Tag: 857

  • MARS/CAP Mods on the Yaesu FT-857D: What They Actually Do and Where the Legal Line Sits

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. What a MARS/CAP Mod Actually Is MARS stands for Military Auxiliary Radio System, a Department of Defense program that uses licensed amateur operators, MARS members, and Civil Air Patrol (CAP) operators to provide auxiliary communications support. MARS and CAP frequencies sit just outside the standard amateur…

  • The FT-857D as a Shack in a Box: Why It’s One of My Favorite SHTF Radios

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. One Box, Every Band You’d Actually Need When I think through what a grab-and-go radio needs to do in an actual SHTF scenario, the list is short: reach the local repeater network, monitor and work HF for anything past line of sight, and do it all…

  • Taming the FT-857D’s Menu: A Practical Cheat Sheet

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. Why This Radio’s Menu Fights You The 857D packs a genuinely deep set of features into a single-line display and a numbered menu tree, which was a reasonable design in its day and hasn’t aged gracefully. Settings are grouped by number rather than by plain-language category,…

  • Getting the Yaesu FT-857D on FT8 with WSJT-X

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. What You Actually Need The FT-857D predates USB audio interfaces, so getting it onto FT8 means bridging two separate connections: a CAT cable for rig control and a sound card interface for audio in and out. A USB sound card interface like a Digirig handles both…

  • FT-857D CAT Control Setup with Ham Radio Deluxe

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. The Physical Connection CAT control on the FT-857D runs through the Mini-DIN CAT jack on the rear panel, not the DATA jack used for digital mode audio. You’ll need a CAT cable with a USB-to-serial adapter on the computer end, since the radio predates native USB.…

  • Common FT-857D Problems and How to Fix Them

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. ALC Clipping and Power Foldback on 40 Meters This is the complaint that comes up most in FT-857D circles: power output drops or the ALC meter spikes and clips specifically on 40 meters, even though other bands sound fine. It’s a well-documented calibration drift issue tied…

  • Buying a Used FT-857D: What to Check

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. There Are No New Ones Left Yaesu discontinued the FT-857D in 2020. Every unit on the market today, whether it’s a dealer’s used listing or a private sale, is coming from someone’s shack or go-bag, not a warehouse. That changes how you should shop for one.…

  • Yaesu FT-857D vs FT-891, G90, FTX-1 Field, FTX-1 Optima, IC-7300 Mark II, and FT-817: Where Each One Actually Wins

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. I get asked constantly how the FT-857D stacks up against the rest of the radios in my shack and go-bags, so here’s the honest rundown of where each one wins and where it doesn’t. Quick disclosure up front: I own and regularly use the FT-891, the…

  • Yaesu FT-857D Review: A Great All-Bander Held Back by Its Own Menu

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. Still a Legit All-Bander I picked up the FT-857D for a great price and ran it in both the shack and the field kit, though it never rode in the Jeep. The reputation holds up. It’s a full HF/VHF/UHF all-mode radio, SSB, FM, and the data…

  • The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide

    The FT-857D is the radio I point people to when they want one box that covers HF, VHF, and UHF without carrying a second radio. It’s not the newest or the friendliest to program, but it earns its keep. This page rounds up everything I’ve written about it. Start Here Comparisons & Buying Guidance MARS…

  • I Bought a Yaesu FT-857D for a Great Price. Here’s Why I Sold It

    I picked up a used FT-857D for a great price, ran it for a while, and decided it wasn’t for me. Here’s what’s genuinely good about it and why I sold it and went back to the FTX-1.

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