ft-817 blown finals?

[ND1W]

I decided to combine my two favorite hobbies, ham radio and hiking, so after selling off some extra gear that's been accumulating I headed off to Nearfest on a quest to find an ft-817. I found a clean used one that turned on and was assured by the seller it was in perfect working order. After throwing together a 20m dipole a few days later I had no luck making any contacts so I chalked it up to band conditions. After spending a few days learning the menus and settings I tried again...no luck...after changing the meter to read power I realized it shows no power. I hooked it up to my base set-up and it shows no out-put on my meter, I then tuned my G5 to a 3-1 SWR and the SWR meter on the 817 showed no response. I then tried 2m and not only was there no measurable out-put but it won't tune past 145.999. So before I send it out or attempt replacing the pa board myself I thought throw it out here and see if anyone had other suggestions.
Thanks for any help!

[KF5FEI]

You did have the correct antenna port selected, right? The ND model should have shown a high SWR message if you didn't, but not sure about the older ones. The older ones did have issues with the internal battery getting low and the finals going into self-oscillation / self-destruction. The new PA boards solve the issue, and are supposed to be fairly easy to replace.

[ND1W]

I had the correct antenna port selected, after some more research I'm pretty sure it's the finals just gotta find a new one..Thanks

[KB8YVC]

You should join the yahoo group for the FT-817. It's a WEALTH of knowledge for the 817!! There are lots of threads of folks changing the finals on there. You may have a driver problem too. It appears the board is in the $45 range from Yaesu.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FT817/

As to not tuning past 145.999, someone may have tried to broadband the rig and changed it to a different countries spec. This is from the owners manual, 144 MHz-148 (146) MHz (Other markets).


I wanted to add 60 Meters to mine (Old FT-817, non ND model), so I found the CT-62 used at Universal radio, and used the Widebander software to open up my radio so I could TX on 60 Meters. That might get you around that tuning block. You have to perform a full reset, so you will lose your memories, but you can back them up if you have the CAT cable


Here's a great FT-817 website by KA7OEI, and there's a PDF file close to the bottom of the page that has detailed install instructions for the finals.

http://www.ka7oei.com/ft817_rfpa.html

[ND1W]

Thanks for your input, I have a cat cable on the way and will join the yahoo user group. Just emailed Yaesu so hopefully I can get a board soon