Have owned one since 2009. No problems. Only small criticism is v small adjuster for power input. Tricky for fat fingers. Otherwise, its really a gem as a shack rig. Agree, too big to carry around. G4RNW
I'm selling because I'm using the FT857D. No point in having two rigs that are basically the same expect for the packaging.....plus the FT857D is just a bit smaller than the FT897D. I suppose if I were to put an internal power supply into the 897 it would be the prefect rig to put into my camper. As Boogyman (aka KD8EFS) mentioned we have other rigs.
I know nothing about Ten Tec. I tried using a dipole for my camping, but settled on a PAC-12 vertical. I do not go mobile. Too inefficent and distracting
Burt, I used the FT 897d while travelling out west fo the past 4 years, I really liked it. I used both a home brew 40m windom along with a Z100 tuner and the ASTM 120 antennas dependiing on the location. However I selling it because now I'm use the FT 857D.... PS: I enjoyed your video about Ham Radio operators... very funny!!!! 73 W8RCM
The Pro III has amazing performance and if you can't afford a Flex... this rig is HARD to beat .. I have owned a lot of rigs and up until recent the PRO III has some of the best performance figures around... doubt that .. do some in dept reading.. you might know that already if you owned one
Have you considered the Icom IC-7000? It gives you the same digital filtering you are used to on the 756. With the 897, it uses traditional mechanical filters. It only holds two and they cost a small fortune each. So why have that when the 7000 lets you create dyanmic digital filters in software that operate as well or better then mechanical filters?
I have no Idea what Burts been smoking lately but If you know how to set up audio then the Pro 3 can produce some of the best SSB audio you can get in ham radio regardless of price, legacy or technology. I've been a ham for over 45 years and the Pro 3 was the only rig I ever owned where every time I used the rig I literally received unsolicited complements on my audio. Seriously !! Every time I used the rig I would have stations break in or contact me just to ask what kind of rig I was using because my audio sounded so good. As time went on more and more of these stations seemed shocked when I would tell them I was using a Pro-3 and a modified $9 computer headset, I guess they thought I should have been running 100's of dollars worth of Heil audio gear and 1000's of dollars worth of outboard audio processing gear.. I suppose this just proves how consumerist and dumbed down our hobby has slowly become.. I've owned every Flex radio and Elecraft ever made and so far I've never had a single station break in to complement me on the rigs audio, You would think that for what the Flex 5000 costs I might at least get one or two unsolicited complements on my audio. yet so far all I've managed to get are complaints about excessive IMD products. My Flex has been back to the factory 3 times and they still cant seem to get the transmitters excessive IMD products sorted out. I suppose it's fine for a CB or if you never plan on using an amplifier with it but the IMD products are far to excessive for clean amplifier use. If you hook up a Flex radio to a legal limit amp you'll wind up splattering the whole damn band with IMD products which is pretty much what's happened to our bands . The Flex may have a great CW receiver but its transmit spectral purity is no better than some cheap Chinese CB radios .. Sherwood among many other well respect names in ham radio have all confirmed that the Flex and Elecraft line of radios currently have some of the worst transmitter performance on the market. There are rigs available for a fraction of the cost which have far better transmitter performance. Keep in mind Flex and Elecraft market hype their CW receiver performance and not their transmitter performance nor the phone performance.. The IMD products generated by the Elecraft and the Flex line of transmitters is so bad that Rob Sherwood himself use's 2 tone IMD plots from a Flex or Elecraft transmitter as an example of how poor transmitter performance has become when he does his presentations. Also if you take a close look at Burts video it becomes obvious that he like many hams have no clue how to use their equipment which probably explains why he thinks the pro 3 is unremarkable, the fact is it's his lack of skill that makes the pro 3's performance unremarkable because in the hands of a skilled ham radio operator the pro 3 can produce a fantastic signal.. Fist thing to note is Burts not using any compression whatsoever. According to US military research SSB audio requires a minimum of about 3db of compression. The pro 3 was designed to use compression on SSB and it starts to sound really REALLY good with about 5 db of compression and depending on your voice characteristics audio quality will start to drop of quickly after about 10 db. Again this is all dependent on your voice characteristics I have met a few people with excessively mousy voices who needed as much as 12db of compression and lots of tweaking of the bass and treble controls likewise I've met people with heavy voices who needed much less. Then I have met people with muddy or excessively breathy voices (Read Smokers Voice) who nothing short of a multi million dollar industrial light and magic sound studio could help.. Personally I think Burt's voice would greatly benefit from around 3 to 5 db of SSB compression. Unfortunately it seems as though Burt might be using an incompatible after market mic with his Pro 3, This coupled with the fact that he's not using any compression has forced him to crank the mic gain up out of its linear region. According to the video the mic gain is set at a whopping 100 percent. This excessively high level of mic gain is generating all sorts of distortion on his signal. For best audio amplifier linearity and sound quality you should never really use more then about 25 percent of the pro 3's available mic gain . If the audio out of your mic is so low that you absolutely must use more than 25 percent mic gain then you need a pre amp or a mic that has a closer input match to the pro 3's requirements, if your not looking for superb audio quality then you can probably get away with as much as 50 percent gain but don't expect any complements on your audio .. Furthermore I would have to question the intellect of anyone who would chose an FT857d over a Pro3 for use in a MOTOR HOME. Anyone who would do this is obviously is an idiot or simply just has no clue. I have both these rigs sitting in front of me and the FT857d isn't even in the same league let alone the same ball game. It's a fine rig for use in a compact car or for portable use but if you have the room there are much better rigs out there. As far as his motor home is concerned well I have a 45 foot sailboat which I'm sure is much more cramped and I have a pro 3 aboard it so it shouldn't be an issue.. trust me I would find a way to make it fit before I would swap it for an FT857d Just a quick side note about my comments regarding the Flex and Elecraft line of SDR products. I'm not trying to be overly critical or insultive of these products. The fact is I'm an early adopter of this technology and am fully aware of its limitations. I have owned every Flex ever built and I have had a full K3 station. My point is that SDR technology is still in it's infancy and while SDR technology has matured enough to produce a fantastic receiver its still far too immature to produce anything close to an acceptable transmitter, although they could start by getting rid of the cheep 12 volt CB finials.. The fact that so many hams fail to acknowledge the limitations of this new technology just proves how dumbed down our hobby has become. In my 45 years as a ham some of the worst signals I have seen outside 11 meters have been from hams running Flex radios hooked up to legal limit amps and driving Stepir's, Unfortunate the best roofing filters in the world wont do you a damn bit of good when a station like that is producing S9+ IMD products right smack in the middle of your audio pass band.
I'm selling because I'm using the FT857D. No point in having two rigs that are basically the same expect for the packaging.....plus the FT857D is just a bit smaller than the FT897D. I suppose if I were to put an internal power supply into the 897 it would be the prefect rig to put into my camper. As Boogyman (aka KD8EYO) mentioned we have other rigs. listening 7.139
Have owned one since 2009. No problems. Only small criticism is v small adjuster for power input. Tricky for fat fingers. Otherwise, its really a gem as a shack rig. Agree, too big to carry around. G4RNW
Burt,Nice radio! I just picked one up in an estate sale and have made several RTTY & CW contacts with it. Ron NF2O in Milton is a friend of mine, too.
I'm selling because I'm using the FT857D. No point in having two rigs that are basically the same expect for the packaging.....plus the FT857D is just a bit smaller than the FT897D. I suppose if I were to put an internal power supply into the 897 it would be the prefect rig to put into my camper. As Boogyman (aka KD8EFS) mentioned we have other rigs.
I know nothing about Ten Tec. I tried using a dipole for my camping, but settled on a PAC-12 vertical. I do not go mobile. Too inefficent and distracting
Burt,
I used the FT 897d while travelling out west fo the past 4 years, I really liked it. I used both a home brew 40m windom along with a Z100 tuner and the ASTM 120 antennas dependiing on the location. However I selling it because now I'm use the FT 857D....
PS: I enjoyed your video about Ham Radio operators... very funny!!!!
73
W8RCM
Have you noticed any DSP artifacts (crackles, pops, distortion, etc.) on CW receive? Especially in 'filter 1' mode?
What is the difference between television, pizza and Corvette?
Where in the video did I say that?
i would love to have skill on radio like you
Where are you selling it?
ih, i just waslooking at your 756pro111 ,, did you sell you pro,or trade it ,yet.... if not i have a yaesu 857 pluss some money diff........???
Gone long ago
You are saying if there was no Flex would I say it is the best rig I ever owned? I could I say that if there was no Flex?
I keep thinking he is saying Encom, my love of Tron is dear.
The Pro III has amazing performance and if you can't afford a Flex... this rig is HARD to beat .. I have owned a lot of rigs and up until recent the PRO III has some of the best performance figures around... doubt that .. do some in dept reading.. you might know that already if you owned one
Have you considered the Icom IC-7000? It gives you the same digital filtering you are used to on the 756. With the 897, it uses traditional mechanical filters. It only holds two and they cost a small fortune each. So why have that when the 7000 lets you create dyanmic digital filters in software that operate as well or better then mechanical filters?
I have no Idea what Burts been smoking lately but If you know how to set up audio then the Pro 3 can produce some of the best SSB audio you can get in ham radio regardless of price, legacy or technology.
I've been a ham for over 45 years and the Pro 3 was the only rig I ever owned where every time I used the rig I literally received unsolicited complements on my audio. Seriously !! Every time I used the rig I would have stations break in or contact me just to ask what kind of rig I was using because my audio sounded so good. As time went on more and more of these stations seemed shocked when I would tell them I was using a Pro-3 and a modified $9 computer headset, I guess they thought I should have been running 100's of dollars worth of Heil audio gear and 1000's of dollars worth of outboard audio processing gear.. I suppose this just proves how consumerist and dumbed down our hobby has slowly become..
I've owned every Flex radio and Elecraft ever made and so far I've never had a single station break in to complement me on the rigs audio, You would think that for what the Flex 5000 costs I might at least get one or two unsolicited complements on my audio. yet so far all I've managed to get are complaints about excessive IMD products.
My Flex has been back to the factory 3 times and they still cant seem to get the transmitters excessive IMD products sorted out. I suppose it's fine for a CB or if you never plan on using an amplifier with it but the IMD products are far to excessive for clean amplifier use. If you hook up a Flex radio to a legal limit amp you'll wind up splattering the whole damn band with IMD products which is pretty much what's happened to our bands .
The Flex may have a great CW receiver but its transmit spectral purity is no better than some cheap Chinese CB radios .. Sherwood among many other well respect names in ham radio have all confirmed that the Flex and Elecraft line of radios currently have some of the worst transmitter performance on the market. There are rigs available for a fraction of the cost which have far better transmitter performance.
Keep in mind Flex and Elecraft market hype their CW receiver performance and not their transmitter performance nor the phone performance.. The IMD products generated by the Elecraft and the Flex line of transmitters is so bad that Rob Sherwood himself use's 2 tone IMD plots from a Flex or Elecraft transmitter as an example of how poor transmitter performance has become when he does his presentations.
Also if you take a close look at Burts video it becomes obvious that he like many hams have no clue how to use their equipment which probably explains why he thinks the pro 3 is unremarkable, the fact is it's his lack of skill that makes the pro 3's performance unremarkable because in the hands of a skilled ham radio operator the pro 3 can produce a fantastic signal..
Fist thing to note is Burts not using any compression whatsoever. According to US military research SSB audio requires a minimum of about 3db of compression. The pro 3 was designed to use compression on SSB and it starts to sound really REALLY good with about 5 db of compression and depending on your voice characteristics audio quality will start to drop of quickly after about 10 db. Again this is all dependent on your voice characteristics I have met a few people with excessively mousy voices who needed as much as 12db of compression and lots of tweaking of the bass and treble controls likewise I've met people with heavy voices who needed much less. Then I have met people with muddy or excessively breathy voices (Read Smokers Voice) who nothing short of a multi million dollar industrial light and magic sound studio could help.. Personally I think Burt's voice would greatly benefit from around 3 to 5 db of SSB compression.
Unfortunately it seems as though Burt might be using an incompatible after market mic with his Pro 3, This coupled with the fact that he's not using any compression has forced him to crank the mic gain up out of its linear region. According to the video the mic gain is set at a whopping 100 percent. This excessively high level of mic gain is generating all sorts of distortion on his signal. For best audio amplifier linearity and sound quality you should never really use more then about 25 percent of the pro 3's available mic gain . If the audio out of your mic is so low that you absolutely must use more than 25 percent mic gain then you need a pre amp or a mic that has a closer input match to the pro 3's requirements, if your not looking for superb audio quality then you can probably get away with as much as 50 percent gain but don't expect any complements on your audio ..
Furthermore I would have to question the intellect of anyone who would chose an FT857d over a Pro3 for use in a MOTOR HOME. Anyone who would do this is obviously is an idiot or simply just has no clue. I have both these rigs sitting in front of me and the FT857d isn't even in the same league let alone the same ball game. It's a fine rig for use in a compact car or for portable use but if you have the room there are much better rigs out there. As far as his motor home is concerned well I have a 45 foot sailboat which I'm sure is much more cramped and I have a pro 3 aboard it so it shouldn't be an issue.. trust me I would find a way to make it fit before I would swap it for an FT857d
Just a quick side note about my comments regarding the Flex and Elecraft line of SDR products. I'm not trying to be overly critical or insultive of these products. The fact is I'm an early adopter of this technology and am fully aware of its limitations. I have owned every Flex ever built and I have had a full K3 station. My point is that SDR technology is still in it's infancy and while SDR technology has matured enough to produce a fantastic receiver its still far too immature to produce anything close to an acceptable transmitter, although they could start by getting rid of the cheep 12 volt CB finials.. The fact that so many hams fail to acknowledge the limitations of this new technology just proves how dumbed down our hobby has become. In my 45 years as a ham some of the worst signals I have seen outside 11 meters have been from hams running Flex radios hooked up to legal limit amps and driving Stepir's, Unfortunate the best roofing filters in the world wont do you a damn bit of good when a station like that is producing S9+ IMD products right smack in the middle of your audio pass band.
in this case I agree.. the PRO III is a amazing rig, why sell?
After reading this, I'm happy I bought my pro 3 now.
Best sounding station on 27.385
CB trash.
lol now I got an acom 1000 with it.
So should I get the FT857D instead of the 897D?
Well it's smaller and it cost less.
listening 7.139
No, but I also sold it
I have, see my Flex, AL-811 videos
I bought a Flex 5000A, the best
lots of static. ya no shit the nb is off
Aren't you the kid that I talked to that sounded intelligent and now you make a dumb ass comment like the above?
Burp, check your ego.
Such a brave man name calling as you hide behind your keyboard. I bet you have facial hair.
Burp Analfisher.
Why is man in your name? I bet you have facial hair to try and look like the man you are not.
I'm selling because I'm using the FT857D. No point in having two rigs that are basically the same expect for the packaging.....plus the FT857D is just a bit smaller than the FT897D. I suppose if I were to put an internal power supply into the 897 it would be the prefect rig to put into my camper. As Boogyman (aka KD8EYO) mentioned we have other rigs.
listening 7.139