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FT991 issues?
4 December 2015 | by It looks like Yaesu have had some quality control issues with some FT991 transceivers, although I am unsure what percentage of units sold are effected. It does not look good though. It is always wise to wait a while so these initial issues are ironed out. In Yaesu’s defence, I have had an FT817 (original version with the old PA) for about 15 years and it still works as well as ever. I love it.
10 Responses to “FT991 issues?”
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This is not very encouraging… I just shipped out my IC-7100 with IT100 for a straight trade for a FT-991..One that just came back from Yaesu for ATU problems and I guess they did a couple of hardware mods and firmware updates… Reason for trade? I live in the mountains of AZ and all the clubs jumped at the Yaesu Fussion repeater deals. So all our club repeaters, ARES, RACES and EMCOMM will be using Yeasu Fussion…. IC-7100 is D-Star and we have nothing even close. So I figured this would be great trade… Hope I did not make a serious mistake….. aaaarrrgggghhhh
My friend had the PA fail. Yaesu UK replaced the PA within a week. He was only run 10 watts when it happened. All is well now however.
Got the FT-991 I traded my IC-7100 for Saturday. Nice looking radio. Before it was sent Yaesu did the latest firmware update and a RF amp bias adjustment.. Got a flashback of when my FT-857/D joined the Yaesu BFC (Blone Final Club)…Seems they replaced the bad parts and did of all things a bias adjustments.. Looks like Yaesu did not learn from past mistakes…Also in the Yahoo FT-991 users group and couple of more radios died…as in no output power.. The radio I have is serial number 430. Shipped 1/15. I am hoping my work in progress radio will be stable. Time will tell. I did get Fldigi up and running last night before bed time.. 20 meters was dead so will do my first digital contact today and maybe a SSB or two…
I bought my Yaesu FT-991 Sep. 2015, after tuning with LDG YT-1200 and few cycles of ATU, the output across all bands and modes dropped to less than 10 w(with 100w set up for PO), I have seen this issue appears to be experienced by several owners as seen here and ft991.blogspot, I am now in a process to ship back to original dealer in China for repairing, I updated the firmware but this problem stays. Will update. 73s KIM BX2AEK, Taiwan
should I buy the 991 want for wires x c4fm
have dstar dont care about HF on this radio.
Will YAESU have the bugs worked out by Dayton?
HI reading what I have seen I would not now buy one, I am on my 4rd 991 all had PA issues
BR
Andrew
oops I mean 3rd FT991
Got my FT-991 on Sep 22, 2016 — Right after the 991A was announced. Have used it a few times and I really like the rig. I use it with a G5RV, which has an swr on some portions of some bands that is above 2:1. The built-in ATU can not handle anything above 2:1. I found the menu item that allowed me to turn off the internal ATU. I use my old LDG Z100 with good results. I was thinking that some of the problems with blown finals might be due to leaving the internal ATU activated, with an external unit too. Just a thought.
73.
Hi Folks
Well I bought a new 991 in April 2016 and it has worked faultlessly ever since including taking on a DXpedition to Lundy Island where the mains is off generators with their associated drops and spikes.I also use it as a portable rig and in the 2m & 70cms UKAC contests.
It’s a great little rig and so is my base station 3000.
Have fun
I have worked on some of these miniaturized Yeasue’s. The problem I experienced is the final stage was unstable and would break into 40Mhz oscillations on 20M. This of course was out of band and would create a lot of SWR such that the protection circuit try’s cut the power back. But the self oscillation is not controllable by the APC and the finals would over heat. dah… too much crap in a little form factor.