I have the '817ND...great rig! The extra watt you get with the '818 will be negligible on the receive end so I probably won't be updating. For CW ops, the 500 Hz and 300 Hz Collins mechanical filters are almost impossible to find these days. I was fortunate to get both years ago and have the 500 Hz filter installed in my unit with the 300 Hz filter as a spare. In my opinion, the '817/818 series are amongst the best qrp rigs ever made as they offer high performance, small size and light weight and are built like a tank.
Nothing else like it for portable operating. The ability to sling it round the neck and access the controls and the front antenna socket are a big plus. Also the multimode VHF and UHF. The Achilles heel in my opinion is the difficulty obtaining optional filters now, which is likely to be a headache for CW operators.
Great video and great topic Tony. This was a question I called the shop to ask a couple of months ago. Regarding which rig to get and if the 818 was still a good buy. Motters M7TRS 73 👍🏻
I love using my Yaesu MD-100 desktop microphone 🎤 with this radio. Much better than a hand mic, a big feature for me. I hear the ICOM 705 isn't compatible with a desk mic?
I worked 37 states before I moved with a Heathkit HW 8 which is direct conversion. No filters except an audio filter. They would be nice to have but not really necessary. A lot of cw was copied on BC 342’s.
I can't figure why Yaesu are still making this radio in it's present form. I can only assume it's still selling well which is surprising as it's an old radio at new prices. If Yaesu kept the same or similar form factor, updated the tech, gave it better on board filtration instead of relying on filters they don't even make anymore and maybe a tad bigger screen it'd bring it up to date and I'd have one. Maybe Yaesu have something in the pipeline?
Just bought the ft818nd. The only downside to the radio is ssb audio. Even at 100% ssb gain it's not enough for hf use. Why they never added mic Compression is beyond me.