| W4FFM |
Rating:      |
2007-09-05 | |
| Easy to use, great radio |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I bought this rig to replace an Icom 208H because I may need the cross-band repeater ability when I function as my county's ARES - EC, and I don't regret the switch at all (the 208H is now in my shack and does a good job there).
The dual controls make life so much easier, and make a whole lot of sense. The mic functions well held 2-3" from the lips. (The 208H mic has to be treated like a lip mic to have an intelligible signal). The "Hyper-memory" which saves all the settings makes it easy to have essentially four different set ups available at the touch of a button.
I have to second the opinion about the G4HFQ programming software... excellent, makes programming very easy, and I strongly recommmend it. One caveat... if you purchase the TTL-USB adapter cable you may find (as I did) that the case around the DIN plug is too thick to fit into the hole to access the outlet in the back of the rig. I slid the case off and wrapped some electrical tape around the plug and it fit just fine. There are USB-DIN cables available on eBay which have the hardware incorporated into the jack, these might fit better. |
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| N1KFC |
Rating:      |
2007-07-26 | |
| bought a second one |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I just purchased a second 8800. It is a workhorse with all the memories that one would ever need. Be sure to program it with G4HFQ's ftb8800 software. One for the shack and one for mobile. Well done Yaesu. |
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| AA2HA |
Rating:    |
2007-07-26 | |
| Not bad, but........ |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
The first radio kept "locking-up" and was sent back. I finally received the replacement radio and it seems to work fairly well. The receive seems a bit low. Repeaters that I receive well on my Icom 2350 are 2 to 3 S-Units lower the 8800. This is the difference between hearing some machines (a bit noisy) and no copy at all. However, the thing that really bugs me about this radio, and I'm surprised no one else mentioned it or I would have not purchesed it, is the microphone plug that is 1/3 of the way up the right side of the radio. As a base radio, I keep my equiptment in a small cubby in my computer desk. (I carefully checked the dimensions before I ordered) It won't fit because of the mic plug. So...I put it in the car and because of the mic plug on the RIGHT side, it blocks the view of the front and hits buttons as it's stretched the the drivers (LEFT) side of the car. What was Yaesu thinking here?
The audio quality is good and the display is clear and easy to read. Overall I rated the radio a 3 or "OK" I would have rated it higher if the mic were to plug on the front or at least the left side. Some may not feel this is a problem, but I find it quite annoying. |
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| KA5NXT |
Rating:      |
2007-07-18 | |
| One Heckuva Radio! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I've had 2 of these machines for a couple of years now: one base setup and the other mobile in my truck. I've used these machines in emergency service during/after Hurrican Rita. They worked flawless. Nice rigs. |
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| W6SWO |
Rating:      |
2007-07-07 | |
| Full featured, Excellent Quality |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I've owned my 8800R for a few years now and it has worked flawlessly as a base radio. The radio is good looking, has a very clear display, great audio, and every feature you could ask for.
I read the manual and had no issues with difficulty. I find it MUCH less intuitive to program my IC-2100 2m. If you've got other Yaesu radios, you'll find the interface very similar.
The two separate sides allow so many different options of configuration as many others have mentioned and I promise you'll enjoy that.
Using an inexpensive MFJ-1754 dual band base antenna stuck in a vent on the roof fed with 8X coax, I routinely hit repeaters up to a 80+ miles away so I have no complaints about performance. I would definitely recommend it to anyone.
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Earlier 5-star review posted by W6SWO on 2005-08-11
This is a solid radio that's easy to use and really reaches out. The menus are easy to follow and programming is not hard, but I do recommend the programming software. Very flexible configuration with the dual sides and quick and easy to switch between the sides. The display is clear and easy on the eyes. Excellent audio. I can reliably hit repeaters over 40 miles away with nothing more than a small MFJ dual bander ground plane (MFJ-1754) and I've reached out over 60 miles on simplex. This radio does the job. I highly recommend this radio. |
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| N3IVK |
Rating:      |
2007-06-29 | |
| Good Radio ! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Own 2 of these radios now, both are flawless.
Sure, people will complain about buttons, menu's and whatnot. I am more worried about failures, and having to send the thing back in. Mine have been rock solid, no problems what so ever.
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Earlier 5-star review posted by N3IVK on 2005-06-12
Just picked one up, so far I like it !
Easy to program
Nice Control head
Nice display
A real heatsink on the bottom with a fan
and more.
It was a 50/50 with the Kenwood 708. Even though the mounting kit is extra, i still chose it over the 708 .
My only gripe is the side mounted RJ45 for the mic, but with the cool little control head, I guess space was a inssure, no big deal witht he remote mount kit.
Only had it for a week, so we will see, but from the other reviews, it seems to be a sold radio. Main thing I look for in reviews are failures. I coudl careless if the keys are not backlit, or too small...blah blah.
So far reports been good on it. On the service monitor, it shows that the 8800 has a damned hot receiver in it.
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| KI4SIQ |
Rating:     |
2007-06-11 | |
| Keep the reset procedure handy. |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I bought this radio and liked it enough that I bought a second one. I understand that the radio may need to be reset after playing with the settings or being programmed, but it was very annoying for the radio to suddenly stop working during normal use. I have had this happen to both radios, recently while supporting a bike race. Luckily I was able to get back on the air as I remembered the reset sequence since I have had to reset the radio so many times. At least the radio has provisions for reseting that leaves all of the station memory in tact. If the reset did clear the station memories then I would have sold these radios or run over them with the car by now.
That said I'm fairly new to HAM radio and have not used any other mobile FM radios that I can compare too. |
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| VA3MKS |
Rating:      |
2007-06-09 | |
| great |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
got mine from hamcity.com -- great rig.
I like;
dual vfo's VHF/UHF - UHF/VHF - UHF/UHF - VHF/VHF
I listen to 800mhz too... picks it up no problem.
Audio is clean. The design is great. Remote kit is awesome.
Could be better:
-Cost me close to 400$ - Oh well, you wanna play? you gotta pay!
-Menu's takes a little time to get use to while driving!!!
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| M0PZT |
Rating:      |
2007-06-09 | |
| Worth It |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Having owned it's big-brother, the FT-8900R for over a year, I thought I'd go for the 8800 when I came to renew my EchoLink radio for 70cm. I chose this radio because I currently use the 8900 as a base rig coupled to a V-2000 colinear - My area has considerable breakthrough from 153MHz pager transmitters and I'm please to report that both the 8800 and 8900 do not suffer from any breakthrough.
Using the excellent G4HFQ programming software, I cloned the memories from the 8900 so I have 2 (almost) identical radios - the left band is used for my MB7ICF-L EchoLink system, whilst the right is used for casual 2m monitoring or data reception.
Nothing really negative to say about this radio - It's got a good front-end, a whisper-quiet fan, crossband-repeat and with the remote-head kit, you can stash the main body out of the way. |
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| K4PDM |
Rating:      |
2007-06-09 | |
| Very impressive! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I don't know why I waited so long to get a "true dual-bander" (as opposed to a one-band-at-a-time dual-bander.) It is so neat to leave one side on a particular repeater freq, and let the other side scan. Or scan a few local freqs on one side and every freq known to man on the other. Or scan repeaters on one side, public service channels on the other. You can cross band repeat. Listen to the weather service while scanning repeaters...
The reason I am going into such detail over something so simple, is there may be uses here that did not occur to you until now. I frankly did not see the benefit of the two-sided capability until recently. Let me tell you, it makes the radio ten times more useful.
I have had dozens of VHF rigs over the years, and about four dual-banders. My favorite till now was the IC-208H, and I still admire its look and sturdiness, and the smallness of its control head. But it does not recieve the 222MHz band or crossband, of course, and the 8800R does. I had the FT-7800R, and hated the look of the thing with its big, ugly, too-bright backlit buttons. Although the 8800R's small buttons are not backlit, once you learn them, you can tell which is which by feel alone. The less-flashy buttons make the control head a lot more attractive on your dashboard, IMHO. The radio looks a lot better in person than in the pictures.
The receiver is excellent, on a par with the best I've had. Complaints? It is not easy to finely adjust the volume while driving, and mine did not put out quite 50 watts when I got it (service menu time!) The head sticks out pretty far from the dashboard when mounted separately. These are small complaints, and are far outweighed by the features and performance of the rig.
I have not tried programming it by computer, but it is not difficult to do by hand--I have about 600 channels programmed. I don't know any significant areas needing improvement in this rig; I am very satisfied with its looks, performance, and value. |
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