Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes
Reviews Home

Reviews For: Yaesu FT-7800R

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

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : Yaesu FT-7800R
Reviews: 197MSRP: 329.00
Description:
Dualband mobile
Product is not in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001974.6
W5AER Rating: 2014-10-23
Very hard to program Time Owned: more than 12 months.
While the 7800 works great as a transceiver, it is very difficult to get setup. Down in Houston, I did use it on 2m and 440mhz, but no memory operation; now in the Hartford, CT area, it is being used for Police, Fire and EMS frequencies. I find that going and trying to add some ham repeaters, is just too much trouble. So, for the rest of the life of this radio, it will just function as a scanner, for services that we are involved with.
W5HLP Rating: 2014-09-26
Excellent Rugged Dual-Band Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I recently switched vehicles and just got my 7800 reinstalled after about 6 months of downtime. I have had the rig for more that 5 years and I am still impressed every time I use it; so much so that I thought I should add a review here.
The 7800R (and the subsequent 7900R which I have used on occasion) are solid rigs that do exactly what I want - transmit a solid clean signal and receive well in tough situations. The menu system is typical - it will take you a couple of hours to get comfortable with it - maybe a little longer if you have as much grey hair as me - but then you won't forget it. Even with the 6 months down time it all came back in five minutes.
This little guy always seems to put out a great signal - anecdotes don't mean a lot, but here is one anyway - with a mag mount on the roof, yesterday I worked through the KI5DX 70cm repeater in Paris TX from Greenville TX - about 48nm with full quieting. Obviously some tropo or other mode going on but still nice. Further I can regularly copy and key the Paris 2m repeaters from Greenville. For those unfamiliar with east Texas - the elevation diff in the two places could be measured with a short ruler.
All in all a solid rugged (survives my off road driving in cow pastures) easy to operate rig that will give years of performance.

I will agree with some previous reviewers on one negative item - you **WILL** need to use an external speaker or tie it in to vehicle's sound system (I do that with a blue tooth adapter); the internal speaker is just not loud enough.
KF5BFC Rating: 2014-09-05
Great radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This radio has a ton of features, but the menu is also intuitive so you don't pull your hair out trying to program it without the manual. I've owned mine for 4 years (always mobile) and it has never given me the slightest bit of trouble.
K4IED Rating: 2014-03-11
Nice simple dual bander Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Radio has a very nice display, decent horsepower (50/40 watts V/U), fair share of fancy features, and seems to be built fairly tough. It does have an auto fan on the back but it isn't bad. I've seen/heard worse. I wanted a single display for the mobile as I plan to use the rig on the fly and therefore didn't want to be messing with a lot. Display is really nice and bright for those bright daylight commutes and is easy enough to program quickly while in a parking lot. Yaesu's prices for the extension cables are just ignorant but worry not, about 3 dollars worth of wire & 6P6C (RJ12)connectors and make your own. While you are at it get a RJ12 coupler ($1.50) and extend your mic cord too! Overall it is a simple and effective rig with only 2 negatives IMHO - 1. Built-in speaker is a joke in a mobile, don't even bother trying without an external speaker unless your driving a max of 25mph with all windows up and no air on. 2. Mic feels/is cheap. It does the job but feels like I could just crush it accidentally if I ever keyed up while mad.
KE5TJT Rating: 2014-02-07
Great radio! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've now used this radio for 5 years without any issues whatsoever. I find programming it via the front buttons almost impossible so I just use the software which makes it ridiculously easy. As for the people saying this radio doesn't have rated power, I'm thinking they're doing it wrong. The rated wattage is ONLY AT 13.6-13.8V!!! Notice, a car battery at rest is NOT PUTTING OUT THIS MUCH!!! I tested my radio with the engine off and got 30 watts on high. I plugged in a battery charger which boosted the voltage to 13.6 and suddenly I got exactly 50 watts out. I got EXACTLY what was stated at each power level. I'm pretty sure people here are not checking it at rated voltage. You gotta follow ALL THE RULES when checking output voltage. My old antique VHF marine radio did the same thing, 14 watts on high with engine off. Engine on or battery charger plugged in, and I got 30 watts out!
KA4KOE Rating: 2013-07-24
OK, except.... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
...for the microphone cord. Yaesu insists on putting this cheapo microphone cord on their products. The cord is a piece of junk. The cord is good for 2-3 years and then it falls apart. Other than that, its a great radio.
VE4AMN Rating: 2013-05-17
Steady as a rock Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This is a reliable, easy to use radio. It was a demo, so I needed to wipe memories and add my preferences. It would be great to have a quick guide (like wiping and adding memories), but this is my only niggle.
WP4OEK Rating: 2013-02-18
Great !! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Great radio, nice audio, clean TX. Only reason, display is too small.
K7UA Rating: 2013-01-29
Good dual bander Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought one of these for my 4X4 truck at AES in Las Vegas. They recommended it over the other comparable units, especially since the remote cable was included at that time and Icom wanted a fortune for theirs. It has been shaken up on alot of dirt roads in that truck. I have no complaints except for some intermod from near by commercial users. Setting the tone squelch used by most of our local repeaters took care of that. I don't know what the new 7900 has over the 7800, but the 7800 is a good radio.
ON3RT Rating: 2012-05-25
Best bang for buck ! This dual-band mobile rig is a keeper !!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
During my travels I make a mental note of rigs that I've seen the locals use. You see plenty of these rigs in tropical countries. If a transceiver makes it through tropical temperatures, high humidity and omnipresent dust then it points to good components, intelligent design and superior build quality. The YAESU FT-7800 and it's successor the FT-7900 are the TOYOTA COROLLA of dual-band mobile radios.

As a member of the Belgian Red-Cross EmComm Response Unit I required a rugged and simple to operate VHF/UHF transceiver. I discounted the need for cross-band repeat and D-Star functionalities. I wanted a transceiver that is intuitive to configure manually.

With CHIRP - a free, open-source tool for programming amateur radio rigs (including the FT-7800) - my rig's memories banks can be easily updated, sorted by scan categories and archived. Rig re-configuration and customisation as well as adding, modifying and deleting data contained in the 1000 memories becomes kid's play. I had my frequently used repeaters/transponders and simplex frequencies loaded into the unit's memory banks in under an hour.

Likes :
+ Easy to read orange LCD display
+ Detachable facade
+ Cooling fan
+ Die-cast heat-sink
+ Easy to homebuild remoting cable ("6P4C" 6-pin connectors crimped onto either RJ-11 or RJ-12 cable)

To conclude, the YAESU FT-7800 is the most reviewed VHF/UHF Amateur Base/Mobile (non hand-held) on EHAM. Check out how it compares with other similar rigs at http://www.eham.net/reviews/products/38

Best 73s !!!

Ravi / ON3RT

OM = "RAVI"
QTH = Brussels (Grid Square Locator JO20FU)
Website = http://www.qrz.com/db/ON3RT
Member of Radio-Club UBA Brussels-East ON5UB