[Yaesu] FT-920 Production Bugs?

[James Cullum]

> From owner-yaesu@contesting.com Fri Mar 20 01:13:50 1998

> I hope to purchase a FT-920 soon. I have heard comments from locals
> who have the 920 experiencing problems with the radio. These are:
> 
> >1. Not full 100 watts out on all bands.( about 90 to 100)

I get about 50 - 80 watts out on SSB.  CW and RTTY runs the full
100W.  Not sure about FM and AM power out as 1.) FM is optional
(wasn't this supposed to be an "all mode" rig?) and 2.) I guess
you need the AM filter or "pass thru" AM board to get AM
to work so I haven't tried it (wasn't this supposed to be an 
"all mode" rig?).

> >
> >2. Antenna tuner when tuned, there is less power out than out of the circuit.
> >

I loose about 15 watts with the tuner in line on all bands.  Plus it 
doesn't seem like it tunes very well.  It gives up pretty easy when
the SWR starts getting high.  The tuner on my FT-890 would try all day
to get something tuned not just give up like the 920's.  Plus no
power was lost with the tuner in line.  

> >3. The display comes up a bit dim and takes about 5 minutes to full.
> >

Never noticed this problem.

> >4. The audio on the digital voice recorder sucks.

Haven't done much study on this, but some have said that the DVR
sounds "different" than the normal transmit audio.  The lack of
record level control makes it hard to know what you are recording
and the fact that you have to press 2 buttons to get it to play
makes it less than desirable for contest type settings.  I normally
use a DVP in my PC for extended recorded voice playback. 


I bought my 920 last May (?), right after they were released, so it
is from one of the 1st production runs.  After having my 920 for 
about 10 minutes I had a list of a half-a-dozen or so things that 
were not quite right with it.  HRO was kind enough to take it back 
and send me another 920.  Unfortunately, it had the same problems
as well.  I am planning on sending it in soon (before the warranty
runs out) to have everything fixed.

Other things that I have noticed:

- When using the back CW key jack the radio needs to be in full
  break-in for the radio to key.

- Stock SSB filter is poor.  INRAD will hopefully have a replacement soon.

- Key clicks in the headphone/speaker when the CW contacts are closed.

- ALC differences/readings on 10M with the tuner in/out of line.

- Lack of manual notch filer.  Not really a production problem just 
  a design issue.  Kind of hard to use the DSP auto notch filter in CW.

- Almost forgot the monitor/NB board trace bleedover problem.  Haven't
  had the monitor on in so long I forgot about it.
  
- The manual has countless mistakes in it.
  
I think that some/most of these bugs have been addressed by Yaesu.  So
you are probably safe to get one of the new ones (YMMV).  The radio has
been pretty good overall (aside from the bugs).  Having 2 key jacks
is nice.  The radio works great on FSK RTTY.  The omni-glow display
is easy to read.  The dual VFO knobs are great for working split.
The auto-notch is great for SSB.  And the DSP works pretty good at
helping out the not so great stock filters.

A great 920 resource is located at http://www.wm7d.net/hamradio/ft920.html.  
Most of your questions are probably answered on Mark's page. 

Good Luck.

Jim...  K7MK


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