Part of our FT-891: The Complete Guide.
The FT-891 has been reliable overall, but running one radio across the shack, the Jeep, and a manpack build has surfaced a handful of genuine issues over time. Here’s what’s come up and what fixed it.
Voltage sag under transmit in the Jeep
Early in the mobile install, I saw the radio fold back power on transmit peaks. This traced to an undersized power run from the original install, not the radio itself, the 23A transmit draw needs properly sized, fused wire straight to the battery. Rewiring it to spec fixed it completely.
Tuner not finding a match it normally handles
With the MFJ-939 in line, an occasional failure to find a match on a band that normally tunes fine turned out to be a loosening connector at the antenna feed point, not a tuner problem. Worth checking your antenna system before assuming the external tuner itself is at fault.
CAT connection dropping through the Digirig DR-891
A few sessions in, CAT control through the DR-891 started dropping intermittently. This turned out to be a loose USB connection on the computer end, reseating the cable and adding a small strain relief clip resolved it for good.
Heat during extended manpack use
Packed tightly in the Armoloq cage with limited airflow, the 891 ran warmer than expected during a long digital mode session. Backing off power output slightly and making sure the cage design allowed some airflow around the chassis solved it without giving up meaningful capability.
What these problems have in common
- Most issues traced back to wiring or connections, not the radio’s internals.
- Undersized power wiring is the most common root cause of transmit issues on a radio that draws this much current.
- Airflow matters more on a compact chassis like this than it would on a bigger base radio.
- A tuning failure is worth investigating as an antenna system issue before blaming the tuner.
None of this has been a dealbreaker, and every issue traced back to something in my install rather than the radio itself. Still, worth knowing what to check first if something feels off.