Hardware Chat

Everyone will have an opinion on this, but the FT-857D is a popular choice. I have one and it serves me very well - supports the common modes, small enough to be used in the field, and well supported. It should do you very well and many Essex Hams swear by this rig. Anyone else got any thoughts?

Jakub,
I bought my FT-857D back in June - it was an upgrade to the FT-817ND which I'd had for about a year. I wanted more power when out /P and a bit more when in the Shack on 2m+70cm. It's a nice radio, quite the "Shack in a box" and will get you onto 6m, 2m and 70cm as well as HF. Because I use mine for portable work, I like the small size of it (the main HF set is an FT-950) but if I was buying an "indoors-only" rig, I would have gone for the FT-897 as it's a bit more sturdy.

Aside from the slightly noisy fan, I've not got much bad to say about the radio - I've actually got a page on my site dedicated to the radio: http://www.m0pzt.com/?ft857

The front-end on 2m is exceptional - No pager breakthrough which can be a problem with many radios. I have 153MHz pager transmitters nearby and cheaper radios (especially handhelds) tend to suffer breakthrough. If you ever want to operate CW or need narrower filters on PSK/RTTY modes - you are looking at around £100 for a plug-in 500Hz filter. Out of the box, the radio is 2-3KHz wide on receive so can suffer a bit when there are lots of strong signals. The SSB filter costs about the same.

The DSP that comes with the radio is AF-based, which means it just filters the audio frequencies (like EQ on a Hi-Fi) but can help and the noise-reduction is adequate. You'll find with a radio like this, a few functions will be buried away in a menu or via those ABC buttons so a few reads of the manual will be required.

That said, I think it'll make a great 1st radio for you and if you need help driving it, putting memories in or want to test signals+audio - I'd be happy to assist.

Thanks guys for your replies. I knew it's a good radio :)
Don't be surprise if new posts start popping up on this forum soon with questions about the rig:)
Charlie- thank you for the link. Yes, digital modes are the one I would like to focus on soon. I've read about filter for CW, great option to have. CW is another thing I want to learn.
There is only one thing left before trip to the shop. How to tell xyl about it :D

My new toy is at home. All connected and working. Today I have tried to set up GB3DA repeater manually.
So far I can receive, but I must missing something in setting, I think, because I can not transmit. Simplex is OK both ways.
This is what I have set up till now:
1. 145.725 MHz
2. RPT "Minus Shift" and 0.60 Mhz
3. TON 110.9 (shell I set TEN, TSQ or leave it without change?)

Any thoughts/ideas will be very much appreciated.

Update:
I have found NAR setting, which sort out the problem with transmission.
Successful QSO with M0PZT, thanks Charlie.

HI Jakub,
You Need to Set up with (TEN) CTCSS Encoder ON as being activated to use DA otherwise the CTCSS Encoder will not Function.

(TSQ) is CTCSS Encode and Decoder ON if this is activated you will not hear any signals unless the
correct CTCSS tone is transmitted by the Transmitting station(s) so is normaly not set.
Best 73
Neil G0RNU Also Have an 857D Great radio