This is my 3rd purchase of the 718 as a backup / beginner rig, and because there are so many, thought I'd throw out some tips without trying to repeat 20 years of reviews elsewhere.
First one circa 2001 or so: I already had an R75 decked out with expensive filtering. Needed a backup / portable so the 718 was a natural choice. Sure enough, like most, I just cranked the rf-gain wide open, and when signals got weak, I hit the preamp. Caught some dx that way, but grimaced with listener fatigue very shortly.
Problem was that I didn't know how to drive it properly. I should have cranked the rf-gain down, or use the attenuator, and turn the volume up!
AGC: Wow, compared to the s-meter action of the R75 when using medium or fast agc, somehow the 718 just didn't seem as good. I knew going in that the R75 was a superior triple-conversion receiver with my additional crystal filters, and the 718 was double-conversion with ceramics, but really? That much of a difference? Perhaps the fast agc is a design decision so that beginners would be more able to cope with fast selective fading. Possibly related to the commerical marine radio, where qso's and contests are not the norm, but just fast and short comms.
I voided the warranty and did the jumper mod to slow it down a little. I don't need to do that this time with better driving. Maybe if I get bored, but not absolutely necessary when driven properly.
No FM? Design decision - if FM had been available, that would have meant a very wide 15khz roofing filter. With no FM, that roofing filter is about 7.5K, which helps with less expensive design. Ok.
Front panel speaker: Of course, utilitarian at best, but at least it's something. When using that, one is tempted to use the IF shift as a total tone-control, and may not be using a good part of the passband. Solution is to use an external speaker. Suggest making a lifetime inve$tment into an overpriced one with passive low and high cut filters. My Yaesu SP2000 does great for rigs like this. Even with this for normal use, offsetting the IF shift a bit clockwise for USB, and a bit counter-clockwise for LSB is the rule of the day. Rarely do I leave it centered, but with an external speaker, I don't go to extremes like I would with the internal speaker using the if-shift as a faux tone control.
Mic: sure enough, a better mic is suggested.
2nd one: static killed the vfo:
The perfect storm - despite having the rig grounded, I shot a blue lightning bolt into the vfo and sold the rig to a guy who would fix it.
Lesson learned - During a winter windstorm, with the house heater cranking, I shuffled over to the rig with my work shoes on over the carpet and touched the vfo. ZAAAP.
Don't do that. In fact, I'm very paranoid now, so every time I walk away and return to the rig, I touch something metal, or at least TAP one of the REAR case shell screws. I've seen repair articles about this, but I'm just going to be much more careful this time around.
3rd time around:
Now that I know how to drive it, I'm much happier. The S-meter is notoriously innaccurate, but I'm not addicted to smashing s-meters these days. Once contact is established, I crank rf down or attenuate. This is a little more hands-on than other radios, but if you do that, even a 20 year old inexpensive design can sound really good.
AF-DSP improvement. Along with that, the simple UT-106 dsp works much better than it did before when I just had everything cranked wide. Whaddy'a know? It actually works - at least as well as a 20 year old audio dsp can. No muddy voices or watery sounds - although you CAN push it that far. This time around, my dsp settings are much lower. The auto-dnr notch filter works better too.
Quite frankly, I don't think I'm going to do the slow agc mod this time around. I'm going to be driving it properly anyway, rarely letting any signal get above S9 after contact. Down comes the gain! Sounds great.
These days, this 3rd one is my backup transceiver, and currently doing most of it's duty on rx-only with a special on-ground choked loop seen elsewhere here. The 718 gobbles up the s/n of that antenna like no tomorrow.
I won't go into comparisons to other radios and whether it's cost-effective to throw crystal filters and external speakers and so forth into it with todays environment. But I will say that there are bunches of them around, and the known issues are easy to deal with.
Protect that vfo from physical shock! Improper storage, or sliding it out of the carton face down onto the rug is not suggested. Be careful.
I thought I was crazy picking one of these up again - new - but I'm very happy with it for what it is. This time, I think she stays in the shack!
First one circa 2001 or so: I already had an R75 decked out with expensive filtering. Needed a backup / portable so the 718 was a natural choice. Sure enough, like most, I just cranked the rf-gain wide open, and when signals got weak, I hit the preamp. Caught some dx that way, but grimaced with listener fatigue very shortly.
Problem was that I didn't know how to drive it properly. I should have cranked the rf-gain down, or use the attenuator, and turn the volume up!
AGC: Wow, compared to the s-meter action of the R75 when using medium or fast agc, somehow the 718 just didn't seem as good. I knew going in that the R75 was a superior triple-conversion receiver with my additional crystal filters, and the 718 was double-conversion with ceramics, but really? That much of a difference? Perhaps the fast agc is a design decision so that beginners would be more able to cope with fast selective fading. Possibly related to the commerical marine radio, where qso's and contests are not the norm, but just fast and short comms.
I voided the warranty and did the jumper mod to slow it down a little. I don't need to do that this time with better driving. Maybe if I get bored, but not absolutely necessary when driven properly.
No FM? Design decision - if FM had been available, that would have meant a very wide 15khz roofing filter. With no FM, that roofing filter is about 7.5K, which helps with less expensive design. Ok.
Front panel speaker: Of course, utilitarian at best, but at least it's something. When using that, one is tempted to use the IF shift as a total tone-control, and may not be using a good part of the passband. Solution is to use an external speaker. Suggest making a lifetime inve$tment into an overpriced one with passive low and high cut filters. My Yaesu SP2000 does great for rigs like this. Even with this for normal use, offsetting the IF shift a bit clockwise for USB, and a bit counter-clockwise for LSB is the rule of the day. Rarely do I leave it centered, but with an external speaker, I don't go to extremes like I would with the internal speaker using the if-shift as a faux tone control.
Mic: sure enough, a better mic is suggested.
2nd one: static killed the vfo:
The perfect storm - despite having the rig grounded, I shot a blue lightning bolt into the vfo and sold the rig to a guy who would fix it.
Lesson learned - During a winter windstorm, with the house heater cranking, I shuffled over to the rig with my work shoes on over the carpet and touched the vfo. ZAAAP.
Don't do that. In fact, I'm very paranoid now, so every time I walk away and return to the rig, I touch something metal, or at least TAP one of the REAR case shell screws. I've seen repair articles about this, but I'm just going to be much more careful this time around.
3rd time around:
Now that I know how to drive it, I'm much happier. The S-meter is notoriously innaccurate, but I'm not addicted to smashing s-meters these days. Once contact is established, I crank rf down or attenuate. This is a little more hands-on than other radios, but if you do that, even a 20 year old inexpensive design can sound really good.
AF-DSP improvement. Along with that, the simple UT-106 dsp works much better than it did before when I just had everything cranked wide. Whaddy'a know? It actually works - at least as well as a 20 year old audio dsp can. No muddy voices or watery sounds - although you CAN push it that far. This time around, my dsp settings are much lower. The auto-dnr notch filter works better too.
Quite frankly, I don't think I'm going to do the slow agc mod this time around. I'm going to be driving it properly anyway, rarely letting any signal get above S9 after contact. Down comes the gain! Sounds great.
These days, this 3rd one is my backup transceiver, and currently doing most of it's duty on rx-only with a special on-ground choked loop seen elsewhere here. The 718 gobbles up the s/n of that antenna like no tomorrow.
I won't go into comparisons to other radios and whether it's cost-effective to throw crystal filters and external speakers and so forth into it with todays environment. But I will say that there are bunches of them around, and the known issues are easy to deal with.
Protect that vfo from physical shock! Improper storage, or sliding it out of the carton face down onto the rug is not suggested. Be careful.
I thought I was crazy picking one of these up again - new - but I'm very happy with it for what it is. This time, I think she stays in the shack!
Last edited by a moderator:
