[Yaesu] FT-840

Fri, 23 Aug 2002 06:49:30 -0500

Terry,
I bought an new 840 for my first real HF radio. It's a fairly good radio,
especially for SSB and mobile. One might say it's a good all-around radio.
But to go along with it, it needed a power supply, a digital filter, a
keyer, and antenna tuner. By the time I had bought all that, I still had a
radio that didn't have QSK or a built-in SWR meter. I sold all of the above
and bought a used Yaesu FT-990 for about the same money as the original
investment. The FT-990 has all that I had bought before in one box, only
exception I added a Timewave DSP filter that fits in the speaker. The 990
also has more metering, RF gain, audio shifting on transmit, two key jacks,
both RX and TX clarifier or RIT, receive antenna selection, direct frequency
keyboard entry, and a better radio spec-wise. Only thing I miss from the 840
was the dual band stacking registers, 990 only has one. The 990 is of course
bigger, a base radio and not for mobile. Before I would buy another 840, I
would look for an FT-900 CAT, of course used. Very similiar to the 990 but
in a mobile size. Has nearly everything that the 990 has except built-in
power supply. I have one of those too, and it's a keeper. The price of the
900 has gone down as guys are trading them for FT-100Ds. As you might
imagine, I operate both CW and SSB, and my rule for HF rigs is digital
tuning and QSK. The 840 is rather weak on the spec side, what you would
expect from a low-end radio. Check the ARRL reviews. Blocking dynamic range
is 113 db, and 3rd order intercept is negative, both measurements beaten by
my Ten-Tec Scout. Other measurements the 840 wins, so the receive
performance of the Scout and 840 are similiar. The radio is pretty solid and
not flakey or problematic. Hope this is of interest.
Darryl, KK5IB

----- Original Message -----
From: "Terry Fletcher" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2002 12:55 PM
Subject: [Yaesu] FT-840

> I'm looking for another HF rig, and am considering the FT-840.
> Has anyone had experience with this rig?
> How does it perform?
> Can you recommend it?
> Best features?
> Any problems and or fixes??
>
> Thank you, Terry, WA�ITP
>
> Moderator: Ray Brown, KB�STN
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