| KG4PTZ |
Rating:      |
2003-01-08 | |
| Trouble free for over 10,000 miles |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
First, the good:
This radio has been all-mobile for over a year now, and has had over 10,000 miles under it in two different 4wd pickups, with nary an ounce of trouble so far. Yes it gets hot, but so far it hasn't backed the power down or acted funny on rx yet. 50 Watts has been plenty of power for me to consistantly punch a clear signal into the local repeater, (the 147.075 W4PNT) which is only 50 miles from my home QTH, and that's in the bad spots. Sitting still, 5W comes through there loud and clear. On rx, it picks up the signals it should and almost none that it shouldn't. Since I live in the sticks, intermod is nonexistant. In the cities, I hear a miniscule amount on rare occasions, though. For the most part, this rig does everything Yaesu claimed it would do.
Now, the bad:
The DCS search doesn't do anything, either that or it just searches and doesn't let the operator know this. But then again, no one around me uses DCS, so it wouldn't do me much good if it worked. For some reason, on 70cm, the default power is set at MID2 (10W). I still haven't figured out the cure for this, but this isn't that much of a problem. Two presses of the power button on the mic fixes this temporarily. The only other real complaint I can find is that the frequency step isn't small enough. There are times when a 5Kc step is not enough.
And finally, the ugly:
Yes it's comparitively ugly, especially when next to a chrome-knobbed chicken band rig. I know it's too much to ask on these new rigs for mic gain and rf gain knobs, but some metal up front would definitely dress things up a little. |
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| KC0GVF |
Rating:     |
2003-01-08 | |
| Good little performer |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I have had the FT-90 for almost a year now and have really nothing but good to say about it. I have not seen any of the heat related problems that seem to appear with this rig. Both TX and RX audio seem fine. I do run this rig with an external speaker and give the transmitter plenty of air to cool it off. My only gripe is how difficult it is to program using just the keys on the face. Buy the programming software! |
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| K9FUN |
Rating:   |
2003-01-04 | |
| Cute-but trouble! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have two FT-90s. The first was purchased about two years ago, the second about two weeks ago. Radio number one worked well for the first year or so, but then developed the (common) heat-related issue of no RX. Symptoms are the chopping of RX audio, followed by no RX at all until it cools down. The radio is always on low power TX, but is mounted in a somewhat restricted airspace. Sent it to Yaesu, about a week after it was received they contacted me to advise that it would cost about $100 to "realign it".
I brought up the issue that this radio seems to be plagued with heat problems, and to their credit, they agreed to handle it as a warranty repair, even though it's out of warranty now. They've had it several weeks, and I'm still waiting to get it back and see if it's fixed.
Radio number 2 was purchased for my new vehicle and has been in service for 3 days--it's already showing problems. Again, all channels are low power TX. Tonight after about a 5 minute QSO, I was told my TX audio had a squeal. We switched frequencies, ran with and without the vehicle running, and it appears that it is in the radio. I'll try again from a cold start in the morning, but I'm thinking that this is the beginning of the end for this one. If there were another radio that had the key features--tiny remote head (fit's perfectly into the tiny pocket with the door on the dash of my Yukon Denali), wideband sensitive receiver--I'd drop it like a hot rock and change it out. My old Kenwood 741 has been in service since 1993 without a single glitch--I wish I could say the same for the FT-90. Buyer beware! |
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| KD5EVM |
Rating:      |
2002-12-31 | |
| Solid Performer |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| fits my small car perfectly. solid rig with a big bang. the only thing that I dont like is that the microphones buttons are a little bit too small to punch, but overall worth the buy! |
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| AA9RH |
Rating:   |
2002-12-28 | |
| Nice concept, terrible quality |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| This radio was supposed to fill the same need for me that it has for so many others. The need for a radio that will fit into today's cars with smaller, well sealed interior spaces. I was initially reluctant to purchase this radio because of the quality concerns I had read about on this site. In the interest of fairness, however, I called a local ham dealer and spoke to the service department. They indicated that they had sold over 200 FT-90s during the past year, and that only 8 of them had come back for service. So, I went ahead and ordered one. Right out of the box, the UHF side of the radio was not working, with the transmit being intermittent during any and all conditions. I packed up the radio and sent it back to the dealer. They promptly repaired it and sent it back, reporting that they had to replace the power module, and repair 3 cold solder joints. Shortly after I got the radio back, the weather started to get cold. Not bitterly cold, just typical Chicago cold. Once it started to get cold, the squelch on the UHF RECEIVE side of the radio now refused to open until the car had heated up 20 minutes into my commute. At this point I am just disgusted that I have to pack up the radio again and return it, fight with the dealer, etc. The last radio I purchased before this was a VX-5R that was so poorly constructed Yaesu had to replace it shortly after I purchased it. In summary, the FT-90 is a slick radio that fills a need. I am just very disappointed in Yaesu's quality control. |
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| KC0ODY |
Rating:      |
2002-12-26 | |
| Space-saving and reliable |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This was my first VHF/UHF base rig purchase- the thing that attracted me to it initially was its very small size, which was a very important issue for me, since I have very little space to put stuff in my shack. I am using it with a Comet GP-3 antenna that is mounted on the roof. I've had no trouble reaching repeaters 90 miles away, and the locals all say that my signal is excellent.
Audio from this little radio is great. It is very easy to use, although it is quite menu-driven, the radio is very easy to figure out once you play with it a bit.
I bought this little rig for base use, not mobile, so I don't think I will have any problems with it overheating. I cannot believe what you can get these days out of such a small package! I highly recommend it for base use, if you need something space-saving, but also want a high-quality VHF/UHF transceiver. |
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| KC8LFG |
Rating:     |
2002-12-03 | |
| Good compromise. |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
Overall I think the radio is a good compromise between power and size. I bought it mainly for the size and remote mount capability. I have a small Toyota pickup without much space. I mounted the control head on the right side of the instrument panel, and the radio behind the seat.
I get good signal reports working both repeaters and simplex. The receive is very sensitive, perhaps too sensitive. It picks up lots of intermod in urban areas. I rarely run more than 10 watts, and don't talk that long, so overheating is not a problem. It is mounted with good air circulation, but does get warm.
Overall, I think it's a good basic radio. I would have prefered to have more features, like cross band repeat, dual receive, APRS etc. For me it does the job for now.
My recommendation is: If you have the space, and like to talk lots, get bigger radio. If space is an issue, the FT-90 will work well for you. I would buy another for the same application but would likely buy a Kenwood TM-D700 if I had the space. This radio fills a special niche, but it's not for everyone! |
|
| N3TVQ |
Rating:     |
2002-11-19 | |
| Does What It Needs To Do |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought this rig because I didn't have the room for a full size dual bander and didn't want to spend the extra money for a (ridiculously overpriced) remote mounting kit. The rig is a compromise. Sure it will get hot - smaller heatsinks do. Mine gets hot too, but I use it on a 35 mile commute and sometimes on high power. I have not noticed the receive audio problem when it gets hot. I thought about trading it on a Kenwood-707 but I really dont have a place to mount the faceplate. The speaker is a joke, but most mobile speakers are. That's why they have an external speaker jack. Small gripes aside, my 90r talks as well as any other mobile I have used. There are much better and bigger radios out there, but it fits like a glove in my Saturn dash without making my car look like my ham shack. And that's what mattered most when I bought it.
73 |
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| KA1AXY |
Rating:     |
2002-11-07 | |
| Solved the heat problem on mine |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Others seem to have the problem I had initially. I have it mounted in a 1998 Toyota Camry. It fits inside the "pocket" under the radio in my car. I cut a rectangular opening in the back of the "pocket", which allows the fins and the connectors to protrude into the space behind the console. The rig got *very* hot, initially, even when only receiving. Painful to touch, and hot enough to smell after only minutes of transmitting. I discovered
that the designers, ignoring the fact that heat rises, arranged the fan, on the top,
to suck air in, rather than blow it out. So, it sucks air in the top, blows hot air
out the side vents, which then rises and gets sucked in the top again.
I did two things. First, I cut a hole, the same diameter as the fan, in the plastic pocket piece, right above the fan. That did no good, because there was a small space between the top of the radio and the plastic, so the hot air exhausted from the side vents still got sucked in by the fan.
What made all the difference, was when I made a thin "donut" of plastic foam material, the
same diameter as the fan and the hole in the pocket and placed it between
the radio and the plastic wall of the pocket. This sealed the fan to the pocket,
and forced it to suck air from *outside* the pocket (i.e.: from behind the console),
where the air is relatively cool. Exhaust air blows around inside the pocket for a bit,
then flows out the front into the passenger compartment.
The above probably won't help you, except to indicate that exhaust air gets
sucked back in by the fan fairly easily. I notice my radio runs *significantly* cooler;
I could *smell* it getting hot before! You might want to try playing with some
plastic as an air duct to see what happens.
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|
| WB7OXZ |
Rating:   |
2002-10-15 | |
| Small Radio Small Performance |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I bought the radio because of it's small size. OK performace for such a small radio. Since it is small it has a small speaker and you cant hear it over road noise. So add a remote speaker and there goes the value of small size. Blue foreground on display is imposible to see in the daylight. Radio has a problem with one local repeater, 146.62 -offset.
reception is choppy like low signal strength is opening/closing squelch. Three other owners reported same problem. Yaesu says it needs to have the band limits realigned $$. All in all the small size is not worth it. Since I have had other problems with Yaesu quality I going to trade it in for a real radio. |
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