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Reviews For: Yaesu FT-7800R

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

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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
K5UPR Rating: 2009-03-01
Best Dual Band To Have Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Afrer months of searching reviews and trying to decide the best dual band to own, I settled with the 7800. Im so glad I chose this radio. It is by far the easiest radio I have used and owned. I really wanted to explore APRS with a Kenwood 710, but after talking to others and realizing APRS is really not that active in our area, I chose the 7800. It has the best abilities especially if there are not alot of UHF Freqs in your area, like mine, and you still want the best mobile to have, this is IT. The radio is easy to program on the fly or I chose the FTB7800 software as opposed to the ADMS which is terrible, and hard to use. I purchased a USB/Serial adaptor off ebay for around $4 and the software and computer recognized both with only one minor flaw and that was having to locate the driver which was easy from Microsoft, and installing it. Now that I have this radio, Im eager to purchase another to have at the house. If you dont have a need for crossband repeat, and the ablities of scanning 2 sides at once. Then this radio is the only way to go!!
N5ZTPN5ZTP Rating: 2009-02-26
best bang for the $$$$ Time Owned: more than 12 months.
i have owned 2 of these, after I sold the first, I was so sick that I ordered another one and got it at an even better price.i have not experienced any of the problems others have mentioned---50w vhf and 40w uhf----great sound from the stock speaker. have not really got into the programming because I only use a few frequencies and the 5 buttons work great for me.I sold the seperation kit, because i did not need it, so i have only got $200 in the radio, not a bad price for a dual band.
W2FDH Rating: 2009-02-26
Great Radio!!! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This radio definitely deserves a 5 rating, it's receiver is so much better than any other dual band radio that I have owned, especially my Icom IC-208H which I just replaced with a FT-7800R. As far as the transmit audio, I have received many compliments on how good this radio sounds. Two other things I want to mention are the backlighting of the display is fantastic, you can see it no matter what the lighting conditions are and to see that Yaesu was bright enough to put the mic. connector on the radio head and not on the body of the radio itself which makes it so much easier to find a place to mount (Icom's mic. connector is on the radios body and because Icom only supplies you with the cable to separate the head from the body, you would have to keep the body close to the head of the radio, unless you want to buy the additional cables to lengthen the microphone and speaker cables, you also would need to purchase a mount for the head, which is included with the "FREE" YSK-7800 separation kit the Yaesu provides). That's about it. I love my Icom mobiles, which I still own several of, but this Yaesu FT-7800R is far superior to any of them.

73 de Frank/KB2VYZ
KE7YYB Rating: 2009-02-25
Can't find anything better all-around for $229 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just got it about 3 weeks now.
I can't rate this 5/5 but maybe 4.5/5 just because I am still learning the menu.

power level menu is not very intuitive naming convention (VHF/UHF):
low - 5watt/4watt
mid2 - 10watt/8watt
mid1 - 20watt/16watt
high - 50watt/40watt

Initially I thought mid2 is higher than mid1 (not a big deal after I found out using Diamond SX-400 and Palstar DL-1550 meter-dummy combo).
I know my measurement setup is crude but at least it's a data point. My radio is the latest cause it comes free with YK-7800 detachable face-plate.

The power @450MHz is not 40watt as advertised but 30watt!

I am very happy with the radio, I ragchew a few time on repeater and simplex. I seriously doubt you'll find a better radio for $229 (brand new) out there.

73
KC6AGL Rating: 2008-12-24
Excellent Radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have been reading reviews on this radio and I am very surprised to see the review of some hams. When writing a review, the review must be around the product functionality and use and not personal opinion. Not one review has talked about radio’s actual data sheet and performance.

I have owned this radio for 3 years and I have installed in 2 cars and it has been working flawlessly. The LCD display, functionality, feature set and PRICE are a perfect match.

The Radio works a specified, except when I put it on bird watt meter; I only get 25W on UHF and 40W on VHF. I have checked these specs with other friends that have the same radio and we all have the same results. Yaesu.com reports that this radio is suppose to put out 40W on UHF and 50W on VHF. I have not had any issues with this radio, I have recommended this radio many times and most of my friends own at least one Yaesu FT-7800R.

If you can put your radio on a WATT meter and check the power output power and send your results to my email address below, that would be great.

Send results to:
KC6AGL@ARRL.NET

Thank you,

73
Ray
AC9CR Rating: 2008-12-15
Great dual band mobile Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The first 7800 I bought shortly after its release works so well that I bought a second one at Dayton in 2007. Much easier to use than the FT 8900 it replaced. I've thought of buying a third for use in the shack, but that has to wait. The only minus in my opinion is the placement of the speaker. I have one mount in both minivans. This is one you won't make a mistake buying.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by AC9CR on 2007-02-10

I bought the first 7800 a year ago. I have always thought highly of Yaesu mobiles. I mounted it in our taurus and was very impressed with what it could do. Then when we traded the Taurus for a Montana it was the very first personalization I made.I bought a cheap telephone cable and auniversal mount off eBay and the head was remote mounted.
Then when I bought the Saturn I had to make another 7800 one my first purchses at Dayton. I would gladly recommend this transceiver to anyone who wants a great working rig.
AJ4GY Rating: 2008-12-14
Awesome Rig Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I use this rig for mobile use in my truck with the separation kit and it works awesome. It was the second rig i bought about 2 years ago and still working strong and hard. Great rig. They did a good job with this one.
WB0MMZ Rating: 2008-11-26
Wow! What a radio! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just recently purchased the FT-7800R and it is the first mobile dual-band I have owned. I have owned several 2 meter mobiles over the years, but decided to get a dual band to with my Elk antenna. This radio is so easy to program unlike some of the others. One thing I've noticed is that the Yaesu manuals are very user friendly. It is a very solid radio with a small footprint. I have mounted it in my shack with the mobile mount on a shelf above my HF gear. My only complaint and it seems to be a common one is the fact that the keyboard on the mic is hard to push. The numbers and letters are recessed a little too much to just push. I have to almost use my finger nail to push them and I dont' have very big fingers. It's not a big enough complaint though to drop a point in the review. I am very happy with this radio and impressed with the quality that Yaesu puts into their products.
N2QQF Rating: 2008-10-22
Pretty Good Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have since sold this mobile because I thought I wanted an HF Mobile in the car instead. The radio performed pretty well but I it was a bit confusing to work because of the menu structure. Overall, the radio worked really well and I had no complaints with regard to performance. I will say that I liked the Yaesu 7800R a lot better than the mobile Icom IC-706 MKII (G) that I replaced it with.

For the money you cant go wrong. quite receiver without a lot of the noise you get with some of the hotter receivers like the Icom's.
KB7RHI Rating: 2008-09-17
poor treble response Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
The radio is ok, it is what I listen too everyday going to work in the car. The audio is rather poor due to a very poor treble response. Would I buy this radio again-no.
I have two FT-1500m radios, an FT-897, and FT-60-R, and a Vx5r. They all have good speakers. The FT-7800 is a dud in my opinion. The Vx5R does have a much smaller speaker and you would not expect as much from it.

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Earlier 4-star review posted by KB7RHI on 2007-10-22

This radio is a good radio with the exception of poor audio output with the speaker. There is very little treble in the receive audio and the clarity of the audio is fair. This makes it difficult to understand some voices. Also the max audio is not that loud. The speaker and audio response of the FT-1500M blows the doors off this unit. If I were to buy another unit, I would bypass this unit and get one with a better on board speaker.