Posted: 4/19/2012 11:56:49 AM EDT
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Anyone have an FT-857? I just picked one up, planning to use mostly for portable HF. The only contact I have made on it has been on 440 through a local repeater, with a good antenna and coax that I have previously used with other 440 rigs with great success. My reports have been that I have very weak audio, and I have even used the repeaters play back feature to listen to my own audio. I have been told it sounds like a good signal, but just with very low audio, and I concur with what I hear as well. I had adjusted the FM mic gain up and down to no avail. It just sounds terrible.
In doing research about the stock mic on the 857, it seems like most people change them, or add the W4RT One Big Punch because the stock mic is an under performer. But I don't really see reviews that I would consider to be as bad as the performance I am experiencing. I plan to do a factory reset tonight, just in case by chance I inadvertantly changed a menu setting when learning how to operate the rig. My question to other 857 owners, does the stock mic really suck this bad or might I have another issue? |
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It sounds like you need to check your FM mic gain setting in Menu 051 as it is set too low. I would do a hard reset of the radio to clear your memories and restore the radio to factory defaults. Check your manual for instructions on how to do this. There is no telling how the previous owner had the radio set. A reset usually cures most problems and allows you to customize it to your style of operation.
You do not need the W4RT processor for FM operation, but it maybe helpful to boost your SSB audio though. FT-857 Manual PDF |
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I have adjusted the FM Mic gain settings some. Surely there is more to do. The radio was purchased new, so any menu messups fall squarely on me. Tonight, I'll try to get on and check it out on 2M and try and make an HF contact as well. If I don't find happiness by Saturday, I guess I will be going back to HRO to see what they have to say. Luckily, that's not too far from me.
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Turn your FM mic gain to 70 or more to get it to sound right. Mine needed to be set at 90 to have adequate audio output. The stock microphone is not the issue with the FT-857, its the built in speech processor. The speech processor is disabled in FM mode, so it will have no effect on your audio. I never used the speech processor on HF, as heavily processed SSB usually sounds like crap. I just found the right setting for the mic gain and left it alone after that.
If you bought a brand new rig, take time to read the manual. Also find someone that knows your voice to help you set it up. Most of the time if I ask for a audio report I will get all kinds of replies. I have found that most hams are deaf and have no clue what a properly adjusted radio sounds like. The FT-857 is a great rig, but its not plug and play. It will take time for you to understand the menus and how to best adjust it to suit your voice. If there is a problem with the radio, I am sure HRO will make it right for you. |
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Quoted:
Turn your FM mic gain to 70 or more to get it to sound right. Mine needed to be set at 90 to have adequate audio output. The stock microphone is not the issue with the FT-857, its the built in speech processor. The speech processor is disabled in FM mode, so it will have no effect on your audio. I never used the speech processor on HF, as heavily processed SSB usually sounds like crap. I just found the right setting for the mic gain and left it alone after that. If you bought a brand new rig, take time to read the manual. Also find someone that knows your voice to help you set it up. Most of the time if I ask for a audio report I will get all kinds of replies. I have found that most hams are deaf and have no clue what a properly adjusted radio sounds like. The FT-857 is a great rig, but its not plug and play. It will take time for you to understand the menus and how to best adjust it to suit your voice. If there is a problem with the radio, I am sure HRO will make it right for you. Yup. Mine, however it set for the default 50 in menu 51 |
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Thanks for the feedback. I did the factory reset and disconnect all accessories and the audio output is now in within an acceptable scope. I received better audio reports and was able to monitor myself on the repeater tonight and it sounds MUCH better. Glad to have that straightened out. Now I will add accessories back piece by piece and see if I can identify if one particular part causes an issue.
I have read the manual, and the relevant parts a couple of times, but my head was spinning at first last week when I got this rig and wanted to get it set up and make some contacts. I now know what people mean when they comment about the menu systems on these Yaesu's. It will be doable, but man, that's a lot of menu! |
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Quoted:
Thanks for the feedback. I did the factory reset and disconnect all accessories and the audio output is now in within an acceptable scope. I received better audio reports and was able to monitor myself on the repeater tonight and it sounds MUCH better. Glad to have that straightened out. Now I will add accessories back piece by piece and see if I can identify if one particular part causes an issue. I have read the manual, and the relevant parts a couple of times, but my head was spinning at first last week when I got this rig and wanted to get it set up and make some contacts. I now know what people mean when they comment about the menu systems on these Yaesu's. It will be doable, but man, that's a lot of menu! Good job! I am happy to hear that your FT-857 is working as it should. Yes.....the menus are a bear. I had to do a hard reset more than a couple of times when I got everything mucked up. 
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| The good news is while playing with the radio tonight I heard a strong station coming in from Lithuania jumped over to the IC-718 which was still setup and got a quick DX on. My original plan was to get rid of the 718 after getting up and running with the 857. I can sense already that I am going to end up with 2 HF capable rigs. I'll dig the 718 in for a permanent shack rig and use the 857 portable. This black radio disease is turning out to be easy to catch. :) |
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Quoted:
I'm looking into the MH59 multi function mic. It's supposed to have a lot of audio drive and you really need to turn the mic gain down. It also allows direct frequency, DTMF, and a host of other functions from the mic. I would say skip it. Even with the SSB gain all the way down and processing off, I still got bad audio quality reports... |