| OZ1IDJ |
Rating:  |
2005-06-13 | |
| 5 + |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Jeg har haft min FT77 nu over 20 år og har aldrig haft problemer,den er enkel at bruge.Det er sådanne stationer man skulle bygge idag,nye stationer er for besværlige at betjene,jeg regner med min FT 77 holder 20 år endnu,jeg har prøvet flere nye stationer men nej de er for elektroniske. |
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| YO8RXM |
Rating: |
2005-02-25 | |
| Great rig |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have an FT-77 for an year now and I can say that I am verry satisfied with it's performance. My rig has an CW filter and the FM option installed, and I have very good reception on all the bands, and also very good controls from my QSO's. The only think that I don't like is that it has no 1,8MHz band, but that's not such a big problem because my house location doesn't allow me to build an good 160m antenna. Also I worked with it a lot in portable, and the noise blanker created especially for the car's engine spark noise is verry efficient. |
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| NE0P |
Rating: |
2004-07-05 | |
| This is a great little rig |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I first saw a Yaesu FT77 at the Dixon, IL hamfest in April, 1983. I was in High School at the time so I couldn't afford a new rig, but it was small, solid state, and had the WARC bands, which put it way ahead of the Yaesu FT101B I had at the time.
Finally in June 2004 I got a chance to own and use on of these rigs. The first thing that got me was how quiet the receiver was. Much quieter than my FT100D on several bands. Probably because it doesn't have general coverage receive, so it can run some pretty tight band pass filters. How often do most of us SWL anyways? It also handles strong signals pretty well. I was surprised at how good the receiver was for a basic entry level radio.
The one I got also came with an AM board installed, which is a little known of option. I think it was an afterthought as the manual discusses the FM board option, and there is a FM spot on the mode switch, but no AM position and the manual never talks about it. You can have either the AM or FM board in, but not both.
This rig also has a single VFO, but the RIT range is about 5khz either way, so you can do many split CW pileups using the RIT. Another unusual feature for that time period (early to mid 80s) is that there is a fixed level audio out jack on the front of the radio. This is perfect for soundcard interfaces today. At that time only the high end radios had such an output, and I have never seen one on the front of a radio before, but makes for easy connections. Also, the receive audio is plenty loud through the internal speaker, and sounds pretty good.
This radio was set to compete with the Kenwood TS130, and you can generally find them much cheaper than the 130s. In many ways it is probably a better deal for several reasons: FM or AM option (not even an option on 130), Fixed level audio out (for digital modes), variable power control, wide and narrow noise blankers. However it also lacks a few things that you find on the TS130: no speech processor, no vox, and no SSB filter.
Still, for what you see these going for, it is a heck of a deal. I had to give the rig a 4 because of the lack of a SSB filter option, lack of VOX, and the tuning rate is a little fast. Not too bad for base station work, but might be kind of difficult for mobile work, and there is not a lock button for the dial either.
Overall I have had fun playing with this radio, and am glad I finally got to try one out. For under $200 you can't do much better. |
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| HA5X |
Rating: |
2003-03-27 | |
| Good for beginners |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I owned the FT-77 sometime between 1982 and 1984 (?). It was my first HF radio, and I liked it very much. Easy to handle, good reception quality, good reports, and a lot of DXCC countries, especially on 10m where my antenna performed the best. I had the FM module in, and I have some vague impression that I also had a CW filter. As 10m at the time was quite clean, I did not really miss the QRM fighting features. However, I did have a lot of trouble with split frequency operation, as the radio did not have it as a standard feature. I had a home made VFO, it did work, but was not the finest, so it became very difficult to work DX-peditions who enjoyed a huge pileup.
So the FT77 was sold, and replaced by a 757GX. Well, the new one did have a lot of useful features, but I always missed the excellent clarity of the FT77's receiver. |
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| N8CH |
Rating: |
2001-08-09 | |
| Good Rig |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I owned my FT-77 for over 15 years. Used it mobile a lot. Excellent performer. Bought the FT-757GX-II and used it for over ten years. Like the Yeasu line so well I now have the FT-100 mobile and the FT-1000D as a base station. Sold the Ft=77 and the FT-757 last year. They should last a good while longer. Easy to use, easy to maintain. |
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| SM0NCL |
Rating: |
2001-08-09 | |
| Basic radio, good value |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
The FT-77 has been a part of my radio shack since new. I have made some additions and modifications during the years of use.
I find the FT-77 good enough for picking up weak signals aswell as handling of crowded bands.
Close to 100W output on all bands and adjustable down to less than 1W.
For 29Mhz FM use, the 455kHz IF may be a bit wide but there is a modification available to improve this. To enable traffic via FM repeaters, I made a simple modification by adding a second xtal with -100KHz offset and the rpt.shift is controlled using the 'spare' marker button on the front.
The FT-77 has almost no features to enhance audio quality in RX or TX, apart from NB and CW filters.
To enhance the TX audio I use an external RF speech processor by Kenpro.
For CW I added a 275Hz filter that improved the ability to work stations on a crowded band.
The FT-77 is well prepared for connecting transverters and I have used a MML 28/432 transverter for many years.
The RIT is not fine-tuned as one might expect, so it takes some time to get used to it but on the other hand the RIT covers more Hz than other analog transcivers.
The built-in SWR meter is accessed through the top of the box, a small lid removed, and requires alignment whenever the output power is changed.
Still the meter works fine and is accurate on any power level.
The cooling-fan on the PA flange has one speed and it makes quite a bit of noise so headphones are required if your'e chasing DX and need all attention listening. On the other hand it takes quite a bit if CW traffic to engage the fan so it is a rare problem.
The reason (I think) to why I have NOT sold the FT-77, maybe it's because it a good enough talk-back transciever on 80/40M & 29FM. The value on the used market is low that I do not care if it remains in my shack.
Also - the few failiures that have happened have been easily fixed due to the simplicity and by help of the owners manual that contains a full circuit description as well as full schematics.
If you indent to buy one - look for the manual aswell. |
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| KU4QD |
Rating: |
2000-04-12 | |
| A good basic radio in it's time. |
Time Owned: unknown months. |
| I had one of these... it was the little brother of the FT-757GX. Oh, not in size, which was the same, but in features. Think of an FT-747, with it's absolute lack of QRM fighting features. Now give it a solid, metal case, take out the general coverage receive, make the second VFO and memories an outboard, external accessory just like the FT-707, take out AM, and you pretty much have an FT-77. The receiver is quite sensitive, and both the stock SSB filter and the optional CW filter were quite good. FM is an option (recommended), and it will do quite well on 10m FM if you have the board installed. The receive audio was quite nice as I remember, and I got good reports on the transmit audio as well. Why did I get rid of it? Well... that absolute lack of QRM fighting tools I mentioned was the big reason. Still, if someone needs an HF rig with the WARC bands on a small budget, even today the FT-77 isn't a bad choice. |
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