Widespread defective equipment, or run of bad luck

i can see there being fools out there that cant figure out which end is up on their radio but to as far as saying that this whole group is wrong in their complaints is nuts. if there was a 50/50 ratio of complaints to happy customers then i could agree, but clearly theres plenty of horror stories out there.

i think we have some yaesu employees in here.

robert ke4mcl

 

A check on the repeater, here in my local area, reveals 23 folks who have the Yaesu 8100 and seems like the death toll on that rig is quite high and every one of the broke rig owners(15) was fairly angry at the whole "send it off to calif" experiance.

My informal chat on Yaesu rigs counted for 58 contacts with 23 8100 owners, 15 vx5, 11 FT-100 owners, and 9 others. No Ft-100 or Vx5 problems. But once the discussion got to the 8100 several guys called their friends and we had a big Yaesu bash for about an hour. Man some of those guys were really hot.

An interesting note: most of the 8100's were replaced by Icom's IC2800H dual bander. Also almost every one of the broke 8100 owners were NOT aware that they were part of a fairly large group.

OK time for my soap box some more:

I do NOT work for Yaesu.... just a very happy owner and glad I don't have an 8100.

I do work for the U.S. Army as an Operational Test Officer. We test every thing from shoe laces to advanced attack helicopters.

So what do we have here on this forum? On first glance it looks like there is a design flaw in the 8100. I find many more folks with the FT-100 over a year old and working properly and the same appears to be true of the vx5 HT though there are scatered reports of DOA and high swr/ low power problems, mostly resolved by Yaesu.

If I had invested $449 in the 8100 (instead I went with the sexy IC2800H for $399) I probably would be tracking down the leadership of Yaesu/Vertex Standard and getting loaded for BEAR. I would get a list of users who had lost usage of their radio and had the repair bills to PROVE it. I would get a Lawyer friend to draft a legal sounding letter on behalf of the 25-50 users and see what the Vice president of USA Marketing had to say. First rule: emotional name calling don't work. Second rule: money (sales) talks. Third rule: Don't set unreasonable expectations (they only OWE you a WORKING $449 radio).

Like KR4WM, I do a fair amount of "fixing" radios for my "friends". I will tell you my EXPERIANCE tells me that MOST of the mobile problems I see can be PREVENTED. Do NOT mount on the dash(hot,cold,hot,cold....).
Feed the rig HIGH AMP DC power, this means short as possible 10 or 8 guage wire direct to the battery(speaker wire or ciggerette lighter outlet are no no's). 21 feet of thin coax coiled and crushed under the seat WILL cause problems. Same with bare end twisted to the antenna and not waterprofed. Moisture will WICK down the outer braid shield and cause grief. MOdern automobiles are not grounded worth a frig. The entire body is painted and I promise you the electrical ground between the trunk lid and body is very high resistance. You must add grounding straps to get a LOW resistance (ohm) path back to the battery and radio (DC and RF grounds). There are many components inside your minitureized transciever that do NOT like moisture and will short or corrode and die. If you frequently get in the car or truck and have to use the DEFROSTER to get all the moisture off your windshield that should let you know that the insides of your $$$$$ miniture radio are wet also.

Yaesu and ICOM make many fine products, I am also a Ford and Nissan fan, I prefer Sony home electronics, and Dale Jarret is the Only Real NASCAR driver! So there!
73

 

Just came upon this post, and I've had no problems from any of the Yeasu radios I purchased. I have a FT2500, FT 90, FT8500 (reg. mic), and the FT100, FT530, and FT50R H/T's. The FT530 is my very first ham radio, and the FT2500 was the first mobil rig I purchased. All of my radios are working like new. (except for the H/T batteries)
I am dissapointed in Yeasu for discontinuing accessoires for the FT8500, as I recently found out trying to get a relocation kit for the faceplate.
I guess I've been lucky so far(everything crossed not just fingers) However, a friend of mine just sent his new FT7100 back! He bought it a few months back, and recently opened the box to use the radio as a base unit in his shack. Something wasn't right with it right out of the box. He sent it in for warranty.
I am sorry to hear that so many had problems with their Yeasu's. I'm glad I've missed that boat! (so far)


Troy

 

Brand new Yaesu FT-920. Failed in less than a week.

Brand new Yaesu VL-1000 Quadra Amplifier failed on
20th day. Cost $4000.

Yaesu Service- Chip Margolis...worthless idiot.


Enough said... This says it all.
Robert WD9IDV

 

WD9IDV has hit the nail on the head. Quite squarely so. It has been herein documented to be the case that Yaesu? VERTEX? in general is the problem and NOT "first level techs" as WD9IDV has proposed. Maybe this is not all that bad if you are an electronics guru such as KR4WM; but not all of us (by any means) have been blessed with his degree of electronic aptitude.  It is the Yaesu/VERTEX company itself that has posed this  problem. It is not right for them to blame the customer for their own bad design, , incompetent engineering, rampant unreliability, and abysmally poor service. All this is THEIR responsibility. Yaesu/VERTEX clearly has a penchant for placing the customer on the defensive. And this penchant is nothing but an outright scam that is designed to avoid their own responsibility. I, too, have had monumental problems with the FT-8100R. So far Yaesu? VERTEX? has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING except to tell me how wonderful that radio is. If this is the best they can do, they should go out of business and let a creative company such as ALINCO fill the vacuum created by their departure. --66 to Yaesu-- or is it VERTEX?

 

Note to RPC: The Yaesu/VERTEX FT-90 is a very small radio-- perhaps the smallest dual bander. Radio Shack also makes a very small rig, particularly their 2m single. This rig is *about* the size of the FT-90. Radio Schack also is making a dual bander that is small. Although there are those who criticize "Rat Shack" because they are not "amateur purists", i have owned several of their radios. Not as good as ICOM or Kenwood, but definitely VASTLY superior to Yaesu/VERTEX. Plus, they do offer an excellent warranty which they will indeed honor. Is this not better than Yaesu/VERTEX by a damn site? Good Luck!!

 

i own a few rat shack radios, htx202,404,200,400 and i'm happy with all of them. the dual band ht is on clearance but that one seems to have problems. funny thing, that one looks alot like the current standard stuff. standard is part of the yaesu/vertex clan now.

seems like the yaesu quality went down hill when all these mergers started. i own a 2500 mobile and it works great. my vx1 works great but has a poor battery contact design so i have to bend the contact every now and then to keep it working.

i wouldnt buy any current YAEHOO product currently being made though. icom has given me excellent service so i have no reason to deviate ;-)

ke4mcl

 

I GOT A RESPONSE FROM YAESU

maybe we did get someones attention! i sent them an email advising them of what was going on at the qrz webpage and that at one point i was considering buying a vx7 when it came out but after reading all the bad experiences, i'm going to buy the kenwood th6 instead. i pointed out the comments of poor customer service amongst other things. well, below is the response i got from the vice president of yaesu.

Dear Mr. Cruz,

I was sorry to read your message and disappointed that you have arrived at the conclusions
you have. Our VX-7R is going to be a very nice product. It is following in the footsteps of the
very successful and widely acclaimed VX-5R. In fact the VX-5R is the number one selling
Tri-Band Handie available on the market today.

While we are not perfect (no manufacturer is) we do for the most part manufacture a quality
product that customers are pleased with and more importantly we stand behind. We have
recently moved to a new corporate headquarters. This combined with some personnel
losses in our technical department have caused our repair center to be slower than usual.
However, we have begun to see a light at the end of the tunnel and are experiencing dramatic
improvements in our repair turn around times.

It is certain that the FT-7100M has not met every customer’s expectations. It is also certain
that we will stand behind the product up to and including refunding a customer’s money if they
are not satisfied with the product.

We want and need your business. YAESU is the worlds largest producer of amateur radios..
I hope you will reconsider your purchase decision and give the VX-7R a chance to prove it will
meet your expectations.

Sincerely,


Todd W. Crocker KG6JIH

Vice President

YAESU USA

Amateur Division of Vertex Standard


i wonder if kg6jih has any post in this thread??
i'm still leary and i'll wait for other hams to guinea pig the vx7. my money is going on the kenwood. if icom built something similar (i hate the t81, too hard to use that multipad thingy) i would buy it with no worries.

ke4mcl

 

Here is my experience with the Yaesu 8100 series: I have had four or five of these radios. I think they are superior in ease of use and flexability. I use the 8100 on my base requently for crossband repeating around town and other hams use it too. Problem one: The dual concentric for either band can be easily broken if you bump them too hard. problem two:Occasionally when I key up, the entire diplay goes blank except for "0.0" what this is doing I dont know, but shut down and power up and its ok for a while. Problem three: Intermittant audio distortion in the crossband mode... but only when a signal is coming in on UHF, never coming in on VHF. Problem four: Not often, but ocassionally the display will show nonsense. Problem five: Not enough cooling capacity even on low pwr, about 4/5 watts, the rig gets too hot, so I have a 3" muffin fan blowing on the rear, then its happy. I think DCS would be nice too.. Its a really nice radio but too many glitches. I am going to try an Alinco next as they seem to be the only other manufacturer that builds a crossband rig any more. better luck next time?? 73' N8PCA

 

Oh Boy, I don't feel so bad after reading other hams experience with Yaesu's.
I went through two 8100's before I got frustrated and changed brands. The first 8100 stopped transmitting on both bands after a few transmissions and wouldn't recover unless you powered it off and waited 30 minutes to cool, I promptly returned it for a replacement 8100. Guess what, the second 8100 had a intermittient receive this time and the symtom was like the VCO would stop working. I took it back and got a Kenwood.
I've had to send back to Yaesu a FT-50 for transmit problems, two VX-5rs for PL/DCS decode problems, a VX-1r that would reset its CPU randomly. I've now switched to Kenwood.
73, Duane WA6EIK