| KG6BRG |
Rating:  |
2008-02-05 | |
| It's a keeper! |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I will have owned this radio for 1 year next month. It has been flawless in every aspect. I wrote an impression of the rig soon after I received it (March of 2007) and am now following up on that review. The RX and TX audio is superb as is the adjustable mic gain. I have no problem with heat, and have never seen a "heat" warning appear on the display. I think the highest temp I have seen indicated was around 115º, of course the heat sink gets hot but that is the purpose, is it not? I plan on buying another in the near future. cheers
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Earlier 5-star review posted by KG6BRG on 2007-03-21
This is more of an impression than a review as I've only had the radio for a week now. I've had lots of VHF and UHF mobiles and this is the best of the bunch. The TX and RX audio is superb, and if you are familiar with the way Yaesu does things, programming will be an easy task. Don't be scared off by other comments about heat, on low powers (5 and 10 watts) it gets warm as expected, and at higher power levels the heat sink (which is the whole bottom) gets hot and dissapates the execess heat generated, thus working as designed.
4 power settings are very welcome also, as is the adjustable mic gain. On simplex tests I've found the default settings are just fine. The 4 programmable buttons are very useful too. Lastly, I think the RX sensitivity is a little better than the Icom it is replacing. I can't say much about intermod as it's in the shack and I don't get much, if any intermod here. I hope this is helpful for those thinking of a FT-1802, for $124.00 US, I don't see a better value in a 2 meter rig. cheers scott. |
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| KC2SRI |
Rating: |
2008-01-25 | |
| Very pleased. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
After reading some of the horror stories here, I was a bit reluctant to try this model... but, for the price and the features, it was the perfect choice for a compact 2m mobile.
After installing, I took it for a spin around the 2m band, and was very pleased with the scanning mode and the receive quality. It is very easy to program and pretty simple to use right out of the box. So far, I'm quite pleased with it... will update after I've had it for a little longer. |
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| G4RRA |
Rating: |
2008-01-14 | |
| Its not great |
Time Owned: N.A. |
I purchased my FT1802E after seeing it at a great price in my local dealer.
I was really impressed with the ease of use,sure you have to read the manual,but thats pretty normal for the multi menued rigs now.
However in use it turned out to be next to useless.
It got hot,really hot.I found that even on low power I could not use the thing for longer than 15mins or it would cut out and go back to recieve.
I really like almost everything else about the rig,its small,its cheap,its got all the features I could want.
But its gets so hot I cant use it.
Its sold in the UK on the basis it does not need a fan and is therefore nice and quiet.
In my experience this claim is somewhat wide of the mark! |
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| KI7DG |
Rating: |
2007-12-13 | |
| User friendly radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| This is a nice user friendly radio. Has a lot of bells and whistles which for our part of the country are useless. Not as user friendly as the FT2400 but close. To bad Yaesu stop producing the FT2400. A feature I look for is the ease of skiping busy chanels and this one is somewhat easy when driving. One should not have to break out the manual to do simple things while drivning and that is where the FT 2400 shines. If your looking for something simple and easy to operate then this is the radio but if you can find a used FT2400 that's a better choice. FORGET the Icom 2100 a real nightmare just to skip a chanel. |
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| M3XPR |
Rating: |
2007-11-07 | |
| Cracking little radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have had mine for about 2 months now using it mobile and it’s a great little radio.
I picked up mine from a local supplier for £100 including p and P, I thought that was a bargain.
Its small (about 14 x 14 x 4 cm ish) it’s quite heavy for the size and you get the impression its really well made.
It’s easy to use unlike other Yaesu’s I have used.
Mine does not get hot but then I only run it at 10 or 5 watts.
after about 90 minutes of constant use mine gets luke warm.
All in all it’s a great radio and a fantastic bargain. And I am thinking of buying another one for my shack.
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|
| NO6E |
Rating: |
2007-10-07 | |
| Easy to use and inexpensive |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I've recently installed a dozen of these in vehicles at work. We only use the receivers,
which work very well above 160 mHz due to
varactor-conrolled front-end tuning.
The radios work very well for out purposes:
They're small, quick to install and program
easily via PC.
Only downside we've found is that they're somewhat
vulnerable to ignition noise, even with a
strong receive signals and dc-supply filtering.
Still, the bullet-proof front and and good
receive audio, even on our 2.5 kHz narrowband
system, make this radio a good choice.
Could you buy a scanner to do the same job?
Sure, but multiband and broadband front ends
aren't always what you want. Could you buy
a scanner with comparable performance, including
narrowband option, PL, DCS and pc programming?
Probably not at the price.
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|
| SFD301 |
Rating: |
2007-09-07 | |
| Great little radio, runs hot |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| Great value!!! No fan, makes the radio run hot with full power and about a 30 minute QSO. "Heat" comes up on the display. I'll add a fan to help cool the heat sink. Other than that it works great for what it is. I won a 50/50 at a local hamfest, so can't complain much about a free radio. |
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| N9UPC |
Rating: |
2007-08-29 | |
| Radio's hot physically but not function wise! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I purchased this radio due to the fact that I had Yaesu's in the past and all radios were good (except the FT-90). But, this radio is a little on the poor side.
Now the price was good and out of the box was easy to get on the air with just a power connection and antenna connection. However, that was the end of it.
- The scan feature is really nice and fast but when it hits a station that does not match PL/DPL it bogs the scan speed down.
- To take a channel out of the scan list is somewhat of a little chore and there is no temp delete of some sort.
- Freq splits for odd split repeaters do not do to good. (We have an emergency reepater setup on Rx of 145.325 and input 147.405 and it does not work right. My other yaesu's do fine just not this one.)
- Finally radio heats up big time with extensive usage which concerns me since there is no mounted cooling fan!
All in all I think the basic ham/user would find this rig a value and great starter rig. However, for the advanced user who wants a rig to be somewhat versitile may find this one a little poor. |
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| VR2AX |
Rating: |
2007-08-01 | |
| Excellent Value |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Bought new, owned and used for several weeks (export version). Lots of features for a basic FM box at this price. Simple menu system to learn and use. Audio good. Never any problem with strong signal overload. Really liked the CW generator, great to brush up on CW reception up to 40wpm.
Mine did not get noticable hot on RX even after several hours on. On TX, it did get warm, although I did not seem to experience the same degree of heat generation as some other reviews. Always used indoors, an an airconditioned room, outside temperature 30 degrees Celsius plus.
Power output, as measured on a Bird 43, was 45 watts (50W setting), 22 watts (25W setting) and so on, slightly down on the power levels as set in the firmware.
Mine had the wideband (136-174Mhz) TX enabled. Power output across the range, into a dummy load, rated well compared to the 'specified' amateur range.
My only wish is that they could do SSB/CW as well as FM.
Parted with it only due to the fact that I am not really much of a repeater or VHF operator, however my period of ownership of this radio was an enjoyable one.
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|
| W0ACE |
Rating: |
2007-08-01 | |
| A+ GREAT LITTLE RIG |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I have used this little rig for about 4 months now. It works perfect. I use it on simplex as well as local repeaters. It does get hot, BUT NOT ANY HOTTER than my old Kenwood TM-261. I don't hardly ever need 50 watts, so its not an issue. I have used mine only at home, never mobile. I had BAD INTERMOD with the Alinco it replaced, never have had any with this rig. I did the mic mod to get a little more bass in the TX audio, and have been told it sounds as well as my FT-857D now. All in all, I have been VERY HAPPY with my little rig. |
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