| DC2KN |
Rating:     |
2008-08-14 | |
| really good ! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This is my first mobile rig, and I really like it !
I do not have the problem like some others with the volume control, but I do miss the backlit buttons.
What also could be better is the programming of the memorys. If you have a typo you can't go back to correct it, and you have to store it again to correct the error. Also setting the alphanummerics via the turn button maybe isn't the best sollution, but it works !
The overall performance is very good, and as I said before, I like this rig.
DC2KN |
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| W4LCM |
Rating:      |
2008-08-03 | |
| Exellent radio I highly recommend one to everyone. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
2 Years without any trouble.
I love to use as a mini-repeater.
Reading the owners manual and playing around with the radio I learned most all of the functions and found it easy to program manually.
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Earlier 5-star review posted by W4LCM on 2006-11-30
This is a great Dual Band radio!!!
I was looking for a dual-band and after reading the reviews on Eham, I bought the FT-8800R, I have owned this radio for about 6 months now. I have been very happy with its performance.
I used as base station with a Cushcraft AR-270 Dual Band Ringo 2m/70cm.
The crossband repeat, it is great and simple to set up and use. I don’t find any problem
I would highly recommend.
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| WA2QIC |
Rating:     |
2008-07-05 | |
| A solid rig that could have been even better |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I figured I would throw my 2 cents in here. Of the 3 mobile radios I've owned - another Yaesu and an Icom, this is my favorite.
I have to echo the other critics who have complained about the loosey-goosey volume controls - it is annoying trying to adjust the volume while your bumping along down the road. Even a slight jarring while adjusting the volume, and you will go from too soft to too loud in a blink. And the lack of backlit buttons is a curiously thoughtless omission for a mobile rig.
Other than these two common complaints, this rig has chugged along trouble free for more than a year.
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| K2QY |
Rating:   |
2008-06-30 | |
| need help! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I just purchased this rig to replace a link transceiver on my repeater. Right out of the box the transmitted audio was intermitant and finally tracked to a sloppy fitting mic jack. OK, so now I'm aware of that I try not to pull the mic cord too hard and make sure the jack is REALLY tightly seated. But coming from the side of the rig means that there is always a lateral pull on the mic plug. I have several rigs with this arrangement and have never had any problem with a sloppy fitting plug which made this problem difficult to pin down.
Secondly, I decided to use the din plug on the back for audio into the rig from my ULI board for ECHOLINK and repeater IDing etc (leaving the mic free for use as a local mic). The transmitted audio is much lower and muffled when inserted into the din plug. I have yet to solve that problem. If anyone else has noticed this and has a suggestion or a fix please let me know.
Thirdly, I was surprized to find that the speaker out jack is not a stereo (3 conductor) plug allowing seperate audio for 2m and 440 allowing separation of the 2 receiver lines. It would have been even better to have two jacks on the back (one for each band) but that might jump the price three or four cents.
Lastly, the owners manual makes no mention of the pin connections of the mic, and speaker plug. It does say the speaker plug is mono, however the included schematics appear to show a stereo plug which is misleading.
On the plus side is the inclusion of schematics in the owner's manual which is almost non existant today in ham gear. I have on many occasions had to fruitlessly search the internet for schematics only to have to purchase them from some 3rd party or spring for a service manual.
This may be a really fine mobile or base radio with great features if you plan on only using it for voice communications, it just doesn't fit my needs. |
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| KG4RUL |
Rating:      |
2008-06-29 | |
| Great Radio! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| We use an FT-8800 in our County EOC. We have had no problems with buttons or loose controls and the display, while on the crowded side, is clear and readable. |
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| W3RXO |
Rating:     |
2008-06-29 | |
| Good, solid radio, that could use a few refinements |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Good solid radio. I am happy with it's overall performance, but am disappointed in a few things. As has been previously mentioned, I do not like the buttons NOT being backlit. I do not like the loose volume and selector knobs, and for my aging eyes, the display works fairly well but could use a few minor improvements, like adding some color, and making some of the smaller indicators larger, or more color contrasting. I like the radio, quite a bit, but see where Yaesu/Vertex (now Motorola) could make a few improvements to an otherwise solid radio. I really wish the displays on these types of radios would be more similar to that of the Icom IC 2800H, or IC 7000. Also, I cannot do cross-band repeat V/V or U/U, only U/V or V/U. Maybe I am doing something wrong. |
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| KE5NXP |
Rating:     |
2008-04-28 | |
| Very good-but not perfect... |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I got this radio last Christmas as a replacement for my FT-8100 (which had all the common problems). It is my mobile rig and works very well as such through a Comet B-10NMO. It is a world apart from the 8100 though, as it is almost entirely menu driven whereas the 8100 was all hard buttons. That, however, is relatively minor and with a little practice I was quickly able to adapt. The radio is leaps and bounds over my previous in terms of function, but I am absolutely baffled by the lack of backlighting on the buttons! The display is actually quite good in my opinion, but I find it inexcusable that the buttons aren't backlit. I guess that's just my personal peeve since I work nights! My only other gripe is the tiny little indicator pips on the vol/sq knobs. It is almost impossible to tell where your levels are set unless it is broad daylight and you have a direct view of the control head. Overall, I am very pleased with the rig and it has performed very well indeed. I would probably have given it a 5 if it weren't for the knobs and lack of button lighting. I would also recommend the FTB8800 software from G4HFQ. Programming and naming repeaters from the menu driven system can be a bit tedious. |
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| NK7J |
Rating:    |
2008-03-30 | |
| An ok Radio |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Overall this is a good radio, but by no means excellent.
First the Good:
Nice Compact size
Good Audio
With 3rd party software and cable the memory is easy to take care of
The bad:
The Audio control knobs suck... way too loose.
The micro switches on the control head are NOT sealed in any way, shape or form, I can attest to them being VERY suseptable to dust or other matter.
Those are the biggies, there are more for both pros and cons... I just picked out the few that stand out to me. I just fixed three of the buttons on the control head, all three had collected dust or other matter in them and failed.
NOTE: If your buttons on your FT-8800 fail to operate properly or intermittantly on both sides it is most likely cuased by one of the switches acquiring something in them and cuasing it to act as a sort of resistor which cuases the voltage to fluctuate on the switch buss(s) and the processor cannot determine what is going on so it freezes and none of the buttons will work properly besides maybe the set button which is on a seperate buss.
Overall I am happy with the radio, but it is certainly not commercial grade with regards to the cheap button/switch arrangment on the control head, just be prepared to have to replace them from time to time.
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| 2E0JTP |
Rating:      |
2008-03-26 | |
| Superbly competent dual band transceiver! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I've just acquired an FT-8800E to replace two separate radios (a pair of VHF & UHF transceivers) I was using. This radio takes up considerably less space than the previous two radio set up and has significantly increased functionality as well.
The performance of the radio is terrific, pretty much what I expected from a Yaesu rig and hence the reason I opted for this and not one of the other manufacturers dual band models. The menu system is exactly the same as all other current Yaesu FM radios, but with perhaps slightly more fiddly buttons to navigate with due to the closely packed controls. If you are used to modern Yaesu menu driven radios, this one is as easy to operate as all the others.
Audio quality from the top mounted internal speaker is very good and on a par with any other internal speaker I've heard on any FM mobile radio.
The display head is dis-mountable from the main body to allow easy installation on tightly packed vehicle dashboards. The microphone attaches to the display head, which allows you to mount the radio body pretty much anywhere you like in your vehicle.
One criticism though, the buttons on the front of the display aren't illuminated for night time operation (unlike say, the FT-7800, which is illuminated)
The hand mic is the venerable MH-48, this is used on nearly all current Yaesu mobile radios (with the exception of the newest FTM10R bluetooth radio) and is a very useful hand mic indeed. It has the full range of DTMF buttons as well as channel changing buttons and 4 additional programmable buttons for your most commonly used features - this is very useful as it effectively allows you to control the radio from the hand mic.
This radio looks and feels to be built to a very high standard and would appear to be capable of withstanding the rigours of a mobile environment. This particular radio is living the easy life (in the shack) and will hopefully prove a useful addition.
I've rated it a "5" because even though it would be nice if the front buttons were actually illuminated, this is such a minor niggle that it doesn't really detract from the overall superbness of this radio.
Highly recommended if you want a true dual band (Cross Band Repeat capable) VHF/UHF FM mobile transceiver. |
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| K9KJM |
Rating:      |
2008-03-16 | |
| Still the best! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
The Yaesu FT-8800 is still the best dual band radio available today. (The latest Icom and Kenwood dual band rigs both have serious memory channel management problems)
No, The 8800 is not perfect, As mentioned, The volume control knobs are easy to bump, There really should be backlit control buttons for nighttime operation, The squelch delay on cross band repeat is kind of annoying, And some other very minor details that could be better.
I still give it a full "5" for being the best available today.
I now have four FT-8800 radios in operation here, And our ARES group has over a dozen of them. ALL work well, With NO problems of any type in several years of operation.
Note that the FT-8800 is a TRUE dual band radio that you can program whatever you want in each side of the radio (Like two radios in one box) While the FT-8900 is not. Memory channel management in the 8900 is nowhere near as "easy" as the 8800.
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Earlier 5-star review posted by K9KJM on 2004-09-26
The new Yaesu FT 8800R is one of the best dual band VHF/UHF rigs on the market right now.
It is a real shame that some like N4KDE give it a
"0" review after owning it for all of a week and not checking to see what is wrong.
The Yaesu is voltage sensitive. Did N4KDE check his supply voltage at the radio? Or just blame any
problem on the radio without even asking one of the forums or tech support?
The FT 8800R is not perfect. It does have a few very minor flaws as pointed out by others. But is still about the best deal on the market right now.
At least a thousand times better than the pile of junk Icom 2720H (Yes, I had one those miserable rigs for almost a year until I finally got rid of it) (And I am an Icom fan, With lots of other Icom rigs)
I like the FT 8800 so much I bought another one for the mobil rig.
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Earlier 5-star review posted by K9KJM on 2004-04-07
What a Great Radio! The Yaesu FT-8800R is everything I wanted in the (JUNK) Icom 2720.
I am an Icom fan, And waited well over a year for
Icom to finally bring the IC-2720H to market.
I paid the big price only to be bitterly dissapointed with that piece of crap radio.
The manual for the FT-8800R is very well written,
And even includes a page on cross band repeat operation! (Which Icom does not)
My advice to Icom: Recall all of the 2720H junk you have suckered us in to buying and put them where they belong. As landfill. Buy a boatload of Yaesu FT-8800R radios and just put an Icom sticker on them and sell them...........
So those who just "must" have an Icom can at least have a decent radio!
Good going Yaesu! A+ on this one!
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