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Basic walk through on ft891 a great compact but complicated rig

Discussion in 'Amateur Radio News' started by KG7HVR, Dec 13, 2020.

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  1. KG7HVR

    KG7HVR Ham Member QRZ Page

    Love it or hate it. This radio is about as small as you will get new with 100w on hf.
    The menus suck. Probably one of the least intuitive radios Ive used. Yaesu needs to take notes from Icom on menus. Kenwood, hell they are owned by jvc victor. Think cheap car stereos with nothing to offer portable, mobile or compact. So that leaves us with this mess of yaesu ft891. Once set its very good. Tx audio is nice. You couldnt tell it apart from the new fake sdr FTDX101, the 991, the 1200 or 3000. Your friends wont know the difference. And it cost under $700

    Here I show you just how bad these menus are. You wont program this one driving down the road, or adjust power levels or mic gain. But is that really important?
    73

     

    Attached Files:

    VA2SS, KD5BVX, K9CTB and 4 others like this.
  2. W9WQA

    W9WQA Ham Member QRZ Page

    neat little radio. i like yaesu stuff, ill keep my retired 450d as a bedside sm/sw radio . the ic 7000,just slightly bigger goes to 450 and ill keep it too.
    with a little tuner the 7000 is great.
    too bad a standard programming mode is not used by all mfgrs huh...
    they standardize on so much other stuff, wht not...?
     
    KG4BFR and KG7HVR like this.
  3. WL7PM

    WL7PM Ham Member QRZ Page

    I'll go out on a limb:
    The YAESU FT891 is the best RECEIVER on the sub-$1200 market.
    Audio transmit quality is pretty good, not quite on par with an IC7300.
    The FT891 Receiver will pull out COPYable signals that the IC7300 doesn't know are there.
    All the features of the FTdx3000 are IN the '891, but you have to juggle menus to get 'em.
     
    K9EZ, W8NSI, VA2SS and 20 others like this.
  4. KG7HVR

    KG7HVR Ham Member QRZ Page

    I definitely agree with you. Not much is on par with the 7300 tx audio at any price. The audio heard is what sells the them. I like the 7300 alot.
     
    VA2SS likes this.
  5. 2E0EUG

    2E0EUG XML subscriber QRZ Page

    I have one of these mobile and its a love hate relationship, I hate the tune that obscures the display when using a tuner, how the hell can I see where I am tuning ? Also the noise blanker is awful, also the DSP settings are lost when moving bands, on the plus side its got a nice clear display, auto turn off in case you forget so you dont flatten your car battery and 100w and removable front panel, I just wish Yaesu would fix that bloody awful TUNE that completely covers the frequency when the tuner kicks in
     
    KK9W and KG7HVR like this.
  6. G4USI

    G4USI Ham Member QRZ Page

    Had one, enjoyed it for a while and then sold it because of the bl**dy menus! Used to drive me mad!
     
    KG7HVR and K3EY like this.
  7. K8QS

    K8QS Premium Subscriber QRZ Page

    KG7HVR likes this.
  8. KZ4TN

    KZ4TN XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    Had one, sold it to purchase an FT-897D. Missed it for portable operating so I bought another one. The audio is great, the ratio of physical size to power output is one of my favorite features. The menu can be a bit cumbersome but that’s the trade-off for size. The selectivity is fine with me and the DSP works good enough. My primary rig is the FTDX-1200, but for portable HF (when I don’t need VHF/UHF) it’s the FT-891 hands down. At a weight of 4 lbs…..and throw in the pack a 3 lb 12Ah Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery and a couple of lbs of accessories (10 lbs total) and I can run 50 W SSB for an afternoon in the mountains.
     
    WA4UF, OE1RSH, W8NSI and 6 others like this.
  9. N4THC

    N4THC XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    I had one as a mobile rig. Coupled with a properly (bonded in multiple places) installed ATAS 120A, I had a lot of fun using it. I sold it when I no longer had a long drive. If it did not have the assignable hot keys on that front panel, I would have hated it.
     
    KG7HVR, KB8AJR and KZ4TN like this.
  10. K7IRC/SK2022

    K7IRC/SK2022 Ham Member QRZ Page

    Have had mine now for over a year and will say those of you who cannot get over your anti-menu attitude just don't show ham ingenuity. Found menus fairly well laid out (not perfect of course - but what is?) and very useful when needed. With the manual in hand found them relatively straight forward, understandable (mostly) and provide great functionality. Won't be selling mine soon if at all. It has a permanent spot on my operating desk and I use it almost daily. Have a go box built right into my casket so taking it with me.
     
    K9EZ, W8NSI, N6SPP and 17 others like this.
  11. SA4MDN

    SA4MDN Ham Member QRZ Page

    Never had any problems with menu settings and my 891,857,817, find them all pretty easy,
    if you don't want to loose your dsp settings just push in the multi knob and spin it to change bands that way, all your settings remain the same
     
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2020
    KA8UGB and K1BQY like this.
  12. WU3U

    WU3U Premium Subscriber QRZ Page

    I had one for a while and it was a great radio. I think the filtering is better than my 7300. I just got tired of the menus which I eventually got used to. The worst part of the radio is the two seconds you have to change bands. Still the best band for your buck in the price range.
     
    KV0X, KA8UGB and K4FMH like this.
  13. K4FMH

    K4FMH Premium Subscriber QRZ Page

    Love mine. Menus are just something to learn. They are Yaesu style...so my ft-857d and ft-450d are a good learning curve. But my 7300 and 570SG are just new menu systems to learn for me.
     
    W8TJM, KG7HVR and KD5TXX like this.
  14. KB2YCF

    KB2YCF XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    I just bought this radio on sale and love it! I made contact to Argentina over (5000 miles) and South Africa (over 8000 miles) away during mobile operation on 10 meters the first week of ownership. The menus are not that bad as you make it out to be. I was using it quickly without reading the manual and only had to look up a few menu settings I needed. Locals operators report I sound just as good as the FT-991A. Anyone interested in buying one don't hesitate. It's a nice small compact radio that gets out to the world.
     
    W8LSR, DL3DCT, KA8UGB and 1 other person like this.
  15. WA3JKB

    WA3JKB Platinum Subscriber Platinum Subscriber QRZ Page

    I use the FT-891 as my primary transceiver. For base station use, the key is to couple the 891 with a good rig control program. I have used HRD Rig Control, FLRig, N4PY, and DXLabs Commander successfully. I'm currently using N4PY Rig Control which allows me to interface with SDR Console (using an SDRPlay RSPdx) , JTDX or FLDigi, and Log4OM simultaneously.
    With this setup, menus are not a problem. I can click with the mouse for almost anything I need. The RSPdx and SDR Console combo gives me a first class panadapter. Just added an LDG auto-tuner which works great with ATAS, and with the excellent receive capability of this compact radio, there isn't anything I would trade for under $1500 (well maybe an FT-991a).
     
    KV0X likes this.

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