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Reviews For: Yaesu FT-2800M

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

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FT-2800M
Reviews: 196MSRP: 195.00
Description:
Yaesu 2m Transceiver Introuduced 2/2003. 65 Watt Output,- 4 power levels, 2M Transmit, 134-174 Receive, 219 Memories w/ 6 char AlphaNumeric display, NOAA Weather, CTCSS & DTS encode/decode, rugged case.
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.yaesu.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001963.7
WA3QNS Rating: 2005-12-28
Not at all impressed Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Several days ago
I bought the FT-2800M instead of another Icom
because I thought MAYBE this radio would be
more user friendly in the programming area. I
was dead wrong! I hated every minute of the
Icom setup garbage, but had it up and running in
about an hour. Not so with the Yaesu, 2 hours
into it I had made some progress but finally
gave up while trying to set the band edges for scanning. The display locked up once and I had to clear the memory and start over again. The mic looks and feels cheaper than the Icoms, the volume and squelch knobs are extreemly loose.
On high power into a dummy load I was hearing
some kind of RF feedback coming from the speaker. Generaly speaking, the look and feel of this radio does not compare with the Icom. It goes back next Monday and I'll gladly pay the 15% restocking fee. Will no doubt end up with another Icom and all its useless features that I will NEVER use, at least without a BOOK!
LEFTY
WA3QNS


DCCANC Rating: 2005-12-11
Great Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Installed this radio in the shack and I absolutely love it. It replaced a FT-2400 which I plan to install in the vehicle. The FT-2800M has a ton of neat features and has really good rx audio. I did perform the microphone mod, removed the plastic disk that sits in front of the mic element and everything is fine. Reports that come back to me says the FT-2800M has the same sound quality as the FT-2400, strong clean audio. Highly recommend this radio to anyone who's looking for a good 2M radio!
K6WXA Rating: 2005-11-22
Don't Buy This Radio! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've read the other reviews where some owners of this radio give it good reviews. Don't be misled; this radio is the worst that I have ever owned. I received it brand new and had to send it to the factory the next day for repair. Yes, I got it back in a timely manner and it was repaired to factory specs. I hate this radio. If I can't sell it, I'll chalk it up as a $150 loss. Save yourself some grief... don't buy this radio.
KG6LFN Rating: 2005-11-18
NOISY PL ENCODER Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Every one of these I have heard has a terrible "hum" when it is transmitting a PL tone. On the scope you can see that the PL sine wave has a very small bump at its peaks, and these bumps are responsible for the "hum" heard on your signal.

Instead of putting a PL encoder in this rig, Yaesu put a "noise encoder" in it. Other Yaesu rigs I have transmit perfect, clean PL tones, and the old FT2500M has almost broadcast quality audio that the new Yaesu engineers ought to be forced to listen to so that they know what a radio should sound like.

All of the other gee-wiz accolades the radio can do are moot if it sounds lousy. Yaesu knows about this and a recent example purchased by a friend last month had the same problem I am describing. He returned it and is now happy with his new Icom V-8000.
KC9HZJ Rating: 2005-10-18
Good Radio For The Price Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have to say that it's a great radio for the price. Excellent output power for hitting distant repeaters or for simplex contacts.

My only problem with the radio is that it doesn't have a fan and gets blazing hot when used at full power. I added an inexpensive computer fan to the back of mine and it helped considerably. Mine is used as a base station, I couldn't imagine how hot it would get mounted in a vehicle.

That's why I gave it a '4'.
PE1RLN Rating: 2005-09-24
Value for money Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I was looking for a no-nonsense VHF transceiver with preferrably a lot of power - just in case. I got this one a few days ago and I already love it. I will tell you why:

- Few buttons. Need a lot of functions? I wouldn't know whatfor so the main functions are present.
- Large knobs. Yes, three, one for volume, one for squelch and the dial. All in just the right size.
- Good display. Large, easy to read and even able to dim the light. Shame there is no other color but ey... who cares?
- Good overall size. Large cool ribs which makes it .... cooler ofcourse.
- Deskstands. Finally they hit the spot. Most of us use the rig in the shack so it has to be tilted. I don't want to use the mobile bracket as stand. This is it.
- Good mike. Lot of buttons so lots of functions. Like the programmable ones!
- Power. No one gets over me now!

Now is there anything more to desire? Just ask yourself what you really need, look into your wallet and discover this bargain.
KI4GYT Rating: 2005-09-17
1 Year check-in Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Bought it just over a year ago. It's been great, no problems, I will be buying another one for use at the house. Excellent intermod resistance, and it punches out full rated power, although I rarely use more than 5 or 10 watts unless I'm out of town away from the repeater. Highly recommended.
K2ETA Rating: 2005-09-03
Excellent beginner's mobile! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased the Yaesu FT-2800M back in July of 2005. So far I've been impressed by it's performance, signal clarity (both TX and RX), power (65W), and low price. This unit is very quiet because it has a large, rock solid heat sink with no fan. So far I've been able to hit repeaters about 45 miles away from here in upstate New York (Albany area) using only 5 watts and rarely 10. So far, reports from local repeaters have told me that I am coming in at full quieting. This rig is definitely rock solid. My only slight problem is that the volume and squelch knobs feel very delicate. But other than that, the whole rig is strong and powerful. Again, good price around US $154.00! I recommend this rig to anyone who wants more power than that of an HT at a low price.
WR5AW Rating: 2005-07-23
Absolute worst warranty service. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Absolute worst warranty service I have ever dealt with. I started having problems in early February and the radio has been in for warranty repairs three times. This time around, they've had it 5 weeks.

First problem, right out of the box, was low transmit audio. Fixed that myself through the alignment menu. The rig worked ok for about six months. Then the trouble started.

Next, the internal speaker went out. I contacted Yaesu online. Their response took a week. It was the canned "send it to this address." Then I asked if someone would call me to discuss the problem. Maybe there was something I could fix myself. That response took another week. Their response, "we're not sure exactly what you want from us." Then I talked to them on the phone. Same response, "we're not sure what you want from us." By then, receive above 147mhz was gone, The transmit and receive started cutting out at the slightest jar (no antenna problem), and the display started locking up.

So I shipped it to California for warranty repairs with a detailed list of what was wrong with it. It took about a week. Fast service I thought. Got the radio back and the only thing they did was replace the external speaker jack. Still no receive above 147mhz, still cutting out, and the display was still locking up. So I contacted them via their web page. Three times. That took a week. Finally, I get a phone call. I told them about the problems and they agreed that they should have fixed them first time around. I said I would not pay for shipping and they offered to send a UPS shipping label via UPS online. It was two weeks before I got the label. It took about a week to get the radio back.

It lasted about two weeks. The speaker went out again. Same story with the service. A couple weeks to get them to respond and a couple weeks to get a shipping label. Art Reno promised a replacement this time around. I sent it via UPS and I waited. And waited. And waited. Four weeks go by and no word. So I call Art. "We decided not to replace the radio. We went through it completely and wound up replacing every board in it. I'll call you back this afternoon to verify what's going on." No call of course. I finally call back after waiting a couple of days. Art's response was, "Oh, we shipped it earlier in the week." Yea, earlier in the week as in the day before. I never have gotten a straight answer from Art. Finally the radio's on its way back. Who knows if it'll work this time around.

All I know is that what should have taken no longer that 4 or 5 weeks for three repairs has turned into nearly 6 months. It's been a nightmare. If anything else goes wrong, the warranty will probably expire before they get around to working on it.

I'll never buy another Yaesu.
KE5ELU Rating: 2005-07-04
Excellant Radio for the $ Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have had my 2800 for several months now and for the money you pay for this radio its an excellant buy. My radio has performed flawlessly so far. My worst complaint is that for a new ham, programming can be a pain. The best thing to do is get the computer program which makes it a breeze. (as long as the program works) I also have friends that have this radio and they also sing praises for it. High power at 65 watts and plenty of channels to program. Once I learned all the buttons I can now manually program the radio with no problems. If your looking for an excellant radio at a resonable price, this is the one to get.