Ive had my 991a since last November and I am still experimenting with the capibilities. I have installed an old EV 676 "Jim Morrison" microphone and entered the EQ settings that HEIL recomends for a studio mic and I've got nothing but complements. Just started playing with the digital modes (JT-65, JT-9) and its alot of fun - worked Mexico & Canada on 8w first time out (Canada on 10m @ 21:30 local!). Ran WSPR during the eclipse - cool! Worked flawless through all the band hopping & transmitting (monitored 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m & 6m - transmitted on 40m, 20m, 10m & 6m (10w)). I would like to know how you get the waterfall gain that high, mine is dark most of the time and it takes a +20 signal to even register and I very rarely see any background noise - not so good if your hunting the weak signals. I'm not sure if I missed something in the manual or my noise level is just that low. Well, on to RTTY, SlowScan & WIRES-X! Oh, and the digital notch filter on this radio is the cats meow, I was talking to a friend the other night and he was complaining that there was someone tuning on frequency - I had no idea he was even there. Also, setting the contour filter to 650 - 800hz will make those weak signals jump right up when you need it.
Thx for the Video! Glad to see a good review on the FT-991a instead of all the old reviews of the 1st model out there and the fancy pants Icom fanboys that say this radio is a POS and being told I should've bought a 7300! I have had mine since March of this year and haven't scratched the surface of all the features because I have been having too much fun with it. I bought mine for the same price as a IC-7300 and in the deal the FT-991a came with VHF/UHF. Hmmm! I was able to put my shack dualie out in my truck and stow the HT......can't beat that! 73' Chones, W7OMH
Oh Mannnn, I just watched a comparison video for the IC-7300 vs FT-991a. The guy doing the video was an obviously an Icom guy. The 7300 was dirtier so I assumed that was the most used radio. He was complaining that the meter functions on the 991a had to be changed in the menu settings - and the meter button was right in front on the left side during the video! One (bad) comment about the 991a referred to it as the IC-991a. Glad to see someone do an honest video review.
Great review. Very informative and NOT BORING ! That radio does have a lot of features for its size. "One radio do all" says it all. Barry
I like the FT-991A so much, I bought two of them. One piece of advice. Read the manual cover-to-cover as I do with most of my transceivers. Digital Audio is one of my favorite things to experiment with. I have D-Star, Alinco Digital, P-25, AOR ARD-9800 OFDM HF SSB digital voice and DMR. DMR was created by Motorola AKA Mototrbo . I got rid of my DMR radio. I'm a huge proponent of C4FM Fusion and P-25 because of the superior audio quality. The FT-991A was a natural choice for the Fusion mode which works on HF as well as VHF and UHF! I enjoy the distance/heading function that Fusion offers. I can only think of one thing that Yaesu needs to add onto the 991A, On the GPS/CAT DB-9 Serial connector, for the GPS add a GPS power (selectable voltage) to pin #4 to the connector. There are some nice GPS receivers made for this application however a DC voltage is required on the serial connector. Currently I use a Garman eTrax with the optional DC /Serial cable. So it must be plugged into the lighter outlet. The Byonics GPS receivers (the makers of TinyTrak) would work great if there were a +5 volts on pin 4 of the DB-9 GPS/CAT connector. What is most important to you, Audio quality or functionality? (in other words, the many functions that are offered.) For me... Audio quality is more important. There is a very good reason why Fusion sounds better. The Fusion Vocoder is AMBE+2 technology, FDMA multiplexing and C4FM modulation scheme. Here's the important part: Bandwidth 12.5 Khz and transmission rate 9.6kbps! Now, D-Star: AMBE+ Vocoder, FDMA Multiplexing, Modulation is GMSK and the important part.....Bandwidth 6.25Khz and Transmission Rate of 4.80kbps that's half of the bandwidth and 1/2 of the transmission rate of Fusion. You don't have to be an engineer to understand the relationship between BW and transmission rate to audio quality. MotoTrbo DMR is even worse, MotoTrbo multiplex method is TDMA, Modulation method is 4FSK, NOW this is why DMR audio sounds terrible: Bandwidth is 12.5Khz and transmission rate is 4.8kbps X 2! This means they have squeezed TWO audio channels in the space of one normal channel, the result is very poor audio quality. no matter how you slice it it's all about bandwidth and transmission rate! there is only so much you can to to narrow band audio. Motorola has used all of it tricks of companding/expanding audio. I purchased the MD-100A8x Desk Microphones and the Yaesu FT-2000 external speakers. The internal speaker isn't all that great. In fact, If you own a Yaesu FT-2000 speaker, I discovered a really sharp speaker kit from DX Engineering. It's the Phonema Gamma Phits Speaker Modification Kit GPH-Y2K it includes a replacement (Upgrade) speaker and acoustic materials. The kit is a snap to install. I did both of mine in a jiffy. It made a very noticeable improvement. DX Engineering Part Number: PNE-GPH-Y2K I'm thinking they were around $40.00 each kit. I plan on upgrading to a Heil Microphone very soon as soon as I can decide which one will work best for me. One device I added to the FT-991A is The AOR ARD-9800 Fast Radio modem. I have one on each of my HF radios. I like the AOR digital voice for SSB, yes, they are a little pricey but amateur radio isn't a poor man's hobby I've had a lot of radios and most of them were Yaesu, Currently I have 4 HF transceivers in the ham shack, the FT-950, FT-897D, FT-847 and FT-991A. As a retired Motorola field technician of 25 years I have learned radios, how they are made, and design principles. In my opinion, other than Motorola, Yaesu tops the list as far as design and quality are concerned. I would love to see Motorola enter the amateur radio market! But that's a discussion for another time. Fusion and D-Star are very different in that they don't do the same things, they were not meant to compete with each other. While D-star is very versatile the infrastructure is expensive and user authorization is required (I completely disagree with this) I've heard stories of hams not being able to use d-star because they were blackballed. All hams should be able to access d-star. The Fusion equipment is relatively inexpensive and simple to install. Yaesu marketing was brilliant, In the incipient phase of Fusion, Yaesu decided to allow clubs (initially) and later individuals to purchase the Fusion DR-1X system including a FT-1DR HT and FTM-400 mobile for $500 including shipping provided certain requirement were agreed to. Later only the repeaters were sold. They flew off the shelf! San Antonio (my home town) went from 1 Fusion repeater to about 12 repeaters in just a few months. I took advantage of the program. I obtained a system for our club in New Braunfels we were the first in the area to get one. It was a excellent marketing strategy by Yaesu, You put the infrastructure in place you will sell a lot of the HT's, mobiles and fixed stations!! It worked! I haven't met anyone that didn't like the FT-991A, not to say that there isn't anyone that doesn't like it. I didn't buy the FT-991 initially because of my ham radio rule #3 "Never buy version 1 of Anything" I'm glad i waited, the FT-991A was a good purchase. -Mark "What's in your ham shack?" mal
Brian, What settings did you change for AM? I do AM once in a while on HF and VHF/UHF. I know the 991A like many others use low level Early stage AM. most people don't truly understand AM and the different modulation schemes and how the y act. I really enjoy playing around with AM I wish more hams could appreciate it. AM was the only voice mode around before SSB was introduced to amateur radio.... I am not a big fan of low level AM, in low level AM the modulation in injected into the early stages of the circuit requiring linear amplification stages this is type AB like in SSB. Most radios today are made this way because designers cheap-out on the design. Another factor is RF power! Modern HF transceivers are limited to about 30 watts because the instantaneous PEP output of a 100 percent modulated AM signal is four times carrier output. The Vintage transmitters (Collins, Heathkit....) have high level modulation with large power supplies and hefty components and tubes. A tube transmitter rated at about 150 watts input on AM, putting out around 90-100 watts, resulting in a PEP of over 350 watts. AM Plate modulation, Find an old Collins transceiver! I like class C AM or plate modulation which is more efficient and I think is a better quality , tube rigs tend to produce a crisper audio. high level AM was initially used in tube radios with an efficiency of around 75%. The way Class C amps generate an AM signal was with a plate modulator which uses a large audio amplifier varying the plate voltage. Unfortunately, this method today would be very expensive to build. Then back in the 40's RCA came out with an innovative method of AM transmitters called "Ampliphase" this was achieved by summing phase modulatd carriers. this is how they did it: The system takes a carrier signal and splits it into two identical signals. The signals are first phase shifted 135 degrees from each other (to provide a base power output with zero modulation from the transmitter). Each signal is then phase modulated by the audio signal, one signal is positively phase modulated while the other is negatively phase modulated. The two signals are then amplified to a desired power. Finally, the two signals are summed in the final output filter stage of the transmitter. anyways...this is another discussion.. -Mark "What's in your ham shack?"
Mark: I don't think low level modulation is a "cheap-out" in design - in fact most modern digital signal processing communications systems work that way - small signal modulation and the appropriate amplifier for the mode. When tubes were king, high level modulation made more sense because it simplified high power amplifiers and improved their efficiency. Regarding the FT-991 and AM - the radio works just fine on AM, per my previous post from some time ago regarding my experiences : "ON THE AIR: No problem whatsoever. AM audio quality reports on the air were "very good" with no audible distortion - RX was performed by an ICOM IC-7300. 80% or better modulation was easily reached as shown on my waveform monitor (RFView signal tap to 100 MHz scope), under a variety of scope sweep and mic drive conditions. ON THE BENCH: In casual testing (i.e. no written procedure and notes, for the Gadflys), modulation was easily driven into the 90% range with very smooth AGC action coming on line as I attempted to push the rig into over-modulation. No signal distortion was visible in the time domain under normal conditions, did not bother to check the frequency domain with a spectrum analyzer since the audio reports were uniformly good. AM USER SUGGESTIONS: 1. Suggest you ignore user manual instructions for AM mode use. 2. Mic gain should be set to between 85 and 100 when in AM mode for good modulation, vs. 25-35 when in SSB mode (MH-36 DTMF mic), 3. The AM output power setting on the FT991 should not be interpreted literally, as watts. My power meter indicated 20-30 watts carrier on the maximum FT-991 AM power setting (40), depending on band, and 40-60 watts peak power when fully modulated. 4. AM RX tone can be adjusted to be very high quality by turning off AM high and low cut RX filters (menu items 41-44), setting the analog RX filter to 9 KHz and setting the Contour control to about 2700 Hz (and +15 level, 10 width, on menu items 114-115), 5. I ran AM on most QSOs at 25 watts carrier, as indicated by my power meter, but alto tried carrier powers between 5 watts and 30 watts ("40" on the FT-991 power setting), with no apparent distortion and just a warm (not hot) rig case on the higher power settings (after some rag-chewing). COMMENTS: 1. User manual suggestions for mic gain setting and ALC level movement will result in very low % modulation and are useless. The ALC level hardly moves under most circumstances, anyway - its always at the top of the "OK" range. 2. Contrary to many on-line rumors, peak power output kicks upward, not downward when the carrier is modulated (as it should) - the FT-991 PO meter wiggles a little bit and does not accurately indicate this - but an external peak reading meter does." Hope this helps. Brian - K6BRN
Take Note ICOM...This is the style you should be using to replace the ICOM 706MK2G and the ICOM 7000, not those horrid excuses for a display on the IC7100 or the other poor designed grey displays jobbies !! Looks like my wish has been answered for a replacement for the "best radio ever" the IC706mk2G for mobile, portable, maritime, development, and as a jolly good base rig all for under 1000€ sadly ICOM lost the plot and went sideways instead of forward.. This radio looks right, not too many controls, so no fumbling, a nice clear multi colored display. Even without a hands on test, I would easily choose this radio for looks alone, over all the latest rigs from ICOM that would be perfect for the above listed uses. Well done YAESU, and i havent even listened to the full revue.. what was missing from a 706 replacement, well for a start a full useable color display, a built in CW decoder, and another for displaying and storing SSTV images, with the possibility to have your personal image on a USB key to send and a direct video input. .. ALL HF bands, VHF and UHF with 100w on every band including uhf. so you could even use the 100w for sstv on UHF. The same powerfull DSP function that was a godsend for eliminating those pesky solid carriers and people tuning up on band.. the possibility of a voice module with more speech and not limited to just the figures on the frequency readout. A solid choice of addon filters. And finally a built in paddle for sending CW by using the mic, not relying on up down buttons but a real mini paddle, if i can design and build one (see 706mk2 keyer in WWW.MODS.DK) yaesu and Icom could copy my design.. what a radio that would be for mobile !!! so i will listen to the reports on this Yaesu and see how close it is to the mark with this cool looking ham radio, there is hope for me yet .. F5VHZ
Great review. You pushed me over the edge and I ordered one last night! I currently have an Icom ID-5100 for 2m/70cm (desk use) and had been thinking hard about the 7300 for HF. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense for me to just get one unit that was all frequency. I'm going to miss the dual receivers on the 5100, but time to sell it to offset the new purchase!
I don't own the 991A, but I wish I could trade my 7300 for one. I've owned the 7300 for 6 months, and although it's a great radio on the statistics bench, it can't handle the noise from all of the electronics I have in central Seoul, Korea. I didn't realize how bad it was, until I bought a Yaesu FT-891 -- a radio costing half as much, with a much less sensitive receiver, BUT a 3k roofing filter, and superior DSP. On an average day the twice-priced 7300 is nicer to use, for sure, but it falls apart when the lights come on. I find the FT891 more useful at those times. It bugged me to no end, because I like a lot of things about the 7300, but if it cannot hold its own, and lets everything in like a wide-open barn door when things are noisy, what good does all of that sensitivity do you? You just hear louder noise. The FT-891 is less affected by noise, and the DSP is far more useful on SSB. I have to think the FT-991A would be quite a step up from the FT-891, and a much better radio than the 7300, given my conditions.
BTW - nothing wrong with the almost identical FT-991 (same except for noninterrupting waterfall display) after Yaesu found and fixed an early PA problem (likey a grounding issue) late in 2015. Old stock was out of the system by mid 2016 and radios bought after that period have been very reliable. As I've previously mentioned, I have two. One is a travel radio that has quite a few miles on it, has been connected to a variety of antennas on HF/UHFand VHF, none of which were "optimal", and has run high duty cycle modes regularly. No issues at all. The other is installed at QTH#2 and is now connected to and driving a KPA500/KAT500 amplifier/tuner with nearly seamless integration. No problems with that one either, and a friend and IC7300 owner who operated this radio during a long visit this summer is no considering buying one - the FT-991A since the older model is no longer sold. For a short time, just after the FT-991A was announced, the FT-991 was a great bargain, at just under $900, for HV/VHF/UHF with a great receiver and NR and robust TX section, all in a very well sized package (not too big, not too small, good control layout) and with the most intuitive control layout Yaesu has produced in a long time (still not as friendly as the IC-7300, but not bad at all). So....what's wrong with the FT-991 (non-A)? Nothing at all for the later radios. Earlier radios had an above average finals failure rate that Yaesu addressed and fixed. But these early teething problems left a bad impression on the community, which tends to amplify issues anyway, and depressed unit sales. Resulted in a great bargain for me, though. Brian - K6BRN
Does anyone know if this radio will remember/retain filter settings when changing bands? A member mentioned the FT-891 does not . Post 133 linked. Thanks in advance https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?th...sleeper-of-a-deal.572820/page-14#post-4320506 "- the radio dose not remember filter settings when changing bands."
