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Reviews For: Yaesu FT-857 - all flavors

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

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FT-857 - all flavors
Reviews: 433MSRP: 769
Description:
Yaesu HF/VHF/UHF Mobile Transceiver
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
154334.5
KD0JWY Rating: 2011-07-05
Awesome Rig Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This rig does it all and it's in a very small package. I used to have one about a year ago but do to several family emergencies I needed money to take care of my family. so now I have another one and I used it for Field Day 2011 and worked full power 100watts on all bands for 24 hours running SSB. I also use this radio for portable FM satellite work either using the vfo-split feature for on demand frequency changes, or i just program the odd split on it. Great little radio, easy to use. Don't let the menu's get to you. After playing with an Icom 706MiiG Which is very hard to to figure out and go through all of the different menu's this radio does it all. I highly recommend this rig to anyone who is thinking about either running it mobile or just using a mobile do it all as a base station. 73's and enjoy this little Gem from Yaesu
WU6X Rating: 2011-07-04
Operation & Tweaks Time Owned: more than 12 months.
OPERATION: I use the radio for both mobile and base. Memory "groups" have been setup for 2m, HF bands (CW & SSB), scanning public service frequencies, etc. and makes the radio a dream when moving between different bands/uses. Take the time to setup the memory groups; you won't be disappointed.

By a program to store the memories and update/change them. This is a must for saving all your work, and can be used to re-program the radio for different uses. I use FTBasicMMO. Great if you have to reset the radio to factory defaults as well!

Run the headphone jack output to your audio system in the car for excellent listening even with the windows down. I use a cassette adapter with my old stereo system ... no external mobile speaker required! New audio systems have an MP3 device connector on the front ... use it!

I used this little radio at Field Day 2011 this year and it worked well except for when someone else was on the same band opeating the other mode (cw vs. ssb) but rejecting this type of interference is asking a lot of any radio.

TWEAKS: Mic gain is critical depending on the mic used, and can be easily changed for SSB with menu-081 (051 for FM). Also, setting the Rx and Tx Carrier Point for LSB/USB is a must to get any base in the audio for both transmit and receive. I set mine at +300 for all four menus (015 through 018) and get excellent audio reports with the MH-31 mobile mic.

MOBILE ANTENNAS: I use the ATAS-12A. Separate antennas works best as you don't have to wait for the antenna to tune when going between HF and VHF/UHF and you can monitor one or the other with the "priority channel" scan. I've worked Japan on 40m on the way to work in the morning. I do miss 80m's though, so consider the small Tarheel ... also an excellent "small" screwdriver.

Feel free to email me if you have any other questions.
KJ4VTH Rating: 2011-06-27
lots of rig in a little box Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Sure the menus take a little getting used to -- OK a lot getting used to -- but after you set most functions you leave them alone and you (eventually) memorize the others.

I got my license a year ago and bought the FT-857D nine months ago and have made thousands of contacts all over the world with simple antennas at home and while camping. (Don't use it while driving!)

I want to get a "real" radio but am just having too much fun with this one!! :)
DERECKBC Rating: 2011-06-25
Not That Difficult Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Fist let me say this is my first transceiver as an operator. I just received my ham license a couple of weeks ago. I found this radio locally from a ham operator who did not like it and sold it to me dirt cheap for $425 in the box with everything in brand new condition.

I just wanted to address the actual operation complexity some have seemed to have issues with. I am 53 years old, an electric engineer so bit of an ole dog but have a few new trick left in me. At first it did seem somewhat complicated like a new multi-function AV remote control. But honestly after setting down with the operator’s manual one evening I had it pretty much figured out. After two weeks now I can do anything I want with the thing. I have all my most used frequencies and modes programmed so I can retrieve then in a just a few clicks and rotation of the main dial.

I also hear of the small display which is true to some extent unless you go to the PWR-SWT-DISP menu and push DISP which makes the operating frequency large and easy to read.

As for the technical review I am an electrical engineer, RF Engineer, and have all the professional grade test equipment. In addition in my early career I was a radio technician. Anyway when connected to an IFR or Agilent Base Station Test Set the radio is gem. Only thing I had to tweak a bit in the sub menus is adjust the MIC gain in SSB and FM to best match my voice

Only real criticism is the speaker is a bit harsh, but is easily rectified with an external speaker. With an external speaker it is easy on the ears, clean, and clear.
KG6WLV Rating: 2011-06-16
Neat Rig! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This is a good little radio for the money. As others have commented, don't expect to use all of its features WHILE DRIVING, unless you have a super ergonomic installation, a phenomenal memory and tactile skills. It will do anything you want, provided you don't drive into a ditch using it.
The Good:
Seems to have good build quality, reasonably easy menus (except for repeater settings, as some have noted) and a decent front end. The Intercept Optimization feature for HF is great when the front end blocks from strong local signals, including local AM stations. I was surprised to read a post that mentioned that HF is nearly unusable. That's not my experience, and I am using mag-mounted Hustler sticks on the roof of a Toyota Corolla. I've made DX contacts on 10, and good solid ragchew-quality contacts on 20 and 40 over thousands of miles. The noise blanker is good and my ignition noise is minimal. Interestingly, I've noticed ignition noise from other cars as they pass. Fords seem to be really bad for that, with severe white noise from their computers.
The display is adequately large for a rig of its size. For the most part, all I care about is the frequency display; the other icons are reasonably large for mobile use. If you need to stare at them for more than a quick glance, you should probably wait for a red light or pull over.
The Bad:
The headroom of the front end is somewhat lacking, which is easily dealt with by reducing the RF gain, but can be a bit of a challenge when one is in a roundtable with varying signal strengths.
Also, you must select either RF gain or squelch for that control, without the option of varying the squelch in FM mode and gain in the other modes. This is the only serious shortcoming of the radio's design, in my opinion.
The Ugly:
When you change the display color, the backlighted buttons stay the stock orange/red hue. This gives some realllllly ugly color combos!
This is a good radio for the money. The optional filters would soup it up a bit, but it's not bad in its stock incarnation. And yes, I'd like an IC-7000, too, but I got mobile for about $250 less including antennas, and that's the bottom line.
KC9IBS Rating: 2011-06-10
Great Radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
What can i say? I have 2.
1 as a base thats right 1 in my car
Nice radio's
W2KRH Rating: 2011-05-29
Great Radio Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have this radio installed in my Kia Sportage with a Little Tarheel II and a Turbo Tuner and they work very well as a team. I've made contact with anyone that I can hear. I've also added the INRAD 712 and 717 filters which I am very happy with. This is my HF setup as I have a noise problem at my home QTH.

I've just purchased a Donner Digital Interface and a 12v to 18.5v DC converter to power my laptop and get on digital modes. I'll update this review when I get this running.

Overall this is a great radio which I would recommend to anyone either for mobile or fixed station use.
W3NRL Rating: 2011-05-16
Ilike this little radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I recently purchased ft-857d for the mobile and i had a z100 auto tuner that i had from a trade last year i installed the radio and z100 tuner in the car and grounded the radio and tuner my next delma was to purchase a antenna for hf and i really wanted to run 10 meters in the car i had a Wilson 5000 from earlier days so i figured let give a try and see what happens, well to my surprise I tune 10-17 meters and made contacts on all those band, the little z100 worked flawlessly.
Nice little radio. Make sure you ground the radio as well as any other equipment you mount in the mobile.
Once i had the radio programmed it was very easy to operate in the car.
I had to use an external speaker due hearing issues from my military days.
Radio works great.
KG4TUM Rating: 2011-05-12
Reliable, Darn it. all anyway Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought my FT 857 back in 2003. It's been mobile ever since. It has outlived one truck, a hustler antenna, an ATAS 120A antenna, one of the comet antennas and we're now on the Little Tarheel II. It's tough. The menus are fine. They take a little getting used to, don't they all? It's starting to show signs of age. A couple of lines on the display. I can't justify buying a new radio, even though I would like to have one. I think that's the worst of it. Yeah, that's its worst feature. It's too darned reliable.
black to - red to +
73
Jim
KL7RWS Rating: 2011-05-07
Great Radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I purchased mine when the D was first added to the 857 line. I mistreated it with my lack of HF skills and it is still going strong. Its an aging radio when compared to some of the newer stuff, but it is doing the job years after I purchased it.