Yeah 857d

[Tom McCarty]

Am setting for 857d everyone says it's low power.can anyone tell me how to setup for loud sound.they just can't hear me. Have made Mars jump.

 

[Robb]

Wrong radio for that game - IMO . . .

 

[vkrules]

Robb said it.
HF radios are not AM audio monsters but you can get acceptable audio out of them.
Set your carrier at about 15 to 20 watts.and go from there. Dont try to modulate anywhere near 100 watts.

 

[RatsoW8]

Shoulda bought a $50 CB.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I did manage to get my FT-857D to sound half decent on AM but it took some fine tuning of the TX EQ settings and filters as well as entering into the service menu which i do NOT recommend anyone do unless you know what you are doing and document settings first. These settings are specific to the individual radio and each unit is different. It can be made to sound acceptable but will never sound LOUD. Keep the carrier to no more than 25 watts and preferably around 20 watts. Anything more will cause the ALC to activate on voice peaks and the audio will sound mushy and like crap.

 

[BBB]

For starters, totally disregard the Yaesu 100 watt output claim. I've found that any ALC trigger messes up the audio on AM. You can witness this with your power meter set to Average power instead of Peak power. You will see undesired back swing. Now if you set the mic gain low enough and the carrier power low enough as to not trigger the ALC at all, it will indeed sound pretty good. You should start seeing some forward swing. Now bare in mind this only happens at about 5-7 watts AM carrier and the mic gain way, way down.

If you understand that this yields you only about 20-25 watts of swing with a correct 1:4 carrier to PEP watts ratio, you now have something to work with. This is similar in power to a standard dual final export radio. As a bonus, the audio bandwidth is usually wider on a Yaesu than an unmodified CB when a quality desk mic is used. Audio bandwidth can be set even wider in the menu if applicable.

Treat it as mentioned above, get a Turner or Astatic power desk mic, run it into a clean properly sized linear amplifier and you may be surprised at the AM audio you can achieve with the Yaesu 857/897 series of transceivers.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

For starters, totally disregard the Yaesu 100 watt output claim. I've found that any ALC trigger messes up the audio on AM. You can witness this with your power meter set to Average power instead of Peak power. You will see undesired back swing. Now if you set the mic gain low enough and the carrier power low enough as to not trigger the ALC at all, it will indeed sound pretty good. You should start seeing some forward swing. Now bare in mind this only happens at about 5-7 watts AM carrier and the mic gain way, way down.

If you understand that this yields you only about 20-25 watts of swing with a correct 1:4 carrier to PEP watts ratio, you now have something to work with. This is similar in power to a standard dual final export radio. As a bonus, the audio bandwidth is usually wider on a Yaesu than an unmodified CB when a quality desk mic is used. Audio bandwidth can be set even wider in the menu if applicable.

Treat it as mentioned above, get a Turner or Astatic power desk mic, run it into a clean properly sized linear amplifier and you may be surprised at the AM audio you can achieve with the Yaesu 857/897 series of transceivers.

Most of these radios will sound half decent with a little more than 5-7 watts of carrier, at least in my experience, I have run up to 15 watts before crap starts to happen in the form of ALC action. The service menu settings I mentioned above will allow you to change the point at which the ALC kicks in and will make a big difference in the sound quality on AM. Just for the record I do NOT recommend or condone changing anything within this service menu unless you have fully documented all settings and configurations before doing so. You can really turn your rig into an expensive paperweight if you screw up.

One thing most newcomers to an F rig do not understand is the carrier versus 100% modulated power. The vast majority seem to think that if the radio is rated for 100 watts then that is what they should see on their wattmeter when they throw a carrier on AM. That 100 watts is PEAK power and a fully modulated carrier is four times the peak value then it follows that the carrier should be no more than 25 watts to hit that 100 watt peak output on AM. I have seen, and heard, far too many radios where the operators tried to squeeze 75 watts or more of carrier and then complain about the crappy audio.

 

[Tom McCarty]

Thanks,set radio like you said & got great reviews.just wanted to have only 1 radio in truck & also my Ranger 2950 has to got in for agc repair.have great day

 

[BBB]

Most of these radios will sound half decent with a little more than 5-7 watts of carrier, at least in my experience, I have run up to 15 watts before crap starts to happen in the form of ALC action. The service menu settings I mentioned above will allow you to change the point at which the ALC kicks in and will make a big difference in the sound quality on AM. Just for the record I do NOT recommend or condone changing anything within this service menu unless you have fully documented all settings and configurations before doing so. You can really turn your rig into an expensive paperweight if you screw up.

One thing most newcomers to an F rig do not understand is the carrier versus 100% modulated power. The vast majority seem to think that if the radio is rated for 100 watts then that is what they should see on their wattmeter when they throw a carrier on AM. That 100 watts is PEAK power and a fully modulated carrier is four times the peak value then it follows that the carrier should be no more than 25 watts to hit that 100 watt peak output on AM. I have seen, and heard, far too many radios where the operators tried to squeeze 75 watts or more of carrier and then complain about the crappy audio.

I saw that ALC setting in the service menu. About how far did you vary your setting?

I understand to document the original factory setting before adjustment and that those factory settings vary for each transceiver.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I saw that ALC setting in the service menu. About how far did you vary your setting?

I understand to document the original factory setting before adjustment and that those factory settings vary for each transceiver.

Don't really remember now as it has been a few years since I did it but it was not just a smidge. Radio is not even hooked up right now (no antennas up) so I can't even check the settings at the moment.

 

[BBB]

Looks like entries 53-58 in the service menu adjust the ALC high SWR trigger set points for various the bands. Increasing the values allows the SRW to be higher than factory set points before the ALC fold back. This increases the chance of a problem with an antenna mismatch though.

There is also a mod to add some more delay to the ALC circuit that keeps the high SWR triggering at factory levels for equipment longevity. This is achieved by adding a 10uf capacitor in parallel to the ALC delay capacitor C1051 according to DG2IAQ (or is it C1061?? He lists both, but I'm sure one is a type error. Need to confirm with the schematic) I haven't done this mod yet but will probably try it.

DG2IAQ has lots of mods for the Yaesu 857/897 series documented if you search his call sign up.

This is just one set of the mods listed above and can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_...zgxLWI5OWEtODRkODJjYmE1YzI2/view?pref=2&pli=1

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I forget the menu number but you want to adjust AM ALC. Leave the SWR settings alone.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

OK I tried to find the service menu settings online and guess where I found them? RIGHT HERE!! LOL

http://www.worldwidedx.com/threads/yaesu-ft-857-897-am-operation.59303/
http://www.worldwidedx.com/threads/yaesu-ft-857-897-am-operation.59303/
The FT-857/897 radios have a hidden menu. It is turned OFF by factory default. You may enable it by entering the regular menu mode by pressing the [FUNC] button for a second or so. Advance to menu item #1 and rotate main tuning dial so that the display says ON. Press [FUNC] button again to exit menu mode. Turn radio OFF. Press and hold buttons [A] and [C] under the display while turning radio back on. The radio will emit a series of beeps and enter the hidden service menu mode.

CAUTION: DO NOT MAKE ANY ADJUSTMENTS TO ANYTHING IN THIS MENU WITHOUT FIRST COPYING THE DEFAULT SETTING! THIS IS A SERVICE MODE AND THE SETTINGS ARE UNIQUE TO EVERY RADIO.

Advance to menu item #60 which is the AM carrier level ALC control. The display should show something like:AM-CAR-LEVEL 125 AM 21.225.13

Note that the value of 125 is unique and will change from one radio
to the next. Mine was set to 142. While monitoring the ALC level
press the PTT and adjust the main tuning knob for little or no
ALC indication. This will allow the carrier to peak to something near
100-120 watts like it should. I had to set my radio to 96. The
problem is that the factory settings limit the carrier to 25-30
watts and the ALC will not allow it to peak any higher as it
should be able to do. After making the adjustment press the
[FUNC] button again to exit the setup for that menu item and
turn the radio OFF. Turn the radio back on normally and enjoy
MUCH better quality AM transmissions. I find it best to not
use the processor or if you do use very light processing on AM.
You may also find it useful to set the radio to use the DSP settings
for TX as well as that allows you to tailor the high and low
limits of your audio.

Prior to making this simple change I had very muffled audio
on AM. After, I had MUCH improved audio that was no longer muffled and the power meter actually moved with modulation.
Above all keep the carrier to no more than 25-30 watts with around 20 watts being preferred.