25 Jan 2011

4m Chinese Multimode rig and a FT817 successor from China?

There are rumours, apparently with some substance, that a Chinese mulitmode transceiver for 4m may be being designed. This would not be too surprising, although expect some delay between "being designed" and being available in the shops.

Of course, with several Chinese FM handhelds and mobiles now available at competitive prices from 4m - 70cm it can only be a matter of time before a Chinese equivalent to the FT817's successor (yes we are still waiting, waiting, waiting Yaesu!) will hit the streets, and at a knock-out price. It would not surprise me one bit if such a rig appeared before the end of 2011. Once the Chinese realise they have a ready market for quality ham gear then look out Icom, Yaesu and Kenwood as your days may be numbered, seriously.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not another ft817 they sound like a bag of crap on receive(SSB/CW)
though the various cloth ears dont notice it.

Anonymous said...

I could not disagree more! The FT817 is an excellent rig.

Anonymous said...

They all suffer about 20percent audio distortion on ssb/cw -
check the forums mate - mine wasnt a duffer
youve just lost your earing above 1000Hz thats why you think its ok

Anonymous said...

From a old duffer with bad ears
mine sounds good.

Roger G3XBM said...

Well, here's another who thinks his FT817 is just fine with GOOD audio reports on SSB. Maybe the people having issues were just shouting too loud into the mic.

Anonymous said...

The build quality of some of the
chinese FM handhelds look quite good. With money being tight most
hams will be looking for quality, reliability and price.
Its a wake up call to Yaesu & Icom
like it was for the UK manufactures
in the 1960's.
The Chinese are building a super city that will house 40 Million workers. How will you compete with that. The USA is sleep working!

Anonymous said...

The problem the UK did not wake up

Anonymous said...

re - ft817 The audio distortion issue is on receive - ssb/cw only

not on am/fm. or any TX mode.

Anonymous said...

Are you having issues with destortion
with optional filter fitted?
You might be able to tweak it from the menu
setting. I had to set up the Am modiltion level
from the menu setting. Every rig will be slighty
different depending on the build level.
It's subjective unless you have the test
equipment to measure it. Off air testing will depend on
conditions.

Anonymous said...

alot of the 817 chat sites have put it down to non linearity in the product detector - backing off the rf gain helps only a bit.
i like to receive cw with a pure tone - it should be like a sine wave - not starting to 'fuzz'
got rid 817 because of this.

Anonymous said...

What rig have you got now?
I have never used my 817 for CW,
If work CW with a homebrew transmitters
and a seperate RX's. I experenced the fuzzy tone with a FT101ZD, this was due to shotkey diodes
going bad in the product detector.
The four diodes were in one package, I just replaced them
with four shotky diodes. I remember there was a problem
with early ZD's having reversed polarity electrollythic
capacitors fitted in the audio stage.
Does a modification exsist for the non linearity problem
with the product detector in the 817.
Do all the 817's suffer with the same problem
ie. the ND version?

Anonymous said...

The Chinese building a super city to house 40 million workers!!

My god that sounds opressive.

Turn on, Tune in, Drop out.

Anonymous said...

To the chap with the 101zd - it seems tobe present in all 817ND's - but there could be build differences like the other chap says.
One of the fix'sis to modify the agc as it kicks in too late causing the overdrive.
Same as you here - just hbrew

Anonymous said...

I've seen posted elsewhere (can't remember where) schematics for couple of Chinese HF transceivers that are (supposedly) going to make it into foreign markets. The designs where like something from the 1970's with obscure now very hard to find IF chips and weirdo Chinese micro-controllers that are likely 8031/8051 knock-offs. I imagine they work; but - yuk. If only Yaesu wouldn't cripple the FT450AT and give it a tuner with more capability.

Anonymous said...

I know that this thread is old but I for one haven't experienced ANY of the problems mentioned with the FT-817nd. My particular unit sounds very good on receive & transmit on all modes.