Attention all Ft-857d users

[KG4ULT]

Hello all. My name is Frank and i currently live in Puerto Rico. I bought a new in box from AES last year an 857d. I had the radio only 2 months when i had to send it in for repairs. The v/u final went out detector diode for s-meter and the v/u pre-amp. I recieved the radio month or so later. I did not use the radio for about a month or so after that being as which i was waiting on a better antenna. I cranked up the radio again and guess what? same problem. I left radio on receive only for about an hour monitoring one of the local repeaters and as radio heats up s-meter starts to fluctuate then finally drops out after an hour or so. Well last month i sent radio in and same repairs were made on it with the exception of the pre-amp for v.uhf. It took them a whole month to get radio back to me. Now i received the radio 2-3 days ago. I left radio on all night to monitor the same local repeaters and radio was fine, it did get warm but nothing alarming. S-meter was steady all night. Then i started to talk on it for about an hour or so. After that i wanted to leave radio on receive like i always do to listen to the local stuff on repeaters and i noticed the radio got really hot! I mean all over...pl connectors in the back, heatsink, front panel and all over the body of the radio. So i call up Yaesu again and inform them of the problem. Not only do i have to go through the whole crap of re-shipping radio again, the rep had the nerve to try and raise her voice at me-I squared that away real quick though- anyhow i explained symptoms again to tech and he stated sounds like the same components went out again. Oh and when i received the radio initially a small spring fell out of it ? What the (*&)(*&)**&(%$# is a spring doing inside the radio. Anyhow the reason i am posting this is to ask all of you. If you can please try and simulate the same conditions as i have here to see if same happens.

Tune in a repeater that comes in clear at least and S-8 or S-9 and just leave the radio on receive there. Every now and again key up and announce yourself and also watch when repeater identifies itself. Observe the Smeter and see if you notice any fluctuations in signal and also monitor the temp of rig. Touch it and see if it gets hot all over including the pl connectors in the rear panel. Now my serial number is a 4L-----2. I am not sure if it is an all around factory defect or just that lot came out bad. I am not trying to stir up any trouble i just want a working radio. I mean i did pay 750 for it you know. I deserve to at least have the radio in use at least a year before it goes bad. Not 2 months. Rig has spent more time at Vertex Standard than in my hands. So if you can help me out on this i would really appreciate it. Your rig might be damaged and you dont even know it. I am sure if this was one of you, you'd do the same as i. Oh and they aren't even considering giving me a new radio eventhough mine turned out to be a lemon. And i can't sell this one until it is fixed right. Please help!!! If you have any questions please feel free to email me at KG4ULT@yahoo.com or arrl.net

Thank you
Frank

[w7lpn]

Sorry, you just got a lemon. My has worked great for nearly a year.

[w8wlc]

Frank, sorry you did get a bad one. I had my last 857D over a year and kept it powered up pretty much 24/7 with no problems. I been fighting the urge to get another one.

[N2ACX]

I have had my 857D for 6 months and some and it was back to the factory for a failure in the FM circuitry causing no audio unless you went into squelch and opened it up, it also had no, zero, decoupling between the U/V and HF inputs. The noise blanker before I sent it in was not working.

I got it back and the noise blanker removes 100% of the pulse interference. The decoupling is great. This was just a fluke. Iam keeping this radio for the simple reason that it has alot of features for the money. The service from Vertex Standard was great.

I ordered the 300Hz CW filter with the radio originally, but found out I don't need it. This radio works so well without any filtering for CW, I would recommend it to anyone.

The DSP functions are great, the only upgrade later I would like to see is a really effective audio notch filter, but fortunantly I don't run into hetrodynes that often.

Overall recommendation.......the FT857D is a great radio and worth every penny of the under a thousand price I paid for it.

73 Gary........ N2ACX

[LY2BIG]

hmmm...mine works fine here almost 18 month... great small toy for camping & mobile. Dont expect it to beat IC-7800 http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[WA7VTD]

You got a lemon, all right! I would harass the heck out of them to simply swap it out for a new one. Don't expect them to comply...but that would be the decent thing to do.

I love my FT-897D, use it inthe field al lthe time, not a lick of trouble.

BTW...I presume you have checked such things as your line voltage, power supply output, etc., to ensure that nothing at your QTH is potentially creating the problem?

The only one of the three major rice-burner rig manufacturers from which I have had stellar customer service has been Icom. I've called Yaesu and not been able to speak to anyone very conversant in English, then waited a VERY long time (3 months!) for return of the radio from repair, only to have the same problem develop within days. Kenwood has done a very good job resolving repair issues but again, extremely difficult to get anyone on the line to discuss a problem, and a long wait (10-12 weeks) for turnaround on gear sent in for repair.

Icom, on the other hand, has at times sent small parts for free, has never taken more than 10 days for turnaround on major repairs, and always has a tech available on the phone. Further, an "incident number" is assigned to each inquiry and correspondence with the tech continues thereafter via email. A few years ago, finals went south on an IC-730 and when I got it back in a mere week, the tech had also changed out the T/R relay with an upgraded version and done other simple upgrades, aligned the radio, and even replaced all of the cabinet hardware...all those extras at no charge.

- Kevin WA7VTD