Yaesu FT-847....A small warning ! (and a bit of praise)
jeff
Morning all....
I recently became the (very) proud owner of a Yaesu FT-847....in general
an absolutely brilliant rig. However, I discovered a problem which has
taken me nearly a week to resolve.
While operating on 2 and 70, I noticed that my discriminator indicated
that all the repeaters were off frequency. One or two I would expect,
but ALL of them ??? After a series of checks with other stations and a
frequency counter in my own shack, I discovered that the rig was approx.
500 Hz off (2 metres) and 1.1K off (70 cms) - later found I was approx.
250 Hz off on 6 metres. These errors were on all modes, both Tx and Rx.
Needless to say, I was a bit p....d-off, and contacted the supplier. He
was furious/upset that he had been supplied with a brand new model which
had been incorrectly aligned - couldn't replace it though, cos had only
been supplied with two radios to fulfil orders of more than 30 !!! He
contacted Yaesu to get more info, so did I. My opinion of the response I
got is unprintable (even on the Internet). My supplier persisted, and
eventually got Yaesu to fax him some pages out of the Service Manual -
interesting this, cos Yaesu told me that they did not have one !
Well, to cut a long story short(ish), between us we established that the
IF reference frequency had been incorrectly set. This I aligned properly
after borrowing some gear from a friend. The rig now works perfectly and
its Tx and Rx frequency alignment is correct to about 20 Hz (all bands,
all modes).
My "pat-on-the-back" goes to Mike Haydon of Haydon Communications, who
went far beyond anything I could reasonably expect of a supplier in
order to help me. Thank you, Mike, for believing me when I said that
there was a problem, rather than using the excuse (which I got from
Yaesu) that I must be using the rig incorrectly. If anyone goes into the
shop in Edgware and sees a bloke behind the counter with a halo.......
that's Mike (is there an amateur equivalent of "sainthood" ?) :-)
Has anyone else experienced the same problem with their FT-847 ? If they
have, please contact me on my E-mail address, and I'll try and help.
Hopefully, my own problem was a "one-off" - time will tell !
73's
--
Jeff (G0UKA)
E-mail: g0...@jeffblack.demon.co.uk
Stephen Tompsett
In article <P3dGaFAL...@jeffblack.demon.co.uk>, jeff
<g0...@jeffblack.demon.co.uk> writes
>While operating on 2 and 70, I noticed that my discriminator indicated
>that all the repeaters were off frequency. One or two I would expect,
>but ALL of them ??? After a series of checks with other stations and a
>frequency counter in my own shack, I discovered that the rig was approx.
>500 Hz off (2 metres) and 1.1K off (70 cms) - later found I was approx.
>250 Hz off on 6 metres. These errors were on all modes, both Tx and Rx.
>
>Needless to say, I was a bit p....d-off, and contacted the supplier. He
As a matter of interest waht is the manufacturer's specification of the
frequency accuracy of the rig?
500 Hz at 144Mhz is about 3ppm, and that is within the specification of
most rigs without a TCXO or similar reference.
--
Stephen Tompsett
jeff
In article <UvuHeGAp...@blob.demon.co.uk>, Stephen Tompsett
<ste...@blob.demon.co.uk> writes
>As a matter of interest waht is the manufacturer's specification of the
>frequency accuracy of the rig?
>
>500 Hz at 144Mhz is about 3ppm, and that is within the specification of
>most rigs without a TCXO or similar reference.
>
specs. However, operating cw on 144 MHz, with a 500 Hz difference
between what the rig was saying and what was actually happening, caused
some problems after a QSY (same applied to SSB on 70 cms, where the
discrepancy was 1.1KHz).
Perhaps Yaesu should have fitted a TCXO as standard, for fussy sods like
me :-)
--
jeff (g0uka)
paul
In article <oom$tDA76j...@jeffblack.demon.co.uk>, jeff
<g0...@jeffblack.demon.co.uk> writes
>>As a matter of interest waht is the manufacturer's specification of the
>>frequency accuracy of the rig?
>I agree with you, Stephen - my rig may have been within manufacturer's
>specs. However, operating cw on 144 MHz, with a 500 Hz difference
>between what the rig was saying and what was actually happening, caused
>some problems after a QSY (same applied to SSB on 70 cms, where the
>discrepancy was 1.1KHz).
Jeff
It sort of makes me wonder how we all managed to work one another before
digital readouts.
Just a thought
Regards
--
paul G8IZR