[ICOM] FT857D vs 706MKIIG

[Paul S. Serio]

John,
You know by now, I'm sure, of the difference in the display size between 
the two radios. While not a performance issue it certainly is an 
operational one in my opinion. The 857's is so small compared to the 
706. I've had both and found them to be good rigs for the money. All 
857s and 897s have a problem on SSB transmit. They transmit a noise or 
background distortion with the desired audio. It can be almost 
completely eliminated by leaving the DSP notch and noise reduction 
turned on. One or the other will not work as well to reduce the noise 
but if you leave both on it knocks it way down. This has been documented 
on the internet before but I can't recall where. I know you're thinking 
that the DSP circuit is supposed to only work on receive. It is normally 
but apparently someone made this discovery by accident. It worked on 2 
897s that I've owned. One was a 897 the other a 897D so apparently Yaesu 
didn't fix the problem on the "D" models. The DX station will most 
likely never hear this noise on your signal but your buddy across town 
will.

For what it's worth I did an informal comparison of the receivers in a 
706G and a Kenwood TS-480HX in my own truck. I had them both hooked to 
my screwdriver antenna via a 2 way switch. Both were playing through 
identical external speakers and I adjusted the volume to approximately 
the same level. As I drove down the road I would switch between them. 
Bands monitored were 75, 40 and 20. On a crowded band the 706G was less 
prone to interference from stations close to the monitored frequency. 
This was with the stock filters in both rigs. Preamps were off as were 
attenuators. The 480 had a better noise blanker by far especially when 
it was cranked up all the way but then this hurt it even more on a 
crowded band. Sensitivity differences were negligible. Just thought I'd 
throw that in. Never had the opportunity to try this with the 857. 73
Paul, N5PS

John Geiger wrote:
> This topic has probably been covered before,but how do
> these 2 rigs compare performancewise on HF and 6m with
> some light 2 meter/70cm SSB/CW work?  Anyone try them
> both out?
>
> 73s John W5TD
>   



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