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Reviews For: Yaesu FT-1900R

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Base/Mobile (non hand-held)

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FT-1900R
Reviews: 46MSRP: $$$??? SHOP - AROUND
Description:
Features

* 200 Memories (6 Char.)
* 8 Memory Banks
* 55 Watts Output
* APO - Automatic Power-Off
* ARS - Automatic Repeater Shift
* Busy Channel Lock-Out



* DTMF Memories
* CTCSS Encode/Decode
* DCS Encode/Decode
* CW Trainer
* Sever Weather Alert
* Backlit DTMF Mic
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.rigpix.com/yaesu/ft1900r.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00464
NJ2H Rating: 2011-05-17
Nice radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a nice basic 2M radio. Easy to program and use. As another ham said, when the 1900R is is off, when the PS is turned on the 1900R display flashes and there is some noise from the speaker. Of course, 'off' is never really 'off' these days, so there is perhaps a little spike from the PS that momentarily puts the 1900R in 'on.'
W1SWR Rating: 2011-05-03
Power on peoblem Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Not sure if anyone has had this problem but, This is my second radio and that's going back with the same problem.
With the radio off, you turn on the P/S and the display blinks and the speaker snaps
with out the radio on. I called Yaesu Tech and they said that should not happen and said it might be my power supply problem,
So i had HRO test the one i brought back and that did it on there power supply.
So if anyone else is having this problem, it's not normal and Yaesu knows about it. Other than that i think it's a nice radio. Easy to use and run.
K0KZO Rating: 2011-04-07
Nice Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I like this radio. It's easy to use and the display is easy to read. The only nitpick is that the squelch won't quite knock out an occasionally noisy frequency where it's S2 or less, however the RF squelch threshold setting does work as a fallback solution. The programming is very similar to my two FT-7800's and FT-60 HT so the learning curve was low.
AA5ET Rating: 2011-03-12
Good Radio for the Money Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just put one in my truck a month ago and has worked great so far. For the money it's a pretty good little rig and has a lot of features. One reason I bought it was that I could use G4HFQ's memory management software with it - makes it very easy to program the memories and other settings without having to go through the tedium of manually entering each memory via the radio controls. It's a lot easier to enter the data into a computer, then download the memories into the radio. If you do this, the same USB cable that works with the FT-2900 will work with this rig (same connector and pin-outs).

The only thing I don't like about this rig is that it doesn't have a separate back panel connector to connect a TNC. To work packet you'll have to do it the old-fashioned way by connecting to the microphone and speaker connectors. I knew this before I bought it, so won't rate it down for this, and I bought it for FM mobile anyway.
KB1GMX Rating: 2011-02-22
decent radio Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
After the first one failed with missing digits on the display. It was replaced by the HRO where I bought it. The replacement has behaved well with no issues. As the current generation of menu driven radios go, this one doesn't annoy me and it does program easily.

I'd say reading the manual and using it on the bench before putting it in the wheels is a good idea.

It's not been in use long enough to get use and abuse and no issues. I'd recommend one with the
watch for bad out of the box caveat.

LANCERGUY585 Rating: 2010-12-26
GREAT RADIO!!!!!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I absolutely love this radio. I just started in ham radio and bought this as my first VHF Transceiver. I have always been a fan of Vertex Standard as I was a student pilot and had a VXA-220. I love that radio for flying. But back to the ft-1900R, I really love the features and the audio quality is fantastic. Its perfect for beginners and has enough features to keep you reading for a while. LOL. I use it for mobile and take it out of my truck and put it in the house to use as my base. It works great with my MFJ-1724B mobile antenna for the truck and a Arrow OSJ-146.440 antenna for the house. They both work fantastic. I would defiantly buy another. And will continue to buy Vertex/Yaesu radios.
WD8DSB Rating: 2010-10-26
More than adequate. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I'm on my second FT-1900R in two weeks. Main tuning knob rubbed the front bezel on the first one so I returned it for another one and the second one is just fine.

I purchased the FT-1900R versus the FT-2900R because the FT-1900R has a much better receiver sensitivity rating which no one ever mentions in their reviews. The FT-1900R spec is better than 0.2 uV (12dB SINAD) whereas the FT-2900R spec is better than 0.4 uV (12dB SINAD). The ARRL measured the FT-1900R at 0.16 uV (12 dB SINAD) which is very respectable, and so far I am impressed with the receiver sensitivity.

Excellent transmit audio reports and the receive audio sounds fine and plenty loud in the car.

For a 2 meter mobile with plenty of transmit power and plenty of receive audio output this radio is hard to beat at the price I paid ($129.95) as long as you don't run into quality problems as I did on my first one (made in China). This radio is packed full of features and can't think of anything missing (for a single band analog transceiver).

For what I was looking for I would have given this radio a rating of 5 but gave it a 4 since the first one had the quality problem mentioned above (knob that rubbed).

73's
Don (wd8dsb)
W1LDD Rating: 2010-10-14
Great Little Radio ! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Small foot print so it fits anywhere.Great rx and nice clean audio reports.I run mine as a base radio with a small fan.The radio has some nice features.HRO $129.00 to the door how can you go wrong?
N1MIE Rating: 2010-09-12
Mediocre Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Mediocre at best. I bought this radio for a dedicated packet station. I am very disappointed. I have owned many many Yaesu rigs and expect much from them than this. I can only barely get it to work on packet by dialing up the volume to max and the TNC transmit audio to max. This was never the case with previous radios (all Yaesu) that I used with this setup. I tried a backup TNC with the same result. I also tried multiple cables between TNC and radio. The radio is just poor.

I highly recommend the FT817ND and other Yaesus, just not this one. Stay far away.
W1WH Rating: 2010-07-12
Nice sounding radio but seems to run hot Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought an FT1900 to replace an FT-1802 which went south one month after it was out of warranty. I had always thought that the 1802 ran very hot and the 1900 seems similar. The receive audio sounds very good and I'm getting good reports on the transmit audio. However, during a ragchew the other night, I noticed that the radio became almost too hot to touch. The FT-1900 features an internal software setting that the old FT-1802 didn't have: an internal temperature monitor. Seeing as how it was quite warm in the shack (ambient temperature was in the upper 80's) I used this feature to take a temperature reading and was shocked (shocked, I tell you) to find that the reported temperature was 139.1 degrees, only 0.9 degrees below the published upper limit spec of 140 degrees for the radio's operating temperature range! I quickly backed the power down and shut the radio down about a minute later. I plan on adding a muffin fan to cool the radio going forward but it begs the question: is Yaesu's inclusion of the internal temperature sensor in the 1900 a de-facto admission of a thermal problem with the preceeding 1802 that they never apparently acknowledged? I'm not saying that this is necessarily the case, but who knows? I'm just sayin'...this one bears watching.