Ham Radio – Yaesu FT-897 Portable Station w/LDG Accessories

My portable station temporarily set up in my backyard; compact but effective! PS At the end of the video I mention “one press of the Par”, I meant to say LDG AT-897, sorry LOL
Video Rating: 4 / 5

/17 Comments/by
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17 replies
  1. barrygkx
    barrygkx says:

    That was the best demo of the FT897 for portable I ever saw. You really hit on the fine points, like low current drain for a 100 watt class HF rig. I found the FT897 to be one of the best portable, “one radio do all” rigs. I use a Hy Power Antenna Company 80 meter off center fed antenna with mine. The antenna covers 2, 6, 10, 12, 17, 20, 40 and 80 meters. Between the rig and the antenna I can cover almost all of the bands.
    Again, great job !
    Barry

    Reply
  2. twmckim
    twmckim says:

    Thank you very much for the kind words, Barry. Sounds like a great antenna you’ve got; I love the idea of one antenna to cover all those bands.

    Reply
  4. M6PEC
    M6PEC says:

    Yes very good to see, i also have the ft897 with the bolt under psu hihi i love the rig my first rig was the yeasu ft840 thats now my back up rig, 73 to you sir very nice video
    Barry M6PEC ps QRP /p rules for me 🙂

    Reply
  5. cdssheps
    cdssheps says:

    Hi Tracy,good video,i was wondering how does this radio compare to the icom 706 mk11,?would kike to read your comments,regards clive…….

    Reply
  6. twmckim
    twmckim says:

    Hello Clive, thank you for your comment! Over the years I have owned 2 different 706 Mk IIG’s. I really liked them. For my purposes the 897 wins out due to much lower current drain on receive (650 ma vs. 2A for the 706). But both are solid rigs.

    Reply
  8. twmckim
    twmckim says:

    Hello Ozarkmac. Do you mean could the tuner be used with a manpack radio? If so, it might be possible by using a custom cable as the AT-897 tuner draws power from the CAT port on the rear of the FT-897. There is no separate power connection on the tuner.

    Reply
  9. ozarkmac
    ozarkmac says:

    What I meant was, could the tuner be inverted so the antenna connector is viewed with the radio face much like a military prc77? I have taken into account that some cables would have to be homebrewed. I was a 31V radio man in the US Army and have a liking for this configuration and the 897 looks perfect for it. Also getting my ham ticket this spring so I don’t have a calling yet.

    Reply
  11. ozarkmac
    ozarkmac says:

    BTW, thank you for your informative videos. BTW, if you ever speak to anyone in Washington state, I would love to chat on my rig when I’m legal.

    Reply
  12. twmckim
    twmckim says:

    Hello Ozarkmac; yes the AT-897 can be flipped and mounted as you suggest so that the rear panel is facing to the front of the rig. As long as you don’t mind reaching around the rear of the unit to hit the tune button and you can homebrew some longer cables there is no reason I can think of that it wouldn’t work fine.

    Reply
  13. dutchboy47501
    dutchboy47501 says:

    I also have the ft-897 and use par end fedz antennas. I have a question for you. Par does not recommend using a tuner with their antennas. Have you ever had trouble damaging the antenna using the tuner on it?

    Reply
  14. twmckim
    twmckim says:

    Right you are; an antenna tuner should not be used with the End-Fedz antennas in an attempt to use the antenna on a band other than the one it was designed for. I use the tuner only to bring down the SWR on portions of the resonant band where necessary. Due to a mistake I made cutting my EF-40, it is now resonant at approx. 7.400 MHz. By using the auto-tuner, I am able to bring the SWR down to near 1.0:1 across the entire 40m band and have not had any issues.

    Reply
  15. 2e0gbb
    2e0gbb says:

    Just a quickie – using a tuner doesn’t bring an antenna into resonance. It just matches the impedance to 50 ohms.

    Reply
  17. iiDougieii
    iiDougieii says:

    Hi, I am new to all of this (Amateur Radio). I am now 50, and I am going to go for my first licence. I am living in Scotland UK, but moved here from Montreal Canada. I have spent the past year looking at Yaesu, Icom and Kenwood.
    I had narrowed it down to the Kenwood TM-D710E because it
    had APRS. Then I went to a Amateur Radio Store and saw the Yaesu FT-897D because it has also 6M with the 2M and 70cm bands. I found it impressive.
    Thank you for your video here. I liked it a lot.

    Reply

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