FT818 - some thoughts

With very unstable weather at the moment, and also rather cold, there isn't a lot of radio activity here!

After receiving my FT818 back from repairs at Yaesu, I've had time to review what I think of this tiny HF/VHF radio.

Good, but not perfect.

 

Overall, I think it's pretty good.  But there are niggly problems that make it a little bit annoying!

First off, the FT818 has no pull-out legs or bar supplied as standard to raise the controls so that they can actually be used properly!  This is a major oversight for a portable radio, especially when the FT818 also has no detachable control head.  

I've now bought some 'leg pegs' that prop up the front.  But at nearly £20 delivered, this is not a very acceptable additional cost for a couple of small bits of shaped metal.

Maybe Yaesu should provide legs - simple bits of metal - as standard?

The non-detachable head is also very annoying when you try to find a suitable box for backpack/man-portable field deployment.  With a detachable head, things are far more flexible, because the main radio body can stay undisturbed in the box, whilst the head allows for easy control accessibility wherever you want to place it.

The power socket remains a major weakness in the FT818's design.  The semi-permanent adapters you can buy are not very high quality, being rather weak 3-D printed units that have a tendency to delaminate along thin sections.  And their use of power poles is a weakness if, as is far too easily possible, the conductors pull out of the housings right next to the bare chassis - which caused the damage to my radio.  

There's little doubt that the power socket needs a major rethink, although we're unlikely ever to see it as I doubt Yaesu will keep the FT-817/818 form in future, despite its long-term success.

The internal battery is problematic, too.  Whilst it was never going to power the radio for long, it is useful for something like working the 30-minutes or so of greyline from a beach, where you then go home with a flat battery, satisfied with a handful of QRP VK/ZL QSOs.  But the widely-reported tendency of the battery to drain quickly when left installed even on a FT818 that's switched off, makes it less than ideal.

Of course, we have to remember the positives.  It's only about £600 new.  Half the price of the IC-705, for example - and I know I want none of the fancy features that has.  The Yeasu's pretty tough, but the IC-705 isn't.  Both have TCXOs, which is really what we should expect of all radios today, regardless of price.

So, the FT818ND I have no regrets about.  But it isn't really well thought-out for field use, and its higher-power cousin, the FT-891, gets a little closer to the mark there.  A hybrid of the two is really what I would like to see - detachable head, slighly larger controls, and maybe a maximum power of 15W from external batteries.  

One day, people who actually use radios outdoors might design a rig suitable for that environment!