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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
WA4EX Rating: 2001-04-17
Bad Radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I won my 8100R at the Tampa,Fl hamfest abt 4 yrs ago. It has been repaired by Rt Systems 3 times and by Yeasu 1 time. Each time a new problem,and it is down again. The first time it lost the read out,the 2nd time no out put from the 2 meter side the 3rd time same problem as they did'nt fix it the 2nd time so back it went to RT.
After abt 3 mo.I called RT and they had sent it to Yaesu as they could not find the problem.
When I received it back from Yaesu it worked for a while and now has lost the 2 meter side agn.
It looks like a nice radio but the one I received is a BAD RADIO.
I am not going to repair it agn because I am not sure it would hold up. If you have one good luck.
73, WA4EX.
KB5DOG Rating: 2001-04-16
NICE RADIO Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
JUST HAD TO SEND MY YAESU FT-8100 BACK TO THE SHOP TODAY. ON TRANSMIT IN THE VHF BAND, ESPECIALLY 146.xxx, THE DISPLAY DISAPPEARS THEN REAPPEARS WITH A BUNCH OF GARBLED LETTERS. YOU CAN STILL TRANSMIT AND RECEIVE, BUT YOU CANNOT TELL WHERE YOU ARE. I FIND THAT THE AUDIO IS NOT AS GOOD AS THE FT-2500. SURE WISH I WOULDN'T HAVE SOLD THAT 2500. AS FAR AS THE SO CALLED "WIDEBAND RECEIVE", NOT WHAT YOU WOULD EXPECT, ALTHOUGH I DO KNOW THAT I SHOULD NOT EXPECT IT TO WORK AS GOOD AS A SCANNER. SEEMS TO BE VERY "DEAF" IN THE 800 - 900 MHZ BANDS. GOOD REPORTS OF GOOD AUDIO FROM THE RADIO. THE RADIO WORKS GREAT ON "CROSSBAND REPEAT". SOME SAY THEY SHOULD HAVE PUT A LARGER FAN ON THE BACK TO HELP DISSIPATE THE HEAT. I HAVEN'T HAD ANY PROBLEMS WITH THAT. I DON'T LIKE THE SO-239 PIGTAIL. WISH IT WAS ON THE BACK OF THE RADIO. ALL IN ALL, NOT A BAD LITTLE RADIO ONCE I GET THE GLITCHS OUT. I WOULD PROBABLY BUY ANOTHER ONE IF NEEDED.
KD5MZL Rating: 2001-03-28
Solid Rx (no intermode problems) Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I've had mine for about 3 months....everything works fine. Just wish it had direct frequency selection....its a real pain to have to scan/twist the dial when you need to go to the other end of the band. I haven't used it for any thing other than 2m/70cm, so I can't comment on how it works on the bands. PTT spring could be a bit stiffer.
K2SAT Rating: 2001-03-28
Needs Some Work Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had the radio about two years. For the first year, it worked flawlessly. It was rugged for my 4x4 work truck driving Utility Line ROWs, but there are some issues.

1. About a year ago, the radio started developing an open squelch problem on the 440 side. I had to send the radio back to Yaesu who fixed it for nothing considering the radio was out of warranty. They said they knew of the problem.

2. About the same time, I started developing a problem on the VHF side where it would quit transmitting. Yaesu did not fix this problem and I have not yet sent it back.

3. I don't like the SO-239 being on a "pigtail." This leaves room to pull it out or cause strain to the connection inside the radio. Poor design.

When the radio works, it works well. When it quits working during a QSO, it is very frustrating.

If I could give a 3.5 I would, but a 4 is too high.

GL es 73,
Joel, K2SAT
KG6DMY Rating: 2001-03-23
A really good radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This radio is really good. It has a lot of good features that I was looking for in one radio. It has a wide range of usable features like full duplex cross band repeat, mobile extend for those times that you can hear the repeater but are not able to get into the repeater with your HT. The only thing that Yeasu should have done when they made the remote head kit for it is they should have included a longer power lead. The rest of the remoting kit had planty of length that I have more that I need. I guess that makes it that much more versitile when you don't have a lot of space to mount the RT up front. The only really draw back that I have with the radio is that the PTT on the microphone is REALLY soft which if you are not careful could lead to an accidental open microphone if it was to have something lean on the PTT. It just needs a stiffer spring for the PTT. The rest of the radio seems to be built tuff and does not require alot of space to mount it. Just remember that it needs space for air flow to keep it cool.
G8SBF Rating: 2001-03-02
Reasonable overall Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned the FT8100R for over a year and can summarise my likes and dislikes:-

1. Tx audio is a bit 'lispy' on speech sibilants. It's certainly not the best audio I've heard from Yeasu.
2. In the UK we have adopted the 12.5Khz channel spacing and reducing the Tx deviation for this also reduces the 1750Hz repeater tone and CTCSS tone and there is no separate adjustment for these which would have been useful.
3. Rx filtering for 12.5Khz channels on 2 metres leaves something to be desired. It really is a 25KHz channel spacing rig. Breakthrough from even fairly weak signals 12.5KHz away is apparent.
4. Intermodulation products are a serious problem in the airband and although better - also on 2m. In fact the radio is so poor on the airband frequencies I don't know why they added them!
5. Poor Intermod performance on 2 metres (despite reading the other glowing reports on this page - which I have to disagree with!) I live on top of an RF hostile hill, about one mile from a high power pager site on 153MHz and a similar distance from GB3NE (2m repeater).When NE is raised virtually the whole of 2m band is obliterated by pager interference. Pager interference also happened from my old QTH too (30 miles from here). I would thus argue that this radio should have better front end linearity and bandpass filtering. My older radios do not suffer from this interference.
6. The receiver is extremely sensitive, particularly on the left side receiver which also has better Rx audio for some reason. A tip is to use 'F/W' 'CNTL' to make the left (Main) receiver work on UHF as it works better than the sub-receiver on the right side. The specs confirm this.
7. The speaker in this radio has the worst audio quality I have ever experienced. It is truly pathetic. You'll need an external speaker or you'll scream after listening to it for even a few minutes.
8. Overheating can be a problem when running 50W on 2m for longer periods.
9. The ability to listen on 2m and 70cm is great - shame about the pager interference on 2m though!
10. This is a radio where you can't hide away the user guide as I guarantee after a week of using it you'll press the wrong button and not know what you've done wrong! In short, the UI is not very intuitive. Try and drive this radio's more complex features without the manual is very difficult.
11. As with every radio I have ever owned the S Meter reading drops slightly when it's hot on receive.
12. Tx power never quite made the published figures either (45W 2m and 32W 70cm) even in base station use when some of the unnecessary in-line voltage lossy fuses were removed.

All in all; I will be changing this radio soon for either a Kenwood TS2000 or a FT847 after testing for Pager problems on 2m.
KD7TA Rating: 2001-01-10
Wonderful radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
It does a lot, and the things I count on it for it does very well. This was one of the very early units built in '97 and it's been in reliable daily use since then.

The only problems I've encountered are minor. Out of the box the crossband audio UHF->VHF was weak, just like many others in the first production run according to Yaesu. A very quick trip to the factory repair center took care of that. Also for mobile packet use (a.k.a. APRS) make sure you have clean power to the TNC. Using cig lighter dirty power for the TNC, you get what you pay for (alternator whine entering via the packet port). Lastly, direct frequency entry on the mic would have been nice, and they should consider dropping the price on the PL decoder add-on. A slightly stiffer PTT spring would be a good idea (shared with all Yaesu mics it seems).

Things that are a joy every day:
Superb audio TX and RX;
Dual remote speaker ports (using your choice of either one or two plugs, one jack is stereo);
Nice small attractive remote head that takes effectively zero room in the vehicle;
VHF/VHF dual band is handy to me right now; Independent volume & squelch controls;
Wonderfully readable display (though the 8 function key labels are a little small, everything above them are great);
Easy access to display dimmer.

Things that have been a real kick, or mighty useful:
Tied UHF/VHF memories for easy AO-27 doppler shifts (but remember this is a 5 kHz step rig);
Monitor FRS for calls from my wife from an extra several miles outside of 2-way FRS range (great for rendesvous);
Crossband repeat for when I'm out in the boonies;
Plenty of memories.

I'd buy one again, no question about it.

SV3FUO Rating: 2000-12-20
problems Time Owned: more than 12 months.
many problems with over temp and vhf module
K2LES Rating: 2000-11-30
Nice rig Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this rig a couple of months ago. So far I like just about everything. Definitely worth the $420 I paid for it.

So far only complaints I have are:
- remote mount kit way overpriced ($70), cables are kind of flimsy and bracket feels cheap - would expect something more heavy duty for a mobile application... but in it's defense, it really does make mobile mounting nicer looking (aesthetics are important to me - especially with a new car) and makes for easier mounting with a center console
- VHF side seems a little less sensitive than the Alinco DR-605 this rig replaced
- Factory installed tone decode would have been nice, but the radio does a good job of rejecting intermod and RFI, especially when in a city so it's not a necessity, but still nice to have
- Volume knobs do not feel solid - like they can go at any minute

Otherwise, this is a good solid rig. Easy to program and operate. Display is easy to read and clear. Mic feels solid. Audio is loud and clear. Lots of great features. I'd recommend this rig to anyone.

As a sidebar, I also have a Vertex VX-510 handheld for work (made for public safety - built like a brick) and Yaesu/Vertex does make good radios for the right price.
VK2YX Rating: 2000-10-08
Beware stray RF Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I purchased this unit 2nd hand from a friend and I think that was my 1st mistake. You dont buy things from friends :-). It was generally a good performer and its pager rejection in VK was very very good. A few friends and I had a nasty problem with spurious RF getting into the control head, which ended up corrupting the display and making the lights go out.

Overall it wasnt a bad unit but the display cracking up was very annoying, to the point I just sold it. Otherwise not a bad performer