Yaesu FT-857D FT-897D 857 897 Frequency modification expansion

[Gbutch]

Folks, I have only used my radio for HF, recently I tried to use with VHF and I was told by a friend who helped me set it up that it had been mod'd. I was wondering if anyone could show me what it should look like pre-mod ( I want to put it back as new). I don't have the serial number handy. Has the circuit board ( jumper layout) changed over the years? Sorry to be a pain, love the radio, don't need extended TX, want the VHF auto repeater shift function back. Thanks for any help
73 Grant

 

[NEIL CAHILL]

DEAR FRIENDS
I HAVE READ ALL YOUR COMMENTS AND SOME UNSOLDER JUMPERS 1 AND 2, AND SOME DID NOT
DEFINETIVELY, CAN SOMEBODY TELL ME IF THE JUMPERS 1-2 HAVE TO BE REMOVED?
MY 857D IS A NEW (SEPT 2016) USA VERSION, TYPE A2, SERIAL X000RZJKXR

Good question Rainer, and what did u decide and how did it work out? keep 1&2 or unsolder? 6, 7, 8 and 9 are settled but what's the verdict on 1&2 I just bought a new 857 from hamradio.com and would like to know as well....

 

[NEIL CAHILL]

I did mine in Aug of last year. I put in all the details of what I did. I would do if I were you since you have a new rig.

SO HOW IS IT WORKING FOR YOU?

 

[NEIL CAHILL]

DEAR FRIENDS
I HAVE READ ALL YOUR COMMENTS AND SOME UNSOLDER JUMPERS 1 AND 2, AND SOME DID NOT
DEFINETIVELY, CAN SOMEBODY TELL ME IF THE JUMPERS 1-2 HAVE TO BE REMOVED?
MY 857D IS A NEW (SEPT 2016) USA VERSION, TYPE A2, SERIAL X000RZJKXR

WHAT DID U DECIDE? AND HOW IS IT WORKING FOR YOU?

 

[Jgreg65]

Yeah I'm considering doing this mod to mine

 

[archjeb]

Hi all,

I decided to give this a shot on a new ft-857d. I followed the the procedure posted here but used hot solder instead of a pen.

It works perfectly. I've transmitted into a dummy load on the originally locked out frequencies with no issues.

Mine is an A2 model (off Yaesu box). Only pins 1 and 2 were jumpered from the factory.
I soldered Pings 7,8.9 & 6 - did a reset, and it works. I did NOT remove jumper on pin 1 & 2.

Based on the serial number, it appears to have been manufactured April 2018.

Hope this helps someone else.

-J

 

[archjeb]

I might note something, perhaps your experience has been different...

It appears that the RF stages are tuned for the HAM bands and anything outside of that the TX power starts rolling off pretty rapidly. I don't have schematics, so I'm not sure how much of this is the PA deck and how much of this is because of the microprocessor.

I tested in a dummy load and saw that it will drop in UHF range from 20watts at around 450Mhz down to 3 watts by the time you get to 467.

So for all practical purposes, if you wanted / or needed to use this for an *emergency*, I'm not sure how effective it would be as you move too far from the HAM bands. I have Part90/95 gear for those bands north of 70cm ham bands that I'm licensed for. So I didn't do the mod for that; it was to see what this radio can really do for my inquisitive mind

VHF is the same thing. You go from 50watts right in the middle of the band and then things drop off pretty quickly. It seems to be a larger bandpass in VHF compared to UHF, but still your output starts to drop if you go too far out.

I have not tried any HF to see if this is the case or not...but I wouldn't be surprised if its similar behavior.

At any rate, thought I'd share some notes from the test bench

When I get some time in the next few weeks, I'll put this on the SA and see how clean or dirty the output is

-J

 

[Flyincoyote]

Can you bring the wattage back up in the hidden menu. I just bought this radio and havnt done the mod yet...im thinking of putting switches on the jumpers to change it back to factor specs..i havnt even opened the box up..maybe its to small to solder something like that.

 

[Jgreg65]

I still haven't done mine but I'm getting closer to pulling the trigger.

 

[kopcicle]

I'm getting closer to installing G4HUP's (SK) IF tap board in mine. I'll take good pics of that area also.

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

I’ve wanted to mod mine but I didn’t want to live without the auto offset thing. And if the power falls off, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to do it. I think. Maybe.

 

[kopcicle]

auto offset thing? Chirp...

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

Where it does do the repeater shift or something after that mod. I can’t think of what it’s called.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

When those rigs are modded for out of band coverage for some unknown reason you lose the automatic repeater offset. I have yet to see a way to restore that function on a modded rig of those models.

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

When those rigs are modded for out of band coverage for some unknown reason you lose the automatic repeater offset. I have yet to see a way to restore that function on a modded rig of those models.

And that is exactly why I’ve never modded mine. Lazy I guess, I could enter them manually but I just don’t want to do that. I’d mod mine so I could talk on 11m but then that would be against the code of the ham, haha. I don’t talk on 11m that much though so therefore it’s unmodded.

I’d kinda like to send it back to Yaesu for them to refresh it but I could do that myself and save some money, I guess.