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Reviews For: Yaesu FT-817ND

Category: QRP Radios (5 watts or less)

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FT-817ND
Reviews: 169MSRP: 589.00
Description:
The world’s first self-contained, battery-powered, Multi-mode Portable Transceiver covering the HF, VHF, and UHF bands! Despite its incredibly small size (5.3" x 1.5" x 6.5"), the FT-817 delivers big performance! Its next-generagion PA puts out five watts on all HF bands, plus the 50 MHz, 144 MHz, and 430 MHz bands, on all popular operating modes: USB/LSB/CW/AM/FM/Packet/PSK-31/RTTY. Now the 817 legacy is even better with the introduction of the FT-817ND, which includes coverage of the U.S. 60-meter (5 MHz) band, and it also includes a 1400 mAh NiMH Battery pack (FNB-85) and NC-72B Charger!
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.yaesu.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
151694.8
M0WZM Rating: 2010-03-14
Unbelievable Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
How Yaesu manage to cram what they do into this rig is unbelievable.
The IPO and IF shift are great for blocking QRM. The receiver is very sensitive and the TX has given me some great QRP QSOs.
As a previous reviewer says - read the spec, don't expect a base rig costing $$$$ and you will enjoy immensely.
G0WSP Rating: 2010-03-04
12,000miles QRP Time Owned: more than 12 months.
After 10 years with an FT817 / nd - I would not be without one - for "vacation DX`peditioning"
QRP style it is FANTASTIC !!!.
Recent youtube clip links for your perusal :-

http://www.youtube.com/user/G0WSP?gl=GB&hl=en-GB#p/a/u/1/4v5LXoYuqVg

http://www.youtube.com/user/G0WSP?gl=GB&hl=en-GB#p/a/u/0/JC8Ay8D_Dac

Just enjoy !!


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Earlier 5-star review posted by G0WSP on 2009-10-10

Obviously does not tick everyones boxes but IMHO for FUN all round QRP base or portable - cant be beat !.
Take overseas on your shoulder / no problem at airport - just grab and go !.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating as they say - see my YouTube video clips.

http://www.youtube.com/user/G0WSP?gl=GB&hl=en-GB#p/a/u/2/8DosZG9o7lw
W4PUP Rating: 2010-02-09
5 Watt SSB DX? Yep! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Since getting the 817ND for Christmas I have found the secret of this radio is antenna,antenna, antenna! I ordered a small whip style with a jumper for the different coils, made a nice SWL antenna I suppose. I then put up a GAP Titan DX and it was the difference between night and day. Here in S. Florida I can sit in my lawn chair at the base of the vertical with the short coax lead from the antenna, center and shield hooked to a binding post/BNC on the front of the radio, drink coffee and work DX. Tip of the hat to G1MYA, my first 15 meter DX this morning. I've bettered 1 watt per thousand miles 3 times now with QSOs in Latvia, Vienna, and Slovenia (YL2BJ, OE3DIA, S58N) Also worked J79WW, TI8II, HI7MC, PA3GSU all in the last 30 days. The The rcvr seems to be noisy, but for what this radio can do I'm very pleased with it.
M3FLP Rating: 2010-02-09
Get one quick! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Looks like I am in agreement with most others here, the 817 is absolutely brilliant.

I have a Wonder Wand Widebander with mine and it's amazing what you can do indoors RX & TX on 5 watts.

All bands are covered and mine was new from ML&S with the wideband TX mod done by them. They also fitted the Peglegs.

Battery life I think is very good but I have a small 7aH battery for £15 off Ebay and a solar panel that charges it for another £10 if I need to go portable for a long time.

It would be the first thing I would take with me if the SHTF and I had to leave quickly.

Amazing little rig, I am very happy and it's a keeper!
PA1PXL Rating: 2010-02-03
Wonder box Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This is a must-have transceiver! So much fun in such a small box. It covers all the bands from Hf to UHF incl FM broadcast.
You can make qrp contacts at home or portable/mobile.
You can't go wrong with a Yaesu 817(ND)

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Earlier 5-star review posted by PA1PXL on 2009-10-10

Although i own 'normal' 100 watts radio's and even an amp, it's so a pleasure to make contacts with this nice little rig. Long time ago Yaesu put a lot of functionality into a small box and till now none of the others where able to beat Yaesu.
And yes it has some cons like noise receiver, small display etc etc, but hey..look how small this hf/6m/vhf/uhf rig is.
Enjoy your ft-817!
G6EJD Rating: 2010-01-24
FT-817 true all-rounder Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a truely versatile radio, had it for a few weeks now, using it portable and mobile and have used all modes so-far including PSK31 from my netbook. Overall I'm very impressed and it's my best buy. I have fitted the YF122S SSB filter to improve adjacent channel performance and there is a slight increase in TX audio performance (quality and level) too.
Battery life is about right, as is power out and ability to use memories and features. Ergonomics are good for me. It is small, but that's what I wanted. I have the optional Yaesu case, which is OK, keeps it clean and scratch free. Antenna is about 30cm long without the 6M extension. Buy it, you won't regret it IMO.
KB3NAE Rating: 2010-01-13
WOW Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have been using a Yaesu VX-7R for backpacking and recently purchased a Yaesu 817ND. Wow my first simplex contact on 2 meters SSB from in my apartment
on a small whip was remarkable. At 5 watts it does like to eat power.
ON4LDU Rating: 2009-12-28
Amazing rig ! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Got mine 1 1/2 year and work so many dx's with this tiny radio. 150 DXCC in 18 months with vertical ant.
Sensitive receiver, just add a BF filter and CW narrow filter and you're on the way...
Working like a big trx with 5W, ideal for travel qrp.
Buy one and you don't believe what you're able to work or hear.
Best 73s fm ON4LDU
KD4VLF Rating: 2009-12-22
I LOVE THIS RIG ! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I looked around for awhile to select a qrp rig and am now glad that I picked the 817. How Yaesu packed so much radio into such a small package is incredible. I've used it in my shack and portable with great results. When going portable, I use it with a 7AH gell cell and can play for hours. Some complain about the internal battery pack (1400 mah), but the other features and performance of the radio far outweigh that one drawback. It has worked so well for me that I plan to buy another for use in my van.
VK3WHO Rating: 2009-12-17
Hate and love relationship Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After reading the previous reviews and purchasing the ft-817nd radio on the praised given here by other amateurs I discovered very quickly quite a large number of shortcomings.
What this radio isn’t:
FM broadcast receiver. A $12 radio from a department store is far more sensitive (the FM broadcast band is basically useless unless you live under the antenna).
AM broadcast receiver. Extremely Deaf, my IC7000 does a far better job. (This makes it useless to get news and weather reports from local radio stations unless you are prepared to put up a long wire and then it still doesn’t work well ).

Not the slightest weather proofing. This alone makes it questionable as a hiking radio.
Quite heavy on the batteries in receive mode.
No antenna tuner and the supplied antenna only works on the lower end of 6 metre, 2 and 70cm band, making it useless for 6 metre repeater operations. There is no way to adjust it to overcome this problem. The supplied antenna is not very efficient on 2 metre band when compared to the compact antenna on my Kenwood hand held.


The noise blanker is pretty well useless. This makes this radio pointless for mobile operation or any environment where there is electrical noise.
It also generates a birdie right on 147.250, which is one of the repeaters I listen to.
The menus are not very intuitive and the main tuning knob doesn’t have simple feature like fast and slow auto tuning like the Tecsun PL-600, a $60 radio.

The optional expensive case is also pretty useless and hasn’t been thought out. You can’t store the supplied antenna in the tiny pocket with it falling out as it is too long. There is no room to store the microphone or the battery charger. You can’t even plug the charger in without having to remove it.

Then, what this radio is useful for, it is small and light enough to be use when travelling, even when taking the charger along. As far a as I know, there just isn’t anything else out there that can compete. Using an external tuner, providing there is not too much interference, it works quite well. When comparing the dollar value and technology the FT-817 is very basic, using 1990’s technology. My IC7000 costing only half as much again is just light years in front of the FT-817nd. The only thing the FT-817nd does better is that you can take it with you on the plane, bike or beach and operate it.