Basic walk through on ft891 a great compact but complicated rig

I've used the 891 about 3 yrs now. Mainly c w and it is awesome. Especially for the price I paid with a free heil mic. Don't fiddle with the menus so no issue for me

 

You don't need a soundcard interface with the FT891. Just buy the CT39A packet cable and install a couple of 1/8" plugs on the proper wires. Then plug it into the digital port on the radio and into your soundcard on the computer. You can use CAT control to do the PTT switching, or the FT891 has a digital VOX circuit you can use to put the rig in transmit when the computer starts the transmit audio.

There, you just saved yourself $100 and have one less box on top of the radio now.

73 John AF5CC

 

I have a Yaesu FT-891 and love it. Menus are menus and the Advanced Manual is great. I use it daily. Have 45A Anderson-Powerpoles both in truck and in shack - and I take the radio with me often. In the mobile I talk all over the USA and Canada with ease (Hustler RM-40s antenna on truck). Once the menus are set, there is no need to keep changing things. If I can hear them, I can usually talk to them with only 100 watts - mic works great. If someone wants to do digital communications, probably should be the Icom 7300 - the Yaesu doesn't have a soundcard built in. I love the radio and it is very popular with POTA activations. Compact, lightweight, affordable, and works GREAT!

 

I think it would be great if the 891 had a built in sound card. But I really don't see why it's such a big deal that it's not there -- it's a minor inconvenience.

I picked up an audio splitter cable, a tiny sound card dongle, and a DIN connector... probably $20 or so. And I can do FT8, RTTY, PSK31, etc, no problem.

Sure it's an extra bit of cabling, but in the grand scheme of things is pretty insignificant. It's certainly not enough to justify hundreds of dollars more for a radio that has one built in.

Pick the IC-7300 because if it's waterfall, or is nice audio reports, the accessible knobs and buttons, or something else. But its value must assuredly be much more than the usb sound card interface! I'd expect it to be nicer to the tune of the extra $400 it costs, not because it obviate the need for 6" of extra cabling!

 

Yeuck!!!!! Thats why i dont buy yaesu radios.
For the same money you can buy a second hand ic706mk2g if you have enough force to pry it out of the hands of a dying fighting om.
Seriously, all those options of how to screw up the radio. Why not just have a few automatic set up modes, that detect the background interference (as per your video) and select the correct filters to knock out that grisley electrical interference in the background.
Again i say long live the 706mk2g, the best mobile/base/marine/aircraft/portable radio ever made... Or am i a bit biased. Perhaps the fact ive bought 4 or 5 of them over the past 25 years, and still prefer them over everything else...

 

I like the easy to read display but wish you could change the color to something more night driving friendly than cold white.

 

I bought one of these to operate ft-8 on while our new house was being built and my usual FTdx-1200 was packed away somewhere in one of the storage units we had. I liked the 891 so much that I was in no hurry at all to find the 1200. I'm going to keep my 891 for field ops. Great little radio.

 

Deal! I'll pay shipping from your QTH to mine!!!!

 

what kind of final transistors are built into the Yaesu FT891 ?
i'm asking because i wonder what RF Power those can put out on 20m.
often its well above the 100Watt, these final transistors in the transceivers would be capable of putting out throughout HF, if the output wasnt limited to 100watt. i think of doing a power mod to a 891 to get more RF power out of it, it the finals are capable of that.

how steep are the filters for the audio in the transmitter of the 891? does the 891 transmit audio frequencies like about 80Hz? i have a studio mic and want to use more of its wider range.

i would have to do a long search on the net to find that information, maybe someone here would know.

 

Once the ft-891 is dialed in for your use its nice. Just leave the crazy menu alone once your set.
See out of the box fresh to the owner this menu is a task, imagine if no you tube and getting this radio.
The no#1 issue beside complex menu. "Also who likes that owners manual? Use bookmarks.
1# The mic plug should be on otter left of face plate DTME Mic standard with freq direct entry.
2# A one touch Mode button on front panel to select FM AM USB ad LSB CW Ect always. no matter memory or vfo.
3# 6 and 10 meter fm repeater splits should be 1 touch button front panel with split + or - .
Though Yaesu discontinuing 4 radios this year alone is bad the price is what makes the ft-891 a radio survivor.
Enrty level operators can't jump $600 to $1299 expenses cause of just quitting blindly on the FT 450D .
But while its here enjoy the FT- 891 best you can.
-
FT 450D Gone
FTM 100DR Gone
FTM 3200DR Gone
FTM 3207DR Reacently Gone (all not in stores Sad.)

The music at beginning of video was cool grunge sounding.
Right out 1994 ish nice who was that in mix? .

 

Looking at the schematic in the service manual, it looks like two RD100HHF1s in a push-pull configuration.

 

I ran cat control via wsjt-x with no problems until about a week ago when I went back to my FTdx-1200. I found the menus and overall operation easy on the 891.

 

I have owned one for a few years now have it in my semi truck using a Tarheel screwdriver antenna all I can say this little radio can take a beating and never miss a beat great radio for the money nothing really comes close. As far as the menus go big deal there are only a few things I change while driving and I have those set into shortcuts once you get it all set up there is no need to keep going into the menu.

I wish there was other colors other than white for the screen display at night when driving even with the display turned down it gets a little hard on the eyes and if the screen was just a little bit bigger it would be better but it is not to bad. I have recently purchased a FT-2000 in pristine condition with all the updates for the base station was going to get a FT-3000 but I always wanted a FT-2000 I saved 900.00 and all I really do at home is rag chew anyway.

I hooked up the FT-891 at home and compared it to the Ft-2000 side by side and I have to say the FT-2000 is only slightly better in some ways a lot better in others and not as good as the FT-891 in things like auto notch, dnr, and the NB seems to be better in the FT-891 at least in my case. In the end the Ft-2000 is better but not by as much as you would think most people would not even notice. What they would notice is the price difference!

Like it or not for the most part today's starter rigs like the Ft-891 are on par if not better in many ways (NOT ALL) than the high end rigs 10 to 15 years ago look at it this way to get the performance the 891 delivers 15 years ago would have cost you over $2000.00! If your looking for a mobile radio nothing beats the Ft-891 for the money is it perfect no but find me a mobile rig that is for a little over $600.00 new out the door.

 

I only operate in CW, with nothing else than key, antenna and power cable connected to the rig, and I am interested in something that I could not find in the previous postings, nor in the Base and Advanced manuals.
How does the operator change the selectivity: is it possible to go from the default width to "narrow" (and maybe "narrow 2"), and then back to the default one, just pushing a button, or turning a knob, or is one obliged to go through a menu for any single change?
Or maybe the three available buttons can be (through menu choices) set up to choose among different widths?
Many operators, including myself, use the normal base selectivity, and switch to narrower selectivity (usually 500Hz, 250 Hz), when qrm shows up, going back to normal when the qrm has gone away.
It would also be interesting to know which CW selectivity or selectivities are available in the rig, and if one needs to buy accessory filters to have more choices.
Thank you !
Sandro, i7ALE

 

I agree with the menu stuff Great radio, but not for the faint hearted menu person, thanks a lot Yaesu....?