I am looking at buying one of these puppies as soon as I pass my test. Will be taking it this coming weekend and this will be my graduating present I hope. Have read so good things but was wanting your thoughts on this radio. Pleas let me hear both sides.
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Yaesu 857D
- Thread starter Dutchman11
- Start date
Great radios, I have a 8 or 9 HF rigs and the FT-857 and FT-897 models are 2 of my favorites because they are all band all mode. I always saidif I had to sell all my radios but 2 the 857 and 897 would surely be the 2 Ide keep 
I have had an FT-857 since they first came out. First one suffered from the dreaded 6m oscillation problem and was replaced later with an FT-857D and so far so good with it.There are a good duzzall rig in that they do all bands multimode which is nice. The receiver is not the best and tends to overload somewhat if listening on 160m and lower. You can solve that by either turning the attenuator on or the preamp off. Yaesu likes to use the buzz term IPO or Intercept Point Optimization for this. Sound quality if properly set up is quite good. Menu system is daunting at first but easy to catch on to. Overall not too bad of a radio however there are compromises in order to pack so much into such a small package. IF type DSP would have been nice rather than the audio DSP they use.
I've looked at that rig several times while considering a rig for my mobile. (Just want to get General first). One of the guys in my local club runs one, and uses it for HF and VHF/UHF. I've talked to him on UHF, and he sounds really good. I know he makes a lot of HF contacts with it, too. Hard to believe they can pack ALL that stuff into such a small footprint rig, and only for 800 bucks. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better "do it all" rig for that amount of money.
73,
Brett
73,
Brett
If you get it, do yourself a favor and get the YAESU
MH-59A8J remote mic. It makes mobile operation so much easier.
MH-59A8J remote mic. It makes mobile operation so much easier.
I have two of them, one in my truck and one here in my shack, and I have had no problems at all. I use the ATAS 120 in the rig and have no problems reaching other continents with ease. With a Signalink and a laptop it opens the digital communications up as well. Ham Radio Deluxe, SatPC32, RMS Express (Winmor), and MMSSTV all configure flawlessly with the 857. My two cents anyway. Good Luck.
It's a fine radio. I picked one up about a year ago (thumbs up to CK for recommending it back then) and I love it.
The reason why he sounds really good is because UHF is FM and you can adjust the deviation - mic gain, and the operator probably has a radio voice.
This is the advantage that a person with this kind of radio has over someone that just has a handheld or a mobile FM rig.
Using a efficient antenna and 40 / 50 watts into the repeater also helps compared to those with 1 - 5 watts and a rubber duck.
I liked Captain Kilowatt's answer and I agree with him 100% -- he hit the nail on the head with this one.
Unfortunately I see this mistake being made over and over again.
A man wants to get into amateur radio, does not have an Elmer, does not have a knowledgeable person that they can go to for advice.
Makes their radio choice based upon price and options and not according to performance. Wastes their time and money on a cheap mobile, only to have to replace it a year or two down the road when they get more exposure to amateur radio and they get the opportunity to hear what a really good radio sounds like.. Field Days - and participating with a real amateur radio club that does field days is an excellent opportunity for a person to see these radios in real operating conditions.
Sadly, in my area of the country, the clubs are unwilling to spend money on filters to keep one mans RF out of their receivers, and so they bring their least valuable radio's to field days - with the mentality that if it gets damaged or breaks that they are not out anything.
This doesn't always portray amateur radio in a positive light.
When asked the question that the OP should have asked - what radio would make me a good first radio, I would reply that you should look at the performance rating listed in the Sherwood Engineering website.
The Sherwood website lists the 10 best transceivers on the market today - both new and used. It's an actual side by side comparison of each transceiver in both laboratory environment and real world.
I have listened to the high end Yaesu's, Kenwoods, Drake, ICOM, and even Ten Tec.. The one I liked the most was the Ten Tec Orion II, after some mods it had the best sounding receiver..
If you can't hear it, you can't work it!
If you don't enjoy listening to it, you aren't going to want to operate it.
I spend about 90% of my time listening and maybe 5% of my time actually talking.
I have an array of antenna's available to me on site.
If I don't like how the one antenna sounds, I can switch to another antenna and try it again.. I don't limit myself to one band or one mode.
I like to do digital modes but don't really get how the contesters operate..
I don't like the 599 signal reports and then get the heck out of here.
Might I suggest that you find yourself an amateur radio club, join the club, make some friends, visit your friends QTH, listen to their equipment, hear how it sounds. Get your friends to allow you to operate their equipment, see which one you like based upon performance and not price or options.
You will quickly find that if you buy a mobile radio as your first radio, you will have limited what you can do and what you will want to do.
The 857D vs Icom 706 MK IIG debate is as old as Moses and it really isn't going to change much as long as its design is not changed - since it has to live inside of a box just big enough to appease those that wants to have a all mode mobile in their vehicle - which is what it was designed for. As a all mode mobile it does a very good job with the proper filters added, but the filters is going to raise the price of the rig to about the same price as a used Kenwood TS 590 - which is in my opinion a much better transceiver for the price. Just mah tew cents..
Sir would this radio be a radio a new operator with a new tech ticket could grow into or should I look at something else. I am working on my General now. But when looking at reviews and I joined a local club and several own the 857d I have been given so many opinions the reason I am asking you is when reading allot of the posts on the forum allot of proplr really respect your opinion so will I let me know what you think please.
I agree with Binrat. I would have bought something better IF I had the money at the time but I don't regret buying it. It goes mobile great and it is decent at home but there are some things I don't like but then again my previuos radio was an Icom IC-735 that had a triple conversion front end and was nearly bullet proof when it came to adjacent frequency QRM. The other radio I still have is a Kenwood TS-820S which has a great receiver and the tx audio is......well it's a classic hybrid Kenwood. Need I say more?
I never owned an 857 but have talked to enough of them to know they sound good on the air. I would never buy one only because he display is too small for my eyes.
I've owned an FT-817 for years now (857D no PA deck) good little RX/ easy to operate IMO...never minded the small display...what's there is clean and sharp
I've work the world with 7 watts or less...even on 6m.
All the Best
Gary