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857d, 897d, 817nd, 706mk2g or ft100d

D

dxhound

Active Member
Nov 17, 2006
778
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Im getting ready to dive into the realm of all in one multi band radios. It seems I have too many radios (one for hf,vhf, uhf). Granted I still want to jump on the "chicken band" from time to time. I really like the yeasu lineup and am leaning toward the 857 or 897, But havent heard much from people on there AM quality. Im not too impressed with the 706 but have heard good things. I know the 100d's are excellent, but I would like to get something thats not over 6 years old. Just give me some input If you would be so kind.
73's
 

Howdy..

Although yaesu makes a decent radio
I have always used the 706 MKIIG

Although i perfer SSB
when on chicken band most my friends of that band were on AM

i never had complaints on my audio
was always told it sounded good

you might want to check out very simular thread
of someone else also asking basiclly same as you
here elsewhere on the forum

http://forum.worldwidedx.com/viewtopic.php?t=15462&highlight=

i tend to think you are looking to buy used
if not and you are ok in spending a bit more
then Icom IC-7000 is surely a amazing little radio

Anyways i ave spoken nearly all over the globe on my 706 MKIIG
and although i wasnt licenced at first as a ham when i got mine
(and heard countless people say i had way too good a radio for
simply the chicken band)

well so what..
is not a hummer too much for simply civilain needs
oh and since when is a porsche not overkill

Dont people buy and use hummers and porsches on the roads every day...

So i had a 706 MKIIG that i was using for mstly AM to keep in contact with friends and i jumped to SSB when DX was rolling in
(706 loves SSB DX and works SSB very well indeed)

but then......wasnt long before i realised i wanted my ticket

i think you have your ticket
you mentioned having too many radios to do VHF UHF

sowhether i am using it to hit repeaters 10 miles or 120 miles away...or to use on SSB simplex for VHF,UHF or HF
the 706 MKIIG works quite well

only thing now is....i stepped it up to the IC 7000 which destroys all other multiband multi mode radios out there
(for now that is)
 
thats it enough of this bs about how great the ic7000 is in every thread about small hf sets, we had this with the 706 before you upgraded/downgraded depending on ones own perspective,

i have been biting my tongue ever since you started because everybody has thier opinion and you are entitled to youres but you keep ramming this down our throats whenever you get the chance,
well i got news for ya YOU ARE TALKING SHIT MY FRIEND, and im in the mood for a ruckus

FACT they sound poor to average on tx to anybody that knows what they are listening for,

they have the pumping agc action on tx audio just like a ts2000 and 570d only faster attac/release timing so the untrained ear does not notice it so much,

to those in the know they have a sound like a commodore 64 data recorder,

i have 7 friends with them ( one BBC radio broadcast engineer ) and they all say the rx is the best small hf bar none,

some think its the closest small set to a propper radio ever made for the rx side of things but None of them are close to been happy with tx audio even compared to their mk2g's and its not just a small ways behind its big backwards step from a good transmitter,

one of them has refused to use his 7000 on voice any more, it is now his cw only radio for which he rates it very very highly for mobile/portable cw contesting,

heils, re20's, large diaphragm condensers eq's, full audio racks whatever,
dick with menu settings all week and still they sound flat lifeless no dynamic range and pumpy on tx audio,
the mk2g soundly beats it on tx audio,

the ft100d and imho the ft857 when set up right makes the 7000 sound like an expensive joke on your ears,

banging on about how the 7000 blows the other radios away just makes you look stupid to those in the know and may influence some poor soul sat on the fence unshure which radio to spend their hard earned cash on to make the wrong choice if tx audio is their main concern,

i do not know if you are just parroting what your buddies tell ya or you have heared one over the air and genuinely think they rock on tx,
i just know you are way off the mark and its time to stop jumping in every small hf thread with bs or i will join ya in every thread one way or another with counter comments to keep things TRUE,

the other thing is they all benefit from a decent mic ( i dont mean an over rated heil goldline they are pants too without external processing, dont believe me just stick one straight on your 857 and listen up against the stock mic ) the stock mics use either a 2 dollar cheap flat response condenser or a choddy dynamic element in a piss poor acoustic housing that helps spoil the overall sound quality,
ok for police/taxi radio controllers/emergency services but far from high quality ham audio,

i dont mean to offend anybody and this post will most likely be deleted as i do not have the eloquence to say this any other way,
it seems either others dont have an opinion on the 7000 tx audio or they just dont like standing up for what they believe in the public arena,

take care have a nice day ;)
 
Eham reviews from REAL users: Ic-7000 111 reviews average rating 4.4 out of 5.The Yaesu FT-857 has 190 reviews with an average rating of 4.5 out of 5. I guess all those hams on eham just don't know very much about radios if they can't see that the Icom " destroys all other multiband multi mode radios out there".


Me thinks someone suffers from the "Icom is the best radio because I own one" syndrome. Icom IS good, I have owned Icoms before but get real and put things into the proper perspective.
 
bob85 i think you need a chill pill

everyone does indeed have their opionon
seems most people Agree in the IC-7000 being an exellent radio

oh and transmitt on SSB is exellent

about the only thing i agree with you is the Heil mikes are not the end all...this dispite how most people seem to like them..

Regardless.....
My opionon is gained from usage and not here say from others

also(not that it matters) but although i am typiclly a Icom fan
(i have lots of other icom equipment)
I am not one to care for Icom's IC-703 QRP radio
rather there i think the market is owned by yaesu 817 radio

i have also rated Alinco well

So ease up dude....count to ten or whatever and have a Happy Holidays!!!
 
OK WELL.................. Back to my question about the radios mentioned. I would like a ICOM 7000 but they are way out of my price range. Stick too the new or used 650$ range
 
I have all three of the Yaesu you have listed, I also had the 706 MKIIG, in fact I am selling one. I prefer the Yaesu. The 897D or 857D are both a great choice, I bought the 897D expecting to use it portable with the battery pack, never happened. I use the 857D mostly now. It has a few more options the 706 does not have and now is much cheaper than the 706. The 817ND was not a bad rig, I sold it because 5 watts was not getting it for me especially on VHF/UHF. OH and you have to modify the 706 for 60 meter where it is included with the Yaesu. I had the FT100D and sold it like a dumb ass I am. It was a nice rig, they do not make them anymore.

Bob85, I have to agree with you,,, MY OPINION IS THIS, most IC-7000 users believe, "I just spent $1500.00 on this radio so it HAS to be good, as for eham, who really wants to give a bad report on a radio they just dished out $1500 dollars for? I mean hey, the display is kewl and I can hook it up to a monitor! Or they report it as a GREAT RIG just as a way to brag that they have the newest hottest rig out,,,,Did you read the negatives? they cook the finals, a local here had one for rx only and it started smoking.

That is my opinion, doesnt mean its right.

I would buy the 857D it is $679 at www.gigaparts.com as of today!
 
I have run the run the ICOM 706MKIIg for several years. The things that I like the most about it are, the unsolicited reports of: "Great sounding mobile." This is with the stock mic in a diesel big rig. Mic gain is set on 3, Comp is on, but set a the minimum compression level. I close talk the mic and it never goes into ALC limiting.

Rich
 
i am sure yaesu has good radios...i heard a few and trhey sounded fine....
reason i go for 706 is simple...i have been using it for years and talked all over the world with it

yes i know darn well IC-7000 not for everyone (expensive)
never heard any finals cooking...except those trying to use the same tuners the 706 can use (7000 is wired differently for tuners)
the thing that makes the 7000 so good is the DSP with all its filters
screen is cool but who cares

one need go to say 756 pro 3 or better hf radio to realistly do better then the 7000....but i like the all mode all band

would have been niceif itr had 22o and 1.2 but oh well
 
dxhound said:
Im getting ready to dive into the realm of all in one multi band radios. It seems I have too many radios (one for hf,vhf, uhf). Granted I still want to jump on the "chicken band" from time to time. I really like the yeasu lineup and am leaning toward the 857 or 897, But havent heard much from people on there AM quality. Im not too impressed with the 706 but have heard good things. I know the 100d's are excellent, but I would like to get something thats not over 6 years old. Just give me some input If you would be so kind.
73's
Click to expand...

The FT-100D is a nice rig, but does have issues with feedback and swr warnings. It's not necessarily all the rigs fault, you have to look at the whole environment. I ran a 100D in one vehicle without a hitch, bought a new car and had problems out the SO239... I ran into others who had similar experiences. You might be one of the lucky ones, if you like to gamble.

The Icom 706 is similar. I tried all 3 flavors and had terrible problems with the noise blanker. I had a A/B test with a 706 and an 897D and the yaesu was quiet on the same antenna/coax/freq that the 706 was on. However, I've talked with some that have no issues with the NB.

Icom 703/6. Like the Alinco it's HF + 6 meters only. I've owned several of these and really like them. Better NB than the 706, built-in autotuner, nice display, and I made many contacts with only 10watts output.

Alinco DX70 - This is one heck of a rig - except for the noise-blanker. It's the only rig I know of that has a NB that puts noise into your receiver (check out some of the reviews on eham).

Yaesu 897D - I've had one of these for awhile and it's been a great rig. I have the auto-tuner and internal batteries for it as well. Kinda big if you want to run mobile with it.

Yaesu 857D - Faternal twin to the 897D, only smaller for mobile use.

Yaesu 817D - Interesting rig and sometime this month I'll try it out (have had one in the box for a couple months, just no time to play around with a new rig).

I use SSB 99.9% of the time, but none of these rigs will sound great on AM. Just in case I need AM, I keep a Tube CB rig at the base and a decent solid-state CB in the mobile.

Woody
 
KingCobra_CDX882 said:
....
reason i go for 706 is simple...i have been using it for years and talked all over the world with it
Click to expand...

Not really a good reason to tote it as the greatest rig since sliced bread however. I have done exactly as you have stated and used a Heath DX-60 tube TX on AM and CW only. :p :LOL: Honestly ANY HF rig built today (or decades ago) will do the same thing but I do know what you are trying to say. I am just giving you a hard time. ;)
 
897D, 817 & the IC-7000

I own the 897D and the IC-7000, as well as the Yaesu 817. All are wonderful radios that I am glad to have. I can’t comment on the relative receive quality of my TX except to say that no one has ever mentioned to me that one sounded better than the other. I use the stock mikes, so I don’t necessarily expect to hear that my voice has that pear-shaped studio sound, or anything close to it.

I judge the 897D and the IC-7000 to be pretty much the same in quality overall, and their advantages, one over the other lie in different areas. One plus for the IC-7000 is the multi-color TFT display: it’s very impressive, and there’s even a composite video out that would allow you to feed the display into a TV – supposing you wanted to do that. The 897D display is small and, hunching over to read it is tiresome. The 897D menu tree is much more complicated than the IC-7000, and that’s another factor to consider.

As to price, when looking at the 897D at ~$899(USD), you have to include the cost of the SSB and CW filters, ~$340.00, and you’ll probably also want two internal batteries which will cost another $250.00. Even without the batteries though, the cost of the 897D with the filters (which I believe to be essential) is ~$1250.00, which is comparable to the cost of the IC-7000 that has been discounted to $1299.00 for the Christmas season, and comes with digital filters.

As to DSP – and here’s a twist – the Yaesu 817 with the W4RT bhi DSP unit beats ‘em both, within its obvious limitations.
 
one additional thing on the IC-7000
when and if you use it as QRP
it draws only 5 or 6 amps

ofcourse can always turn power up
if QRP not enought to get the job done

Oh and Paris
think i need try one of those 817

Oh and QRN.....reason i rate 706 so well....i got so many countless exellent reports with it over the years...as well as general consenious from others.....conclusion...for the money darn hard to beat...although all radios have their quirks...706 included
 

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