FT920 owner comments

From KE1EB

I notice you've got a web page on the FT920 and thought you might be interesting in a problem I had with one I owned briefly.

The problem was audible noise most likely in the late stages of the audio amplifier caused by the transient of the "dah" contact closure when using a paddle. The radio did not have to be on the air for this to occur. My first reaction was that I had a bad solder connection or the contacts on the paddle needed to be cleaned. After swapping the phono jack, cable, and which side of the paddle makes the "dit" and "dah", I decided the problem was inside the radio.

As I mentioned before, the radio did not have to be on the air for the problem to occur. In fact, you could completely dial down the audio gain, turn the side tone volume all the way down and hear nothing but the noise when operating the paddle. Repeated "dahs" produced by holding the paddle down did not cause it so it's not the internal keyer. Only the transient of the closing (and open) of the "dah" side of the paddle.

So, I hauled the unit back to HRO who discovered that the demo unit they had on the floor did the same thing with their paddle or mine. As they had no confidence that the next one out of their stock room would not have the same problem, they refunded my money. Both the unit I had and the one at HRO which showed the same behavior were from lot 7f030.

I suppose if Yaesu had an explaination and fix for the problem I'd consider picking up another one, but as of a couple of days ago they had not resonded to HRO's inquiry. I was otherwise quite happy with the rig. My guess is an op amp in need of a bypass capacitor or one with a bad capacitor.

If you're a "phone only sort", you might call this a minor flaw. If you like to operate CW with headphones, in my opinion, this is a major annoyance.

73,

- M (ke1eb)

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