Yeasu 7800E 2m/70cm tranceiver - Any Good???

[Swizz]

Hi all,

i'm shortly going for an M3 license and could do with an opinion should anyone be able to help.

I've been watching Ebay and am considering buying new (don't like spending 100s on there without seeing the item first!)

Chatting with a guy last night who's also doing the course - he mentioned the Yeasu 7800E dual band was advertised at a pretty good price at W&S so I had a look. Infact both W&S and Radioworld are offering it at the same price along with a separation cable to mount it in the car.

uestion is (at last) considering the radio is so keenly priced - is it any good? It certainly looks nice but thats just my inexperience talking - its whether it works well & sounds well on Tx & Rx that really matters and I just wondered whether anyone owns this radio or has worked anyone else who was using one?

The kind of use it will get will be both at home and mobile. A handheld radio would be useful as we do a bit of walking but no doubt a handheld wouldn't do as well in the car or at home. I would also imagine a proper mobile would be of more use later on with its higher power settings if I progress up the licensing ladder.

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllpppppppppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Guzzy]

Hi Swizz,

I've owned and used one of these for about 9 months now. It's very good. Buy one!

OK ... a bit more info then, here goes:

Rambling incoherent review:

It covers 2m/70 on transmit and receives between 108 - 999MHz (some gaps). It is possible to wideband the radio for TX beyond the UK amateur bands (simple solder job). No. I'm not recommending anybody do it. Why bother???

It feels like a serious bit of kit. Yaesu really know how to build radios!

It has 5W, 10W ,25W and 50W settings. I very rarely need to run it above 10W to talk to others within the 'natural' range of my antenna/location.

It has all the features you need for FM working on 2m and 70cm. Like CTCSS/DCS/DTMF, etc..

It's a shame it doesn't do multimode (SSB, AM, etc.. for example) but none of the current crop of 'mobile' radios do.

It uses Yaesu's 'menu' system for nearly all settings. People either love this or hate this. Personally, I love it, it's simple and intuiative, but then - I also like building my own computers from components!

The fist mike has a full feature keypad with DTMF keys and programmable buttons on it. VERY handy for accessing repeaters and Echolink/eQSO nodes!

Awesome transmit and receive quality.

There is a little fan mounted on the back of the unit to keep it cool when running 50W that comes on each time you TX (regardless of Output power). In a quiet room it sounds loud (I don't think it is really)

Some of the more expensive models can receive 2m and 70 cm AT THE SAME TIME. Not sure why you would want to, but this one can only listen to one band at a time.

All in all, I love this radio and would happily buy another if it got broken.

Highly recommended.

[Swizz]

Cheers for that Jon

If i'd known you owned one i'd just have sent you an email

Right then, i guess its on the shopping list - i'm hoping to do the course over a weekend at the end of May so its head in the book time between now & then.

10 -10 (oops wrong forum) 73s i mean

[kc]

Some of the more expensive models can receive 2m and 70 cm AT THE SAME TIME. Not sure why you would want to, but this one can only listen to one band at a time.

My VX-7R has duel receive & I find it very useful. When out & about I can monitor two call frequencies or if I have time to mess about two local repeater frequencies or any combination of frequencies on 6, 2 & 70 I want.
My own opinion is that unless someone has a reason to need 70cm then why buy it. It's a ghost band in most areas & I would not spend a penny extra on it as a result.

[Guzzy]

My radio has Priority watch!

This lets you automaticaly check another specicifed frequency for activity every few seconds - works for me.

So can you actually follow two conversations at the same time then?

At the last radio boot fair (Rainham Radio Rally) we had a 2m talk in frequency and a 70cm local working (car parking, security, general organisation) frequency. A friend of mine had his VX-7R listening to both. He got so confused he had to turn off the 2m part!

I don't agree with you about 70cm not being worth using. Sure it's quiet, but it's damn fine for 'very local' comms working. It's great for organising events and such stuff - certainly saves polluting 2m with that kind of organisational chat.

Also, I'm within earshot of GB3ER (Danbury, Essex), GB3RE (Maidstone, Kent). Both 70cm repeaters. On a good day with the wind in the right direction, I've been known to access GB3CE (Colchester, Essex) and GB3NK (Erith, Kent). So I get a little bit of use out of it through the repeaters.

We even have a local operator (Maidstone) who is setting up a low power eQSO Node link on 70cm.

I want to be able to get to the top of a nice big hill/mountain with a portable directional beam for some 70cm contacts. That could be fun.

I reckon it's worth having it as an option on your radio. It can't hurt to have it.

[Swizz]

I suppose I could save +?100 and buy a dedicated 2m rig - thing is though, my ham experience so far has been listening to 70cm on a cheap scanner - it seems to be the case that 2m is quieter up here.

Most of the 70cm stuff is either heard from a repeater about 7 miles away or from an echolink repeater (unsure exactly how far away that is from home) but both are busy enough.

Is 2m far better from a range perspective? I've have heard people using it but its just that they seem few and far between (poss' due to the other local repeaters I guess)

[kc]

Distance on 2 mtrs is conciderably more than on 70cm.
For details of all local repeaters look here.
http://www.ukrepeater.net/

[Guzzy]

I suppose I could save +?100 and buy a dedicated 2m rig...

Without a doubt, most of the time you will use 2m. It sure is nice to know you have other options available to you though!

[Swizz]

http://www.ukrepeater.net/

Eh brilliant - one for the favourites file