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Reviews For: Yaesu FT-8100R

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

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FT-8100R
Reviews: 88MSRP: 699.00
Description:
Dual Band 2 meter/440 Remote capable 1200/9600 data interface
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.yaesu.com/ft8100.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00883.1
VA3DJL Rating: 2002-03-23
Great and Reliable Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned a FT-8100R for about 3 years now. It has been great! Recieve and Transmit has always been solid and the rig never lets me down even cross-band repeating for hours without problems. The secondary recieve on a band while using either VHF/VHF or UHF/UHF has something to be disired but otherwise a great rig.
KG4MEX Rating: 2002-03-23
Junk! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
What an absolute piece of garbage.

Recieved one in a trade deal.

Right out of the box, plug it in, and it has 2 issues right out of the box.

1) hit the ptt to talk, and the damn thing starts scanning.

2) after being on for 5 minutes, vhf recieve is degraded so bad, my 5 watt HT keyed up 20 feet from the antenna only reads s-3 on the 8100, but s 60+ on my ft 2600.


I never bash yaesu, i have a multitude of monobanders, FT 2600, FT 11R, etc etc.

Great radios.

FT 8100M, JUNK don't buy one.
VA2ZAC Rating: 2002-03-13
Ack.. it broke Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had the radio for quite a while now, been working quite well.. until yesterday.. the faceplate flew off as I was driving and landed in my footwell as I hit a bump on the road, and then I discovered that the clip on the right side of the radio that holds the faceplate in place broke off.. sigh... so for now I have a pice of velcro and an elastic band holding it in place until I can pick up a YSK-8100 separation kit, something I've been wanting to do for a while anyways.. oh well...
N6TGK Rating: 2002-02-15
What happened to QA? Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've owned my FT-8100 for just over a year, so naturally the radio chose now to become defective now that the warranty is null and void. I like the look and feel of the radio, but I'm now experiencing a combination of the problems listed by other people. Sometimes the radio indicates that it's transmitting, when in reality it isn't. Other times the audio is garbled or I'm told I have a loud hum or squeal similar to feedback on my transmission. I've only owned three Yaesu products in my time as an amateur... an FT-23R 2 meter HT I bought new in 1988, an FT-100 and the FT-8100. The FT-23R never failed me. However, the time between I bought that HT and the time I bought the FT-100 and 8100 was 10 years and apparently Yaesu's Qualtiy Assurance went out the door. In the two and half years I've owned the FT-100 it's been to Yaesu twice and I just got it back at the end of January for toasted finals that set me back $150 and now I have to fork out MORE money to Yahoo to have this radio fixed. I don't think I'll buy another Yaesu product. All my Icom equipment (IC-746, 2100 and W32) have never given me ANY problems and I've owned them longer than the Yaesu radios. Yaesu... they did it again.
KC2GUW Rating: 2002-02-14
CRAP!!! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This is an update to an earlier review that I have posted. The radio was junk! It had the same TX audio problem that many people are having with the FT-7100M. That horrible raspy, "5Khz off" sound. It was sent to Yeasu several times for repair and every time it came back with the same lousy transmit audio. It took over six months for Yeasu to finally give me my money back. Now I have an Icom 207H that I am quite pleased with.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by KC2GUW on 2000-08-20

Great radio. I has all the features I could want exept the code decode which is optional for about $60. The transmit audio has gotten good reports and the recieve audio is also very good. Almost zero intermod and I have an 11 meter antenna about six feet away from it.
I would recommend this radio to anyone looking for a good quality, good performing dual-band radio.
W3SWR Rating: 2002-02-08
Serious Design Issues Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Purchased two of these radios from HRO Delaware at the same time. First one went back to Yaesu in less than six weeks and the second one went back prior to receiving the first one back from service. Same story with LCD screen looking like Eqyptian Graffiti ever other time you transmit, squeal on audio transmit, radio locking-up requiring a full power off and/or hard reset.

First unit returned from Yaesu and has worked fine since Yaesu serviced it, the second unit is now in transit to Yaesu to be fixed again. Not a good radio and not a value at all.

Yaesu technicians have been pleasant and fully aware/sympathetic to problem, no complaints thus far with the Yaesu staff.

Have requested a new radio or credit from Yaesu since I have purchased several thousand dollars of Yaesu equipment over the years including a Vertex UHF Repeater which is great piece of equipment. Will see what type of Customer Relations they are really into, expecting nothing since they must have known early on that they had major design issues.

That is my story and I am sticking with ICOM in the future. Tried the Kenwood TM-V7A when they first came out and it went back to service 3 times and ended up on ebay with a disclaimer. never had any problems with ICOM so I am at their mercy.
KE4RWS Rating: 2002-01-12
Well . . . Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've owned two of these radio's since they were introduced. Prior to that I owned it's brother, the FT-8000R which came just before the FT-8100R. These radio's for the most part perform very well in all aspects. However, over time there has been an issue with both models which are apparently inherent to their design. It seems after some time (usually after a few years in most units) the UHF receive audio either completely fails or becomes intermittent. After looking at one that failed I discovered the problem is the UHF & VHF squelch/volume adjustment knobs are soldered onto the display circuit board in such a manner that cause them to pull off the circuit board if the nut which holds the knobs in place come loose. Even if the nut only slightly loosens it apparently is enough to cause intermittent or complete squelch and/or volume failure. The actual effect this causes is the lack of any receive audio from either the VHF or UHF receiver, depending on which knob happens to rip loose from the circuit board. This is what any reasonable person would consider to be an absolute design flaw. After consulting with Yaesu Technical Support it was realized that they are fully aware of this flaw, however, intend to make the customer pay for the repair in spite of it being a genuine flaw in their design. Aside from the normal issues any radio could potentially have in normal life, the problem described above is beyond what I believe any owner of this radio should have to pay for. If Yaesu was a honorable manufacturer of amatuer radio equipment then I believe they should recall these radios and repair them accordingly. Given the positives of this radio when compared to this one negative, you'd best buy another radio. And for those of you who haven't experienced this failure, it's probably just a matter of time before you do. Out of a perfect 10 Yaesu comes down to about a 2 with the FT-8100R & FT-8000R.
K4MK Rating: 2001-12-25
Very pleased Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Almost a year ago, I wrote that I was very satisfied with my FT-8100R' s and FT-8500.
I continue to enjoy excellent performance from them both in the cars and at home. I am still quite surprised to hear of some people experiencing problems, considering how dependable they have been for me. All Yaesu equipment that I have had has been flawless; I would most likely never change to any other brand.
WD0GSY Rating: 2001-12-15
pretty good unit Time Owned: more than 12 months.
do have the problem of heat, more noticiable in the southwest during the summer, remote mounted unit )split it), got receiver on the floor in the ventilation, and high power "blues" pretty much solved. In cold weather, first key vhf, and you see the uhf side receiving a signal. Once unit is warmed up, no problem. Just turn off uhf side until I need it for the x band repeat function which works great. Actually have 3 of these, and use one at home, one in the car, one is a spare unit to use for xband in an emergency. Have to say, this unit is better than the 7100, that Yaesu replaced it with. Never figured that move out. Guess I would rather continue to buy the 8100, then settle for the 7100.
K6BRI Rating: 2001-10-30
Lucky one Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've owned my 8100 for about 4 years. It's been a fine machine with no problems. Although it is obvious that the design had a very high "lemon" percentage that were shipped. I've worked in the cellular phone industry and I know that many times a certain design (both the equipment design and the assembly line process design) will turn up a high percentage of "lemons" getting out the door. And of course, the easy fix for that situation is to toss the whole thing and design a new model.. rather than trying to investigate what the issues are with the current design. There are a few designs that are just bad in the device design itself (the FT-470 comes to mind), but I don't think the 8100 is one of them.