[Yaesu] HELP: FT-8900R Six Meter Receive

[danjr]

Recently, I purchased an FT-8900R from Ham Radio Outlet.  I received 
the radio around Christmas-time.  I quickly had it hooked up, 
programmed and on the air.  It was working perfectly, and I really 
liked all the features it had to offer.  However, about a week after I 
received it, the six meter receive went ... known full-scale signals 
were very noisy S1 or S2.  Approximately three days later, the two 
meter transmit went ... high power went from 52-watts to about 10-watts.

The first thing I checked was antenna, feedline, etc.  The antenna is a 
Diamond V-2000A fed with 5/8" hardline.  It checked out fine, SWR was 
great and on an FT-100D worked perfectly on six meters.  I also tried 
an AR-6 on the 8900R, and received the same results.

I sent the radio back to HRO, and they sent me a replacement.  I 
quickly received a replacement radio.  Had it hooked up, and about 5 
days later, the exact same thing happened on six.  Known full scale 
signals are very very noisy S1.  A neighbor of mine is 3 blocks away.  
On his base station, he is normally S9+, but is about S1 with noise on 
the 8900.

What has happened???  Why have two of these gone bad back to back?  I 
am thinking it must be a bad batch.  I really like the radio, and this 
has not changed my opinion.  I would like to see it running again.  All 
of the reviews I have read (many of them) are positive.  No one has had 
this problem.  If I wanted a dual-band, I would have bought the 8800.  
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  As of now, I am probably 
going to send it directly to Yaesu for replacement.  But I would like 
to know what is going on so that it doesn't happen again.

Thanks
Dan