Just arrived from Martin Lynch to my QTH on the Scottish borders.
I’ve been impressed with Andy’s @MM0FMF usage on 40m and microwave with an SG Labs transverter.
I sold my 817 ages ago to fund my KX3 (serial number 30) that I still have.
Figure if I don’t use the 818, it should be easy to sell down the road.
With the USD/Sterling exchange rate being what it is, the incentive to buy items in US has diminished somewhat especially with California almost 10% consumption tax.
Paul
Currently M0SNA
You need a secondhand IC-703 if you don’t need 2m and 70cm. If you do, then add a transverter.
My “easy listening” radio is a 60 year old Eddystone 840C. It is very easy to listen to in the evenings when I am not so bothered about making a QSO. 
I’m very pleased with my FT818. I managed an s2s on 15m from West Lomond (GM/SS-154) to Beletsi (SV/AT-008) using 5 watts into a link dipole today. At 2830km this is my longest DX to date. I’m still learning my SOTA setup and how to optimise things, but results like this are very encouraging for me. I find the versatility very good, with a Flowerpot for 2m connected to the front BNC and the dipole plugged in to the back SO-239, I can switch between local VHF and HF DX at the radio without having to reconnect things too often. I only operate portable so it works well for me. I do worry about the robustness of the power connector though. Just my tuppence worth from a relatively new operator.
Andy
MM7MOX/P
Hi Andy, good stuff re. your 818-I love mine also! A very good mod to get over the rather dodgy power connector is to install a PowerPole adaptor which is much stronger. I bought mine from Sotabeams, not cheap but worth paying for peace of mind & practicality. 73 John.
Plug in the right angle power plug and use a P clip to fix the cable to the earth screw. Leave the cable attached always and there is no strain in the power connector.
Spot on Andy. I did that when I got mine… no problem whatsoever. I was warned of this potential issue by John GW4BVE who had suffered a failure.
Works… installed on receipt, near on 500 activations with my No.1 FT817nd and no problems 
Sad…but it was bound to happen. The FT-817 series is a 22+ Y/O radio design, and a few years ago Yaesu crossed the 1/4-million sold mark. I can’t think of another radio past or present that can meet that number.
I did not like the FT-818. I didn’t care about the 6-watts out, although I thought it was a stupid change. Trade a 20% increase in power consumption for about 1 dB more signal? What I use, and would have missed, was the 0.5w power level. I use that quite a bit actually. Of course, anyone savvy enough can go into the menu and recalibrate the 6w to 5w, the 5w to 2.5w, the 2.5w to 1w and the 1w to 0,5w. But that would be tedious.
I have had an ICOM IC-705 for about a year now. To me, that is the first radio that truly could replace the FT-817. And I have a nearly NIB (New In Box) FT-817ND that I bought as a spare. I was considering selling in a few months ago. Now I think it can stay in the box a while longer. It may be more desirable in a year or 3.
I’ve got a modified early 817 with 2 filters, internal lithium from windcamp,speaker mod and bx-184 voice keyer built into the mike. it’s good enough as a radio, not great but what really puts it head and shoulders over the similar rigs in my mind is the “Swiss army knife” quality of it. It’s ready for anything. It won’t do well in anything but it will do something! I’ve had that rig since maybe 2002 or 2001.
The 817 is tough and light enough to carry in a backpack all day on a family vacation when there is only the possibility of time for ham radio. But should that time come, you have uhf to 160m all mode with a dual band antenna and something like the comet antenna toy box. Efficient? Not really. Not in any sense. But over the years that setup has netted me my most exciting contacts including SL8SUB while walking around Stockholm late one night with wifey during a vhf/uhf contest—something that led to an invitation to board.
What’s light enough to carry that is ready for every common band in every mode? And tough? And what portable rig has user switchable dual antenna connectors, one properly placed for temporary operation with the rig supported by a steel railing at a scenic overlook? I’ve got a 705–too big, too heavy and not tough enough to be an 817 replacement for the times when you only “might” have time to operate if you are lucky. I’ve got a kx3…great receiver but not tough enough, no uhf, poor vhf, and it’s a much more sophisticated rig, you need time to take advantage of it. My factory built one has not been reliable. It’s not the “whip out of your pack 817” and get on the air —at least not for me. Kx2? Small light efficient, but no vhf/uhf? No fun on top of that skyscraper observatory you are visiting with the family on vacation.
817–ready for anything and everything. It’s like the multi tool of ham radio. I will miss mine when it finally dies.
73,
Tom, N2YTF
I bought my 818 this summer and glad with It.
It is my second one, 4 year ago O owned a 817nd .
It is a pretty nice radio, allí in one HF, VHF, UHF.
What a pitty the issue of components break the production.
VK1 to G - that is something for me to to aim for.
I did catch part of a conversation from a ZL1 station whilst activating GM/SS-154 yesterday, so I know the FT-818 receiver is sensitive enough.
Andy
MM7MOX
You probably should have left it at that really. Distinguishing between two tones differing by 21Hz and being able to separate and read two similar strength CW stations separated by 21 Hz are completely different things.Like you I can easily do the former but unlike you, I do use CW and I could not do the later.
I suggested to John Kruk of Yaesu, that it was incredibly short sighted of Yaesu to not have something in the plans to replace he 817/818. He got down right argumentative and deleted my comment. I have been a Yaesu for for all of my life. I may just move on. I have an FT-817 (w/CW filter), FT-857 (w/CW filter), FTdx101d, FT3, VX8, FT847. (Other radios of course as you never have too many 
)
I agree on the price point, the IC-705 is way too expensive for what you get, the difference between 6 and 10 watts is not much, the 705 is as expensive as a 100 watt rig. I love my 818 which will last the rest of my life and possible beyond.
Still have my working FT-817 and a newer FT818. Over 20,000 SOTA contacts on the older 817…only a few thousand QSO’s on the newer 818.
Before SOTA the 817 was used as a VHF contest radio exclusively…HF was never used. Once SOTA came along, and FT8 killed VHF contesting, it became a SOTA only radio.
Great radios…will never get rid of them…will drive them until they die I figure…and they may outlive me. I may have to put them in my will…
Pete
WA7JTM
I think it is and it isn’t.
Why risk changing a tried and tested design that continues to sell well with widespread support from 3rd party software and accessories?
But the design is old and chip shortages have been going on for a while now so they must have known this would happen eventually and a replacement would be needed I think it would have been better for Yaesu to plan to stop 818 production just after the replacement was widely available rather than be forced into this situation.
They probably have something up their sleeve and it’s just not quite ready yet: maybe a shrunk down 991A, or a mythical 819. I think John mentioned in the video there would be an announcement soon about a replacement?
It’s a curious thing that we want the latest rig but on the other hand we are dismayed when the manufacturer cannot provide another one of an old design. The 817/8 has become such a symbol of multi band portability that it seems impossible that it would be discontinued. But after all, manufacturers want to produce new radios so we will all buy a new one and they don’t care what happens to the old one. And just to be a touch cynical for a moment, isn’t it better for the old one to stop working, so as to force us to buy the new one? Better for the manufacturer, that is. But in the absence of its successor, the strategy seems to be wrong, one can only think that Yaesu was forced into this by component problems and would not have wanted to worry their customers by not having the replacement ready.
Having just sold my second 817 I now only have the original one and it is essential for my 1296 and 2400 mhz transverters. So I am counting on it to keep working indefinitely, which won’t happen of course, and the crucial component that may fail will be one of the parts that is no longer available. So I will be counting on that not to happen for a long time. Here’s hoping…
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
Indeed Wade… and a cracking video as well.
