FT920 what MOD is this??

[BJ radionut]

Gunner: Hope your not upset with me in regards to your purchase.
Your obviously one of the operators that are willing to put forth the effort to make antennas work, and optimize your system.
My intent was to inform, that the EFHW has some limitations (in standard form).
However, there are ways to enhance it's preformance even further than the "Plug and Play" information out there.
Some of the information supplied above, will help explain where I and others find the EFHW in it's standard "Plug and Play" configuration somewhat misleading.
Yes, again I say they work!
However reading some of the info supplied, I think you will find there are ways to fix some of the "issues" that can arise, plus solve them and enhance the use of this type antenna set-up.
The All-Band Doublet system, can be made to work very well also.
Many here from the forum use this type of set-up.
I use a Pair of "Phased" Doublets for 80 thru 15 meters and a Double "L" tuner.
I also have another tuner that does have a 4:1 balun built-in and configured to work with this set-up also. The "array" is actually tuned for a specific section of 75 meters where I operate many times. The array is tuned to be resonant at 3.865 MHz's
The impendence at that frequency is 200 Ohms and X=0.
Using the balanced tuner it does pretty well on 40/20/17/15 meters for what it is.
(a Bunch of wire!)
OK enough. Looking forward to working you "In the Air"
Many here to help
All the Best
Gary

 

[Gunner357]

Gunner: I won't go there on the antenna, there is always "Hurt Feelings".
I will just say this, your transmission (RF) is an AC signal, where on the EFHW is the return path?
What becomes the other HALF of the antenna?
They will work, but they can have issues IHMO.

http://www.na0tc.org/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=technical:end_fed_half_wave_antenna.pdf

https://rrra.org/post/2017/04/27/the-doctor-is-in-end-fed-antennas/

Well I'm here to learn without a doubt so give to me how ya feel Im here to listen and learn.... when I began the antenna hunt I asked this and 3 other forums 2 actual HAM group forums I got all kinds of answers I began watching videos for the life of me I cant find them But 2 of which really helped me to make a decision Sure Ide love to have a 70 ft tower with beams.dipoles etc off of it but 1 money number 2 space. In the future I may ad a dipole or 2 or 3 and I did have a 40 tower given to me I just have to get some help to drop it but for now the end fed will have to do the job heck my buddy who is licensed to made contact using my FT920 and the V58 set up for 11m and using my tuner someone in Hawaii so with this End fed after all the positive vids and positive comments should do the job for now........ thanks for your concern and input

 

[Gunner357]

Gunner: Hope your not upset with me in regards to your purchase.
Your obviously one of the operators that are willing to put forth the effort to make antennas work, and optimize your system.
My intent was to inform, that the EFHW has some limitations (in standard form).
However, there are ways to enhance it's preformance even further than the "Plug and Play" information out there.
Some of the information supplied above, will help explain where I and others find the EFHW in it's standard "Plug and Play" configuration somewhat misleading.
Yes, again I say they work!
However reading some of the info supplied, I think you will find there are ways to fix some of the "issues" that can arise, plus solve them and enhance the use of this type antenna set-up.
The All-Band Doublet system, can be made to work very well also.
Many here from the forum use this type of set-up.
I use a Pair of "Phased" Doublets for 80 thru 15 meters and a Double "L" tuner.
I also have another tuner that does have a 4:1 balun built-in and configured to work with this set-up also. The "array" is actually tuned for a specific section of 75 meters where I operate many times. The array is tuned to be resonant at 3.865 MHz's
The impendence at that frequency is 200 Ohms and X=0.
Using the balanced tuner it does pretty well on 40/20/17/15 meters for what it is.
(a Bunch of wire!)
OK enough. Looking forward to working you "In the Air"
Many here to help
All the Best
Gary

NOT at All looks like we were writing books to each other the same time lol your here to HELP and I appreciate that

 

[Gunner357]

I wish now I got the ext auto tuner not the manual one

 

[Gunner357]

Update: I ended up keeping the unit, bottom line like some of you stated it was a FACTORY fix....... It was confirmed that everything IS working properly..... I have it all set up and put up a EFHW-8010 antenna and a friend gave me a Signalink and Ive been listening a lot until I get my tickets. The RX is great! Ive read PKS31 signals from Russia,Italy,UK,Costa Rico,Venezuela, Hawaii,Mexico,and of coarse the USA. So far I'm really enjoying this over 11 meter. And the antenna across the bands SWR is below 2:1 So today IM going to run coax for a little more permanent location until I get my tower which BTW a friend gave me one, only 40ft but for me good enough..... OH BTW I found this too looks kinda familiar...

 

[Shockwave]

as long as they have diddled with my radio,they are loosing $$$ . Im waiting on it to come back number 4 trip. It should be replaced.if they do where it works right,its gonna go bye bye n no more yaesus will be added to my collection. Got 2 more im about to sell
My next buy be kenwood or icom

Bingo! NEVER buy a new YAESU model. They can have serious flaws right out of the box, to others that don't become apparent until a years worth of use. Reliability and service has taken a nose dive at this company for the past 20 years. If you want a newer Yaesu, wait until it's been out for at least a year and read all of the reviews first. They got me twice on two band new models and it will never happen again.

 

[Justme]

All major brands have their lemons.
Fact, my FT100 22 years old works like the day it came out of the box.
The 847 with Collins filters 22 years old still works as new.
FT2000-D 12 years old still works as new., all 2 running full power for 1000's of hours.
Ft991A new works as new after running weeks of FT-8 100 watt for 8 to 10 hours at the time.
Icom, blown PA transistors, through metalisation PCB problems Kenwood blowing finals, etc etc.
Same as cars that have to be recalled.
When i started the hobby 43+ years back if you had one new model a year thourougly tested it was nice to see, it also cost 3 monthly salaries to buy.
Now for 2 weeks salary you buy one of the many radio's that come out every year, low to high end.
SO, no time for thourough testing like before because the competitor also brings out a new model and you have to float your model on the market as soon as possible.
Or get a bad batch P.A. Fets from the producer....shit happens.

 

[Shockwave]

All major brands have their lemons.
Fact, my FT100 22 years old works like the day it came out of the box.
The 847 with Collins filters 22 years old still works as new.
FT2000-D 12 years old still works as new., all 2 running full power for 1000's of hours.
Ft991A new works as new after running weeks of FT-8 100 watt for 8 to 10 hours at the time.
Icom, blown PA transistors, through metalisation PCB problems Kenwood blowing finals, etc etc.
Same as cars that have to be recalled.
When i started the hobby 43+ years back if you had one new model a year thourougly tested it was nice to see, it also cost 3 monthly salaries to buy.
Now for 2 weeks salary you buy one of the many radio's that come out every year, low to high end.
SO, no time for thourough testing like before because the competitor also brings out a new model and you have to float your model on the market as soon as possible.
Or get a bad batch P.A. Fets from the producer....shit happens.

Bob already mentioned his experience with the FT-100 and my FT-847 did the same thing on 6 meters right out of the box. It was purchased with 6 meter mobile use in mind. It oscillated so bad on 6, it produced a full power carrier on SSB and took out the pair of FET drivers. Out of warranty and $100 later it came back with new drivers and the same oscillation ready to take them out again.

One year in the car with temperature changes from hot to cold, and the 99 cent LCD display that sells for $200, goes bad with zebra stripes all though the readout. Purchased a new display that started doing the same thing within another year. Tried to use is on 6 meter FM once last year and took the drivers out again with the damn oscillation. It sits on the scrap shelf today.

The last Yaesu I purchased new was the VX-7R when it first came out. They bragged that it worked under water but the problem was it still sounded like you were under water when you were talking on it normally. Turns out you can't just seal over the mic element with plastic and expect to have any midrange or high end reach the element!

Once I used a needle to poke a hole through the plastic film defeating the water tight option, audio was good but everyone on FM repeaters noticed my power supply had a hum. That was interesting since I was on its internal battery and not charging. Turns out their PL encoder is a squarewave that CANNOT be filtered out in any standard PL decoder. The high pass filters in even the best Motorola receiver fail to remove a squarewave and its harmonics from the PL tone.

If you have either of these radios and they do not experience these problems, I'll bet you do not have a serial number sold in the first year and your FT-847 is a "D" model. I've mentioned these problems in the forum before and whenever the topic comes up with Yaesu, I will share my disgust with their complete lack of quality control and inability to post service bulletins once they figure out their own mistakes!!! The last Yaesu that actually impressed me is the FT-1000D. After that, they got less "Japan like" and more "China like".

 

[Justme]

My FT847 is from the first batch made when it came out, never experienced problems other as cleaning dust out every year and replacing the internal fan 3 times over 22 years daily use.
ran form 160 up to 70 cm on every band including 6 meter.
FT 100 grounding problems sorted myself, added AM Xfilter used in the car daily later at home next to the FT2000-D.

Again also one of the first batch.
As for the 991 they had a bad batch Fets from the maker, and all other brands had their lemons as well.
It depends how the maker handles warranty.
I got 3 years full warranty on my FT991A, been running that radio 8 to 12 hours daily with 100 watt FT-8 here from 160 to 6 meters, and 60 watts on 2 meter without a problem.

As usual i always go for broke with a new radio, better if a fault comes out early.
I did change the fan for a much better one, from 36 cubic meters an hour to 42 cubic meters per hour and Maglev bearing, quiet and better cooling.
I ran it when temps in the house were 28 C in the first week, no problems, happily chugging along.

So your observations i had later models was wrong, i told i had bought the FT847 and FT100 in 1998 when they were introduced and was the first one buying the 847 here in the country, if needed i can look for the serial numbers.

 

[Shockwave]

Well, as someone who did a lot of Yaesu service work at Lentini Communications back when they did in house warrantee work, I can tell you SSB on 6 meters using the first FT-857's was very problematic. Most customers never noticed it because they didn't use 6 or only used in on FM where the oscillation was drowned out by the carrier.

This problem didn't magically fix itself by tightening any screws either. It was the direct result of not providing any shielding whatsoever between the pre-driver, and the driver stages on the main board. At some point Yaesu figured out how to literally put a Band-Aid on this problem by sticking a piece of shielding tape over the troubled area at the input to the driver.

My biggest complaint is that Yaesu wasted a lot of service hours hiding this problem and had the nerve to charge $90 to fix it if you noticed it after the warranty ran out! It was not possible to find the problem without the cover off because it required reflection off the cover to oscillate. It took Yaesu forever to come up with a fix that worked before the "D" model and they didn't publish a bit of service data about it. When the first one finally came back from the factory working right, I took it apart and found the shielding tape.

I should also point out this oscillation was not the result of some innocent mistake or oversight. It is due to near ZERO quality control. Closer inspection of the main board in the FT-857 revealed the silkscreen outline of a MISSING metal shield around the driver stage! That means someone with a brain at Yaesu knew it was required but some penny pincher was allowed to mess the design up before production. The LCD display that continues to fail in the car is so well known, the internet is full of "FT-857 Zebra display" complaints.

PS: Please accept my apology as you may have noticed I had to edit the model number from FT-847 to FT-857. It's been a while and I got my model numbers confused.

 

[Justme]

No problem, it is that i have those transceivers for a long time i know them.
I did the modifications on the FT100 myself, as with all transceivers i tend to modify them over the years.
After 43+ years of being ham i saw every big 3 maker come out with lemons, Yaesu is no exception.
I'm not defending Yaesu, i just try to show all 3 have the same problem as we can see in all major car makers recalls with stupid mistakes.
When i bought my ft225RD 2 meter all mode transceiver Yaesu put out 100 pre models under Japanese amateurs to test them and get the faults out and suggestions to make it better in the radio before it was put on the market.
That is not done anymore, it is designed and if one pre model works well on the test bench it goes in production because the competition does the same and being late with your model the competition wins.

Ham radio is a niche market, not much to be made there in the numbers of radio's sold for the price.
My FT847 with Collins filters cost 2 montly salaries 23 years back, my FT991A just 2 weeks salary doing the same and more.
That difference has to come from somewhere, be it worse quality control, mass production in low wage countries or worse warranty conditions, here we have mandatory 2 year warranty, i even got 3 years full warranty on the radio.
that is why i run my new radio's hard the first 6 months, if anything breaks it will do then.
If it holds up it will do for decades as my FT100 and FT847 show.
The FT991A already got a new fan replacing the elcheapo Panasonic fan with higher CF/M throughput in air and silent MagLev bearing, cost a bit more but silent fans are a must and more cooling capacity is a must as well.
Did that with all radio's i got.
Including the Kenwoods. Icoms etc.
Maintenance ounce a yeear as with the Heathkit Sb-1000 clean out and inspection and measuring the relevant voltages etc.
That keeps them ticking and preventive maintenance keeps problems at bay.

 

[Rwb]

No problem, it is that i have those transceivers for a long time i know them.
I did the modifications on the FT100 myself, as with all transceivers i tend to modify them over the years.
After 43+ years of being ham i saw every big 3 maker come out with lemons, Yaesu is no exception.
I'm not defending Yaesu, i just try to show all 3 have the same problem as we can see in all major car makers recalls with stupid mistakes.
When i bought my ft225RD 2 meter all mode transceiver Yaesu put out 100 pre models under Japanese amateurs to test them and get the faults out and suggestions to make it better in the radio before it was put on the market.
That is not done anymore, it is designed and if one pre model works well on the test bench it goes in production because the competition does the same and being late with your model the competition wins.

Ham radio is a niche market, not much to be made there in the numbers of radio's sold for the price.
My FT847 with Collins filters cost 2 montly salaries 23 years back, my FT991A just 2 weeks salary doing the same and more.
That difference has to come from somewhere, be it worse quality control, mass production in low wage countries or worse warranty conditions, here we have mandatory 2 year warranty, i even got 3 years full warranty on the radio.
that is why i run my new radio's hard the first 6 months, if anything breaks it will do then.
If it holds up it will do for decades as my FT100 and FT847 show.
The FT991A already got a new fan replacing the elcheapo Panasonic fan with higher CF/M throughput in air and silent MagLev bearing, cost a bit more but silent fans are a must and more cooling capacity is a must as well.
Did that with all radio's i got.
Including the Kenwoods. Icoms etc.
Maintenance ounce a yeear as with the Heathkit Sb-1000 clean out and inspection and measuring the relevant voltages etc.
That keeps them ticking and preventive maintenance keeps problems at bay.

my bitch isnt the fact the radio is bad,my bitch is the bullcrap of sending it back to never get fixed.my other 7250,112 numbers earlier than this 1 works great.
Fedex haas had my bad 7250 more than me.
Hell cheep baofeng replaced my uv5 and sent me the newest gt3 no charge,i dont expect upgrade but fix the damm radio,refund my $$$ or give me diffrent radio. I actually bought it to uhh let me think OHHH USE NOT SHIP. Its racked up 14000 miles in a fedex truck,in my pickup maybe 500 miles,when it gets home this time be 15560 miles
I took 2 kenwood tm 4000 radios n assembled 1 thats 10 times better than that new yeasu.
Bought new radios with the idea to use em a few years without much trouble

 

[Justme]

Sorry for your experience with your radio, it should have been handled a lot better.
Warranty here is 2 years minimum, first 6 months you give the seller one chance to repair it on his cost and it should work as advertised.
if it still does not work good you can get a full refund , seller has no choice it is mandatory, or give a brand new other radio for the old one.
I got a 3 year warranty on the FT991A, i bet yaesu did that to polish up the little bit tarnished FT991 radio with faulty FETs in the PA.
Hoping the new radio's might last as long my old 847 and FT100 do.
Take care, stay safe.

 

[Gunner357]

Hey a side step I passed my Tech EXAM (KE8PSI) ...... and almost past the GEN do to I didnt study I was offered and said WTH might as well try.....

 

[Rwb]

Hey a side step I passed my Tech EXAM (KE8PSI) ...... and almost past the GEN do to I didnt study I was offered and said WTH might as well try.....

congradulations