| W2DI |
Rating:  |
2006-03-19 | |
| Have to agree |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I haddn't even heard of this radio. It really gives you the impression of a commercial radio, but certainly is inexpensive.
It's easy to program and use. Plenty of features - everything I need. Fast scan rate and a clean sound.
The CW trainer is really a neat feature. If you're on a long drive and nothing is on the repeater, I switch it on at 20 wpm and it keeps me company. I'm sure it helps your code skilly over a period of time. Anyway, it's better than hearing screaming auto commercials on the regular radio. |
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| SE6M |
Rating: |
2006-03-19 | |
| What a rig ! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought my FT-1802 yesterday at a hamfest here in Sweden, and the rig was much more "rugged" than I first thought when I saw it on internet.
The quality feeling of knobs on the rig is excellent, audio report and also modulation when I transmit is very good. Much power in the highspeaker inside rig.
Good display readability in every angels, big numbers and much light from LCD. You could adjust the display dimmer in ten different levels.
The modulation level is also adjustable in many levels, nine to be exactly.
The rig become very warm even when I transmit in low power such as 5 or 10 watt output, and the termometer that you could see in display (menu no. 51) shows 35 celsius whole the time in RX-mode. The temperature rised up to 51-52 celsius when transmitting a little with 5w.
Whole rig looks very good, nice quality and good finish in EVERY detail, exept Yaesu's poor microphone-holder that I don't like. But it is my opinion. I better like old Icom's mic-holder in the 80's.
I hope I could make a new review of this rig later when I have had it a longer time, but until then I shall use it a lot and try it out in both my shack and in my car.
The rig has many nice features, even the small microphone have four (4) programmable keys, that you could program nearly as you would like.
I think the CW-trainer is maybee a little gimmick, but I shall try it and will review it later after some training. Maybee a good thing if you would improve your CW-skill when you have time left for it when you driving in your car.
The CW-audio mixes to the RX-audio without any problem when you monitoring a frequency on radio.
Nice work Yaesu, hope it will work for a long time !
(Why can't I rate the rig as a 6 ?)
Mats SE6M
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| KB9CIZ |
Rating: |
2006-03-18 | |
| Lead free |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Just got my unit and has a little sticker on the side of the rig and box: "Pb-FREE Phase 1"
This rig will probably be an APRS I-gate so it won't get any vibe where the new solder would be tested in mobile application.
I've only run it 5 mins, saved 3 channels in memory; all seems to work as expected. Rate 5 until proven otherwise.
Would think that since you can clone rig-to-rig someone could write a PC loader program.... Hmmm. |
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| VE2CBW |
Rating: |
2006-02-27 | |
| Outstanding |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Great little rig. User friendly in every way, with almost too many features. Gets hot when you transmit for any lenght of time. |
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| K7TCE |
Rating: |
2006-01-16 | |
| Pleased with it again |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
As a follow-up to my earlier review, it turns out the radio was fine, the microphone had failed. I had recently sold my first 1500M (mistake), so Pat at HRO Portland was kind enough to mail me a new microphone to see if it was the problem. It arrived the same day my replacement FT-1500M arrived.
Having had more time with the 1802M and 1500M side by side, here are a few more observations. The 1802M always displays the channel number, with the 1500M if you want to see the channel number you must enable that feature, it will then display "Channel #" for two seconds, then revert to the frequency or alpha. With the 1802M mic gain set at the default 5 of 10, it is "hotter" than the 1500M. With both radios I put the small auto type fuses in the negative and positive leads on the radio pigtail (and powerpoles), and replaced the 15 amp fuses with 10 amp. With an 8 amp maximum draw for both radios, I don't expect to need to use the higher amp fuses. The audio on both radios sounds similar, and folks on the repeater who know my voice gave both radios "excellent audio" reports. The 1802M gets as hot as the 1500M does, but it has an internal temperature sensor you can display. The manual does not mention how hot is too hot.
I really like my FT-1500M, however, the FT-1802M a much improved radio. |
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| KI4MYD |
Rating: |
2006-01-12 | |
| Excellent Buy |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
For starters, the radio is quite compact, so it would easily fit into those compact truck cabs. It still does have some weight to it. The bottom of the radio is a full heat sink. Included in the box was the radio, mic, mic mount, radio bracket, misc. screws for mounting, power cord, owners manual with schematics, and a Yaesu sticker. The radio doesn't have the base feet like the FT2800, and due to its lightweight, it slides around a lot with the slightest tug of the mic when used on a desktop. Also, the buttons on the mic are very small and the lettered ones are quite difficult to press.
This being my first radio, and me being new to ham, almost everything in the owners manual was like a foreign language to me, so I did what was required: sit, read, and do. Within 15 minutes I could call up the WX stations, program the memory, and navigate the basic menu options. Within an hour I could program repeaters with input, output, and tone frequencies with no problem. And within a couple hours, I could do anything I wanted and had the radio completely personalized to my liking. For someone with previous experience, you'd have this radio down within 30 minutes to an hour.
The Yaesu also has features I believe are new to its kind; a password feature, and a CW trainer. The password feature is great, just type in a 4 number password to be used via the menu. When the radio is cut on, this must be typed in before the radio can be accessed. As for the CW trainer, I enjoyed experimenting with it. You can choose the speed at which to receive, what to receive, and how to receive it.
You also can access your home channel from the memory by pressing one button. The radio features a VFO, Memory, and HM setting. The HM setting is the home channel in which you can program a single frequency or repeater with the push of two buttons, and later, call it up just by pressing one button. The memory scanning is somewhat slow, about 1 second per 10 memory storages. That's enough to miss half of a callsign. So, if you've got a frequency you want to continuously monitor, I suggest programming it every 7-10 spaces. The frequency coverage of this radio is wide, from 136.00-174.00, so you can hear all of your local 2M police, fire, EMS, etc. coverage right on your receiver.
The radio has 4 power settings Low: 5w, 10w, and 25w. High: 50w. The specs say that the radio requires 10 amps for high power, but my power supply reads a constant 8 amps. After talking on one of the repeaters on HP for about 5 minutes the internal temperatures were in the mid 120F's! Actually, no matter what power setting you have on this thing gets hot! Mostly from 10+ watts, but it is absolutely necessary to keep a fan on the unit if you plan on transmitting with it for periods longer than about 10 minutes. Oddly the 'heat sink' is dumbly on the bottom therefore any dissipated heat is being radiated back up into the radio.
Overall I could not be happier! Very easy to use radio, and with a bit of practice, you'll be able to use every feature without referring to the manual. At the price it's going for, I'd grab one quick. If I could rate it at a 4.75 I would, simply because of the heat problem, but the cost-benefit is excellent, so a 5 still suits this radio perfectly. |
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| K6LCS |
Rating: |
2005-12-17 | |
| Good Value |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
A little smaller (height) than the FT-2800. Quite easy to program. Excellent TX and RX audio. Features...
-50 Watts output power
-Wide 136-174 receive
-221 total memory channels, with alpha tagging
-10-channel NOAA allocation
-Four user-programmable "soft" keys
-Adjustable mic gain
-Wide/narrow deviation and RX bandwidth
-ARS / APO / BCLO
-CW trainer
-Security password
-WiRES-II, of course
Manufactured in Japan. A handsome 2M rig - well worth the $150 street price.
Clint Bradford, K6LCS |
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