You must remember that the ham market is driven by Japanese hams. If parts for repairs are an issue then yes a product should be halted but thats not Kruks call. He tries his best but I have had a lot of Yaesu too but then I have Icom as well.
I replaced my 817 with an 818 and I will get another one. Its just too good.
Icom took 20 yrs to replace the 703 with a 705 and everyone says its too much.
Go get a ChinguHF and let us know the results
There is so much hate and anger these days that anyone thats a negative will be deleted and at times its not personal but the trend these days.
50% of internet traffic is bots posting negativity using AI bots so many are trying to reduce the comments to OFF.
Ok, I donned my flame suit and I have to say that I am extremely happy with my Xiegu G90. With this radio I managed to get S2S to US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. And I am just a beginner (active since ~3 years).
I think Yaesu was caught off guard. They might be working on something, but downsizing their other HW in order to be so sturdy as the 817/818 is difficult (and I guess they would want to reuse their other, newer technology in such outdoor rigs).
But I hope they will put something on offer. Competition fuels the improvement.
Indeed and that’s why some models have features that I am not the faintest bit interested in. But ignore those features and the rest of the radio is good.
I think a lot of discussion forums show people getting het up about which radio they think is “the best” when there is actually no “best” because it all depends on individual preferences. I solve that problem by having multiple radios and concluding none of them are perfect.
No doubt FT817/818 is great and legend multi-band radio, but their time is gone. Thus, IMHO this RIG is overrated now.
There are more interesting RIGs like KX2, KX3, TX500, IC703 and much more DIY ones.
Have to say, that I also wanted to purchase FT818 but lack of CW filter stopped me each time.
Friends of my many times complain on harsh SSB comparing with DSP portable RIGs.
Moreover, current consumption of FT818 for portable is not adequate for current time comparing with e.g. Lab599 TX500 (100mA) or my DIY mini sw2017 (200mA).
For UHV and VHF there is a plenty good walk-talkie radios which more suitable.
But agree, that for collection as memory about past epoch F818 is mandatory =)
This is a good point. But to be honest, I never used UHF SSB and don’t think this is common (popular) on UHF, the same is true for CW on UHF.
Almost true, I think.
E.g. Xiegu G90, X5105, G106 (which I don’t like) provides more (on HF) than F818 and cost less (Used to having G90 I can say, that it is robast (except encoder which I replaced to Bourns).
Also when you think about FT818 we need also add time, effort and price itself in finding narrow filter or time making manually narrow filter during leisure time.
Personally I very like (love) total analogue radio like FT818. That is why I will never sell my analogue DIY mini sw2017. Listening to total analogue radio with xtal filters and analogue AGC is real pleasure for me.
Have to say, that I am seriously considering FT818/FT818 as my Birthday gift in April =)
The robustness of the 817/818 is its major value in my opinion. I have told this story before, but its worth repeating. I was activating G/DC-007 on a windy day (normal for West Penwith!) and set up in a stone shelter with the pole on the trig point. A gust of wind bent the pole and the coax dragged on the top of the wall, dislodging a boulder about the size of my head straight onto the FT817. The rig suffered no damage except for a small scratch on the top cover near the speaker and some lichen debris to dust off. I doubt if any of the competing rigs would have endured an approximately 10kg rock impacting on them, but perhaps it would be better if this was never put to the test!
Yes, there are not so much times for doing this. But some years ago SSB on 2 m would bring me an activation and qualification. I was hiking on Piz Surpare HB/GR-173 (around 8 km one way and 1300 m difference in altitude). At this time I owned only to heave TRX for such a hike except an 2 m / 70 cm handheld for FM. A local Om told me the day before it should be no problem to get at least 4 contacts from such a high summit. So I took my handheld and a super light yagi with me. But from the summit within about 50 minutes I’ve got no contact. The nearby repeater was strong and clear, but no ham reacheable. So I had to go down without an activation and a qualification .
But it was a contest weekend and dialing down to 144.300 +/- I was hearing much SSB mumbling. With my later bought FT817 it would be no problem to qualify.
Why no FM contacts? Other days and years 2 … 4 2 m FM contacts no problem from summits around. It was a sunday between 12 and 13 local time - lunchtime for some Om? And it was a contest weekend - contest time for the other Om?
The requirement is a working transceiver that has reasonable specs like sensitivity and selectivity, that works out of the box.
The kits for 144 mhz transverters are a project, not a black box. Then you need another one for 432 if that’s your IF for a microwave band. And even if you build those into a neat box, you are also carrying an hf rig, so which hf rig will you dedicate to this purpose? Will that be as compact as an FT817?
How many boxes do you want to carry to an activation? The ft817 provides all these facilities already. So is there even a replacement that does multi mode on 144 and 432? Not yet as far as I know. That’s why the 817 series is so significant to the microwave users.
And indeed for the few of us that use 2m (and occasionally 70cm) SSB and CW. I really only use my IC-703 and KX3 for special events such as the Trans-Atlantic S2S events where I am concentrating on HF. The 817 will continue to be my main rig for SOTA and if it goes pop, then I will certainly be on the lookout for another. Maybe I should buy a spare now.
Wise move in my book Gerald. I was going to sell #2 817 (with 500Hz filter) but decided to hold on to it despite acquiring other radios and breaking my 1 in, 1 out policy.
Martin Lynch still has stock as of now (7/Jan/2023).
I was amused by Martin saying in his video that the FT-817 was introduced in the mid 90s! The FT-817 became available (in the UK at least) in early 2001 - I bought one from one of the first batches, I paid £799, but at least I did get a free ATX walkabout antenna!
.
