FT857D on low power

Old Reflector
1

It is a very simple job to use the menu on the FT857D to lower the RF output power but I came accross this posting by AA8AF on another reflector which users might find of interest:

'The “brown wire” feature of the FT-857D is briefly mentioned as the
"BATT SENS" on page 32 of the manual in the “Input Jack” section. The
one sentence reference is easily skipped over.

While I haven’t seen an authoritative complete description of what
happens when the BATT SENS is grounded, it does shift RF power to 20
watts and is believed to activate other battery saving features like
display back light timeout, etc.

I liked the concept enough, that when I replaced the stock power
connector with PowerPoles, I wired in a push-lock switch to activate
this feature.’

Ron, GW4EVX

2

In reply to GW4EVX:

I noticed that feature myself but have yet to take advantage of it in my connector conversion (and even at five watts, it definitely drains the battery quicker than an HT at full power…)

By the way, what is Yaesu’s policy on changing the connectors?

As I was particularly weary of violating that I installed powerpoles after the stock connector…(kind of bulky still, but more convenient. Also still good to have the stock on there just in case in a country where powerpoles aren’t the vogue (yet!)).

Jason HL4/W2VLA