A remarkably fast turnaround of my E-bay purchase of the nearly-new (bought May 2020) FT-818 saw a small parcel deposited in the ice by the front door this morning.
Quite amazing size and weight. Even the noise blanker is pretty effective (something even some much more expensive rigs are not always good at).
Anyhow, although it is effective, I'm not sure I would have paid £120 for the BHI noise canceller board. For one thing, the microswitch that operates it is very likely to fail quite quickly, although it would be easy to repair, I guess.
Took me about 30 minutes to figure out all the settings for digital modes use (hint: it needs to be put into 'DIG' mode!), but the frequency stability seems to work well, with a possible hint in database results that a cycle or two is needed before full stability is achieved. That's perfectly fine.
Anyhow, here is the rig, with and without the noise canceller enabled (lit LED indicates it is off, rather oddly):
At the end of the day, the 817/818 is the best. I've had 3. Only reason not now is display to small for my octogenarian eyes. Don't want to use a computer as the rig display.
ReplyDeleteI was curious about the BHI noise canceller inside. The video answered the question. It works. However, your ears are the best noise cancel devices. I rarely use the NR in my IC-7300. It is just what you like most. Great rig by the way and it is stable for shure. I've not been in my shack since the drift test and the FT-817 is still running on 40m. I will shut it down tomorrow since the PACC contest will be in the afternoon and I want to connect the IC-7300 to the inverted-V. 73, Bas
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