Not very clear in the manual in my estimate.....thanks. Odd that they have supplied separate rear and side jacks for SP/PH. I guess they decided a jack on the control head would be handy for mobile users more apt to remove the control head.
No, but I'm at the point where I'm beginning to care less about SOME statistics. If I'm pulling-out more QSO's more easily with this, than my ICOM 7300, I have to question of what value some stats are. I think it's probably all environment-dependent, though. My FT-950 sucked in the city. Simple, and rude answer, but truth. This handles the noise better (when DSP is employed). I haven't taken it to a quiet environment, yet, and it may not work as well there -- I have no idea.
Not even mentioned in the manual, at all, if memory serves. I only wondered if it was there, because the FT-857 has one, also, so I found it.
I only seem to hear this appear in the absence of any signal, at all, with the headphone up at least 3/4 of the way. Need to take it up to the mountain, to test.... I don't have any man-made noise, up there. I'm sure this could bug some people, but it's not something I notice when surfing signals at my QTH as it's far quieter than any noise I'm getting from everything else. But yes, it's there, in the headphone jack, if you don't have the antenna plugged-in. I don't hear it through the main speaker at all. Cheap jack? Doesn't bother me, at home, I guess.
See page 12 of the manual. It is not really clear that the arrow points to the side of the control unit or the rear jack on the radio.
I've used the 891 up in the mountains outside of Golden Colorado and on top of the Chatfield reservoir damn. The unit was extremely quite in these locations. I, however, have not noticed the hiss referred to at my home shack or without an antenna connected. My home shack relies on a stealth antenna and is much nosier....that's why I like to operate portable.....I get to get away from it all.
This is just plain unacceptable to me. The Yeasu 857 is a 10+ year old design that has better phase noise characteristics? IMD problems? We need to be cleaning up transmitters, not allowing them to get dirtier and dirtier...
Only really notice it through headphones, with no signal coming in, and the volume at about 3/4. I just wish we had some propagation, so I could justify heading up on the mountain, in this heat.
Set it right, and it's not a worry. Personally, I'm not entirely a fan of the coddled way my Icom 7300 treats my use the ALC, and limits talk power, for example. I like having a little freedom. The 857 isn't a lot "better" in these deparments, from what I read. The radioafiction engineer said people aren't going to notice, (I'll add, so long as you set it up as you should). His English wasn't great, but that was the jist of it. People can nit-pick a paper statistic, but the 857 costs quite a bit more, offers far fewer features, and just doesn't pull the signals out like the 891. I have no regrets, at just over $630.
To you, it's not a worry, but to the other hams out there this amounts to RF pollution. If you were a mile away from my QTH with a rig with low phase noise, we could probably share the band. With high TX phase noise, you raise the noise floor in the whole band... Not a good rig to have a multi station field day site!
Completely unrelated to the OP or the radio he reviewed... we really need to get a forum dedicated to extended user reviews. There are a lot of people posting reviews, both video and textual, in the News section. Many of them are interesting but they aren't news, and there needs to be a place for posting extended reviews, just like there are forums for antennas, software, and other topics. If nothing else, it will help collect extended reviews in one, searchable place.
And not only that, it's just unacceptable to have a modern radio design produce substandard signal quality. Yaesu just needs to get it together and fix the problem. Their history on that front isn't terribly impressive, but it still needs to be done.
I think you're overreacting. You might also note that my review talks about this being a great desktop rig. That is where I've used it. Here's a June 2017 ARRL test quote from page 55 (upper left box) from Bob Allison, which you need to read: "The transmitter does have excellent harmonic and spurious suppression, typically at or greater than 66db on the HF bands. This is always helpful during Field Day, or appreciated by your neighborhood radio amateur." I guess I'm missing where the ARRL labs finds this a rig that will, as you stated, "raise noise floor on the whole band" at a field day...
Very good job of reviewing. You answered many of my questions and concerns. Just a side note for all of the MANUAL TUNER operators out there. Take your antenna analyzer and use that in place of the radio to find the sweat spot when tuning your tuner. You will not be putting a signal on the air causing QRM and pissing off someone, you will know the width of the frequency that you have tuned to and you don't have to fuss with the transmitter. Just take a few extra minutes to put that RIGEXPERT to work and you will have it in the ball park. If you use an antenna switch, I like the Alpha Delta switches, do not leave the analyzer attached to the switch when operating the transmitter. Be safe, in theory you will be, but an ounce of prevention..... give it a try and see what using your analyzer can do for a manual antenna tuner. Happy Trails, 73, Thomas Davis - W6LDX
Agreed, but it would be nice if only people who owned the rig were allowed to comment, and not people parroting what they think statistics mean, from an armchair.
