent. Bad relay(s). Tripping the PTT and cycling T/R relays a few times would clear the issue. Next time I would transmit, s7 or 8 signals instantly dropped to s1 or 2 or just plane gone. Primarily on 40 / 30 meters. I did some googling and found out that this is such a common issue that the rig has a relay cleaning routine baked into the firmware. (FYI, so does the FT450D as it has the same issues). You hold down the band up and band down buttons when you power up the rig and the relays chatter a bit and thats it. This routine would also clear the issue. Right up until the next time you transmit. You come back to receive and its just deaf. I think this is so disappointing because I really like this radio. It does everything, it works great, and it is so portable, and it doesnt draw 2 amps setting there doing nothing. Its a great radio. Unfortunately Yaesu has obviously decided to, or perhaps had to, use tiny marginally good enough relays in order to get the rig down to the size they wanted. Either way, Im pretty sure the relays are just not good for the kind of use I put it through. Its obviously a known issue in this rig and the 450D or they wouldnt have the relay cleaning routine programmed into it. SO, unfortunately, after 9 months of fun, its going back to Yaesu. Im confident they will fix it, and I am also confident that it will just do the same thing again in less than a year so I will with much disappointment sell it. Interestingly, a few years ago I owned a FT450D, which I also really liked, and which also failed in less than a year. In hind site its failure may well have also been a relay related issue. It too went back to yaesu, was repaired, and I gave it to a new ham. This is a tough radio to rate. If not for the failure, I would have absolutely given it a 5. If the failure had just been a random fluke, well, that happens and I would still have given it a 4 or 5. However, since this is obviously a known issue, and the radio has been in production for so long with no resolution, I cant even say its average. It also doesnt do much for my confidence in any more yaesu purchases and other potential time bombs they have waiting and havent fixed. Happy to answer any questions. Just shoot me an email at wb7vty@gmail.com.
73
Joe
WB7VTY
=========================
October 19 2020 Update
After two months, I have received my 857 back from Yaesu repair. Ok, its 2020, the year of the apocalypse and everything is slow, so no strike for the two months. I shipped the radio double boxed, the head, body, mic, power cord, each separately wrapped in multiple layers of bubble wrap since I didnt have original boxes. It was very well packed. You could have kicked it through a goal post and it would be fine. What I got back was my radio, head, and mic thrown in plastic bags, thrown in a box barely bigger than the radio, with packing materials that looked like used junk picked up from a floor sweep. The radio was not wrapped in anything and was right up against the walls of the box on 4 sides. No protection what so ever. Completely unacceptable. When I took the radio out of the box, the plastic front bezel on the body that the head snaps into had a small broken / bent spot that prevented the head from snapping in. Additionally, there is a spot on the same bezel that was clearly touched by a hot soldering iron and melted. It also appears that somebody grabbed the broken section with a pair of needle nose pliers or something and attempted to straighten it. SO... they damaged the radio in service and didnt have the honesty to take care of it, hoping I wouldnt notice, and stole the packing materials that I spent time and money putting together. I have "upgraded" my review to awful. Again, this is a great radio that puts lots of smiles on your face because of its capability and portability. If I had to judge the radio on that alone, I would still give it a 4 or 5.
Its a shame that it had such a failure in the first place. I suspect it will happen again but maybe its a fluke. There are lots of people that have many years of flawless service out of these things. My 817 certainly has been flawless. Worse than the fail itself was the utterly abysmal performance by yaesu service. It appears they fixed the electrical failure but otherwise, horrible service. We all make mistakes and accidents happen and thats all ok. However to steal your packing materials, ship it back as they did, and return a physically damaged radio, tanks the rating. The entire experience wreaks of dishonesty somewhere in the process at yaesu and there is no excuse for that. Fortunately the physical damage was minor enough I was able to repair it myself so Im not about to send it back to Yaesu for another beating unless it fails to function again. My advice is that if you need to send anything in for repair, take pictures of all of it, including how its packaged and send printed copies of the pictures with the radio. There is then no excuse. I thought about that and didnt do it. Thats on me. Yaesu has not responded to my nastygram yet but I just sent it today. I cant say anything about how they will respond to the situation yet. As before, any questions feel free to shoot me an email. wb7vty@gmail.com
===========================
The end of the story - November 21 2020 Update
I did decide to send the 857 back to have the damage repaired. I did get a reply back from Yaesu and to their credit they immediately sent a prepaid shipping label, and repaired the radio and returned it with lightning speed. I had the radio back in less than two weeks I think. I repurchased all the packing materials I used the first time and in a funny twist, not only did they return the radio packaged as I sent it, bubble wrapped and double boxed, they put THAT inside a third box that was about a two foot cube. So, a triple boxed 857 in a 2 foot cube. Very funny. So, the 857 is back to 100% and I have also decided to keep it. Will see how it lasts this time. Again, any questions, feel free to email direct. WB7VTY@gmail.com
|
|
