[Yaesu] Ft-847: Good Rig??

Wed, 16 Oct 2002 06:56:28 -0700 (PDT)

If you go to the ARRL website and look at the specs,
they speak for themselves.  The FT847 has the worst
BDR of any transceiver in its price class.  This means
that the front end folds up under strong signals.  In
fact, the ARRL, in their product review, cites the
poor receive performance of the FT847, which is
unusual for them to do.  They almost never bad mouth a
piece of equipment from a major advertiser.

I know of a couple of local hams who are just
absolutely in love with their FT847s, and I cannot for
the life of me see why, having owned one myself.  I
figure that it is either:

1. They have never owned anything else, so they
confuse bells and whistles with actual performance

2. THey know it is less than optimal, but they spent
alot of money on it, so they want to justify the
expense-called cognitive dissonance in my field

I have owned and used one of these radios.  I was
disappointed at best.  Remember, this was supposed to
replace the FT736.  As a replacement for the FT736, it
is a complete failure.  Go look at the receiver
numbers for the 736, they blow away the 847s numbers. 
Yes the FT847 is more than sensitive-its receiver
front end just gets blown away far to easy.  WHen I
can go dxing and hear the pileup perfectly 5-7 KHZ
away, the receiver is too broad, filters or no filers.

On the plus side, having a receiver that wide
eliminates the need for dual watch on the receiver

73s John NE0P

--- "W3CDE Jerry L." <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> The replies on the subject seem to be the most
> convoluted that
> I have seen on the reflector in quite a while.  Non
> owners
> telling how bad the receiver is...  NO ONE has yet
> to said
> what their problem was!
> 
> For what is is worth, being an owner of one of the
> fine pieces
> of equipment, the only problem with the receiver is
> the broad 
> (2.5 KC) filter supplied with the receiver. 
> However, if you
> know how to use the PBT and filters IN THE RECEIVER
> you can
> eliminate much of your problems. Being I usually do
> CW, I put
> in a 250 HZ CW filter and a 1.8 KC SSB filter.  The
> receiver
> is a quiet receiver with low noise generated
> internally in the
> IF.  Many people look at this as poor sensitivity. 
> The actual
> sensitivity when put on a good signal generator is
> very good. 
> When attached to an antenna, you hear the antenna
> noise and
> what ever else may be there.
> 
> All you need to do is go to the ARRL web site and
> download teh
> QST eval and the full lab report to see where it
> stands.
> 
> Jerry
> W3CDE
> 
> 
> Gary R wrote:
> > 
> > It seems that the consensus on the 847 is that it
> has poor performance
> > on HF however, folks around me using them for 6m,
> 2m, 70cm can't speak
> > highly enough about the rig. I suspect edward is
> right, the 847 was
> > built mostly for SATCOMM and VHF/UHF use. From my
> experience it works
> > real well above 50Mhz and the current versions
> don't seem to suffer some
> > of the problems the early ones did. Also, side by
> side comparisons of
> > 847's to IC-746's (not pro's) here show the 847
> hears much better on 6m
> > and 2m.
> > 73.
> > 
> > John Geiger wrote:
> > 
> > > I think he is saying the receiver sucks pretty
> bad (it
> > > does), but if you put their $150 filters in it
> (over
> > > priced), it only sucks.
> > >
> > > 73s John NE0P
> > >
> > > --- Gary R <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > > well I have no idea what he's saying here....
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > salers wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > I had ever a used  FT-847,Yes, it has a very
> bad
> > > > receiver,but if
> > > > > it replace the filter, it will much better
> then.
> > > > >         73! Xu
> > > > >
> > > > > --
> > > > > salers
> > > > >
> > > > > Moderator: Ray Brown, KB�STN
> > > > >
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