This list has 158 members....and super quiet, I guess 158 people totally happy with their FT-847's

I am

73 de Rob G4UJS

I am very happy with my 847. Bought it 12 years ago through Ebay. I knew I wanted one after using the 847 that had been gifted to our club, the Niagara Peninsula Amateur Radio Club. What's better than a rig that does everything ? Can't figure out why Yaesu didn't spend another 25 cents and put in VOX. Wished the sub-VFO tuned faster when you need it. Like others here, I was unable to get the audio into the xmit packet output. With the recent discussion here, I should finally be able to get that working. This group is a great resource. 73 fer now de Dennis, VE3XC FN02

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I bought Ft-847 from a gentleman in New Brunswick about 4 years ago. It had a couple of small issues.

AF/RF shaft was bent, found an original on ebay. Memory backup battery was replaced with a coin battery holder and a regular 2032 batt. Also had a small problem with power flickering. Rebuilt the plug from the power supply.

I primarily use for bouncing off the ISS, when they are turned on, HI HI. It came with vox.

Very happy

Douglas Richards VE3FFR?

I am very happy with my 847. Bought it 12 years ago through Ebay. I knew I wanted one after using the 847 that had been gifted to our club, the Niagara Peninsula Amateur Radio Club. What's better than a rig that does everything ? Can't figure out why Yaesu didn't spend another 25 cents and put in VOX. Wished the sub-VFO tuned faster when you need it. Like others here, I was unable to get the audio into the xmit packet output. With the recent discussion here, I should finally be able to get that working. This group is a great resource. 73 fer now de Dennis, VE3XC FN02

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73
Douglas Richards VE3FFR
ve3ffr@...

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Sorry, I misunderstood.

My radio has voice, not vox.

At least they were thinking of White Caners.

Douglas

I bought Ft-847 from a gentleman in New Brunswick about 4 years ago. It had a couple of small issues.

AF/RF shaft was bent, found an original on ebay. Memory backup battery was replaced with a coin battery holder and a regular 2032 batt. Also had a small problem with power flickering. Rebuilt the plug from the power supply.

I primarily use for bouncing off the ISS, when they are turned on, HI HI. It came with vox.

Very happy

Douglas Richards VE3FFR?

On 11/2/2021 11:32 AM, Dennis Surek via groups.io wrote:

I am very happy with my 847. Bought it 12 years ago through Ebay. I knew I wanted one after using the 847 that had been gifted to our club, the Niagara Peninsula Amateur Radio Club. What's better than a rig that does everything ? Can't figure out why Yaesu didn't spend another 25 cents and put in VOX. Wished the sub-VFO tuned faster when you need it. Like others here, I was unable to get the audio into the xmit packet output. With the recent discussion here, I should finally be able to get that working. This group is a great resource. 73 fer now de Dennis, VE3XC FN02

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73
Douglas Richards VE3FFR
ve3ffr@...

-- 
73
Douglas Richards VE3FFR
ve3ffr@...

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I use mine daily as my primary shack rig.? Mostly 2m FM, but I work all the other bands as well.

My gripes with the rig:? One is that the "Fast" button's action is backwards when using the Band up and down buttons.? I typically have Fast turned on when spinning the dial, hardly ever needing to get down to fine adjustments.? Then when I hit the up or down band buttons, it jumps from HF to VHF, instead of from 80m to 40m.

Also no VOX, but that's only because the operation of CAT with the digital modes is utterly broken.? When the rig is keyed from CAT, the audio comes from the Mike input, not the jacks on the back of the rig.? It seems like they were trying to be "smart" when selecting the audio source depending on where PTT was keyed (which itself is brain damaged when one is using a sound card to drive both HF and Packet modes), but totally ignored that computer-driven modes can use CAT for PTT.? If it had VOX, and if VOX payed attention to the back jacks, that would have simplified a lot of wiring in the shack.

Other than that, a great rig!

Greg? KO6TH

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I love my FT-847…. ?I’ve set four AMSAT satellite distance records with it within the last 2 years….. amazing satellite full duplex radio..

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I just got mine a few months ago.

My best friend (now SK) had one and used it for sattelite work.

I would like to use mine with JTDX but am having difficulty with rig control.

Since I bought it, I have used it for repeater work (over 100 miles away) as well as VHF/UHF contests. Works great with amplifiers.

Micky K1XH

I got mine a couple of years back and the only problem I have is that it needs an alignment. The display is off frequency 50 - 500 hz depending on the band. I've just learned to live with it and keep a notebook to remind me how much it is off on each band. It seems that none of the folks that work on these here in the US are accepting any new work. I just don't have the equipment to do the procedure myself and Yeasu won't do it anymore. (I have an equally old "I" brand that they were happy to do it for their radios.)? I like having buttons and switches over menus to control the rig.?

The big problem is not enought time to use it here lately. Too much work not enough play time....

Carey
W4TFZ

Well my post certainly brought a few of you out of the wood work!

I love my 847, I have only recently bought it, mint condition and looking at it I cant believe it was designed over 20 years ago as it looks very modern to my old eyes.

Getting FT8 working was a pain but it works great now thanks to help from this group.

73 de Rob G4UJS

Me too?!!?

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Hello 847’rs

In message <CAKi7SJHkXAA4HSgMFXCaX9op62+t8uXsNkQdne1gbnc=S=O-5w@...>, Hal Dale <wb4aeg@...> writes

Bought my 847 new in in the 90's I think.. I love it....It's a early
model....On air all most daily...Hal/WB4AEG
On Tue, Nov 2, 2021 at 10:14 AM Rob <g4ujs@...> wrote:
This list has 158 members....and super quiet, I guess 158 people
totally happy with their FT-847's
I am
73 de Rob G4UJS

I got mine 2nd hand in the late 90s. I've just fired it up on 4m for a sked. I only really use it for 4m and 6m these days and as a 432 MHz IF for 13cm and 9cm. I do use it for general coverage receive on SW and VHF/UHF. Some day I'll get it back onto TopBand, which is the only SW band I'm interested in.

The only faults I've had are the notorious on/off switch, the CW key socket coming loose off the board and a 21MHz fault due to a blown band switch diode. I did the high power capacitor mod for 4m while I was fixing that one. I also replaced the hard wired battery with a holder too.

Brian GM4DIJ
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Brian Howie

Good Evening Brian

Brian Howie GM4DIJ wrote:

I got mine 2nd hand in the late 90s. I've just fired it up on 4m for a sked. I only really use it for 4m and 6m these days and as a 432 MHz IF for 13cm and 9cm. I do use it for general coverage receive on SW and VHF/UHF. Some day I'll get? it back onto TopBand, which is the only SW band I'm interested in.

The only faults I've had are the notorious on/off switch, the CW key socket coming loose off the board? and a 21MHz fault due to a blown band switch diode.? I did the high power capacitor? mod for 4m while I was fixing that one. I also replaced the? hard wired battery with a holder too.

Brian? GM4DIJ

I too am a long time 847 owner, having bought mine used around the change of the century from an old timer in ill health (as I am now) and I am writing to you regarding your reference to 4M conversions.? I sent my 817 to ML&S to have the Power switch replaced about 8 years ago and asked ML&S Service manager about the pros and cons of the 4M conversion, but he was not enthusiastic!

But as the years pass, I am seeing more and more instances of conversion!

I was using 4M way back on 4M PMR and a range of Microwave Modules products. Meanwhile my 4M equipment consists of a converted PMR Mobile and an Eastern European transverter but it would be nice to have 4M on my FT847!

Your comments would be appreciated!

73s - Alan S, G8AGQ/G3WXI

In message <a12210a3-bdb4-4c00-5da4-23e9fe78920e@...>, Alan G3WXI aka G8AGQ <strongmra@...> writes

Good Evening Brian

Brian Howie GM4DIJ wrote:

I got mine 2nd hand in the late 90s. I've just fired it up on 4m for a sked. I only really use it for 4m and 6m these days and as a 432 MHz IF for 13cm and 9cm. I do use it for general coverage receive on SW and VHF/UHF. Some day I'll get? it back onto TopBand, which is the only SW band I'm interested in.

The only faults I've had are the notorious on/off switch, the CW key socket coming loose off the board? and a 21MHz fault due to a blown band switch diode.? I did the high power capacitor? mod for 4m while I was fixing that one. I also replaced the? hard wired battery with a holder too.

Brian? GM4DIJ

I too am a long time 847 owner, having bought mine used around the change of the century from an old timer in ill health (as I am now) and I am writing to you regarding your reference to 4M conversions.? I sent my 817 to ML&S to have the Power switch replaced about 8 years ago and asked ML&S Service manager about the pros and cons of the 4M conversion, but he was not enthusiastic!

But as the years pass, I am seeing more and more instances of conversion!

I was using 4M way back on 4M PMR and a range of Microwave Modules products. Meanwhile my 4M equipment consists of a converted PMR Mobile and an Eastern European transverter but it would be nice to have 4M on my FT847!

Your comments would be appreciated!

73s - Alan S, G8AGQ/G3WXI

Hello Alan,

The mod I did was the removal of one capacitor C5051, PA1O's modification and the snipping of the ALC line. There are other ones,that require changing more components and one that involves putting a small ferrite core into one of the coils. I tried the latter but I wasn't happy with it in terms of improvement.

I didn't add the RX preamp since the external PA I use has one. I can now get 65W out barefoot on 4m and the efficiency is much improved. 6m output is much the same. It means I can drive the external PA properly.

I started out on 4m in about 1975 using a converted Murphy lowband PMR valve rig as a transverter, then a Meon plus a Pye A200, which I also used when I got the 847. The 10W was just about enough to drive it, and I needed an external rx preamp. I recently modified a 50MHz TE Systems linear to 70MHz , but found it needed about 12 to 15W to drive it. Hence the mod to the 847.

I've not found a down-side to the mod. There's no sign of unwanted spurii.

Someone else might want to comment.

73 Brian GM4DIJ

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Brian Howie