Yaesu Ft-8500

[KB0VWG]

I just purchased a Ft-8500 and it doesn't come with the separation kit and i was wondering will a ft-100 separation kit would work on the 8500?

I have looked on eBay so far i haven't found one anywhere as of yet.
Does anyone might know where i can get a hold of one?
Thanks
kb0vwg
wqoi992

 

[kb0nly]

Your kinda up a creek if ya know what i mean...

The 8500, 8100, and FT-100 kits are all NLA and if you find one you will pay out the rear for it!! I used to have a 8100 and i was dealing with the same problem.

I ended up homebrewing a separation cable for it. Its not too difficult. I took two 6 pin modular phone jacks, the type you mount to a wall but the narrower size box, they call them a mini surface mount jack and they are just the right width to sit on the front of the radio and the back of the control head. Then i just bought a 6 pin RJ-12 phone cable, aka a three line cable. You have to make sure its a straight through cable and both ends are wired in the same color order. Then you just take the wires in the junction box off the screw terminals and snip off the rings and strip the ends. Use a low wattage iron and solder them to the contacts on the radio and on the head to make jacks on both. I just glued these boxes down with a little hot melt glue.

Just be sure that you pin them out the same, from the top of the radio down and from the top of the head down using the wire colors in the plug as a guide, you don't want the connections to get flipped or cross over.

And there you have it your very own remote head cable. I put a clamp on ferrite on each end of the phone cable just as a precaution but i never had any RF issues with it. I might still have pictures of it i would have to dig around. I sold that radio about two years ago.

 

[KB0VWG]

Thanks kb0nly

I might try that and see i did find one on qrz but he wants $80 bucks for it, I think he will be keeping his cable I am not that desperate, I would just resell the radio if I have too.
73's
kb0vwg
wqoi992

 

[W8RMH]

According to this page the 8500 and 100 kits are inter-changable.

 

[MTS2000des]

I might try that and see i did find one on qrz but he wants $80 bucks for it, I think he will be keeping his cable I am not that desperate, I would just resell the radio if I have too.
73's
kb0vwg
wqoi992

You'll have no trouble getting your money out of it if you do choose to unload it, especially if it has the "potato" mike and even rarer PL decode module.

The FT-8500 was way ahead of it's time, and a great performer. It's one radio I wish Yaesu still made.

 

[KB0VWG]

I saw that too

According to this page the 8500 and 100 kits are inter-changable.

I do have a ft-100 with a separation kit that i am not using so i will try that, when the radio gets here.
Thanks
kb0vwg
wqoi992

 

[N4KVE]

I had a 8500 in the 90's, & it was one of my favorite radios. At the time I worked in downtown Miami, & it was of the only radios I owned that wasn't an intermod sponge. The other was a Standard 5718DA. However, the radio was so deep in menu settings, that to change a PL tone, I needed the owner's manual. That's fine at home, but on the drive to work, it was frustrating. But it is a fabulous radio. While I couldn't remember how to navigate the deep menu settings, I distinctly remember where I was when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, & when he took those famous first steps. GARY N4KVE

 

[John599nj]

I got rid of my 8500 two weeks after I got it. It was a bear to program for me I like things simple in my old age. It's going to hard to find one but not impossible.

 

[gewecke]

Just a cautionary note, hopefully not off topic but both the ft-8500 and 8100 had a seriously fragile receiver in them that would have a habit of becoming "deaf" on vhf due to strong signals taking out a FET in the front end.
There was a fix for this problem on qrz.com for those with the problem - Fyi.

73,
n9zas

 

[KB0VWG]

Thats the problem with it

Just a cautionary note, hopefully not off topic but both the ft-8500 and 8100 had a seriously fragile receiver in them that would have a habit of becoming "deaf" on vhf due to strong signals taking out a FET in the front end.
There was a fix for this problem on qrz.com for those with the problem - Fyi.

73,
n9zas

I purchased that way with low receive on vhf but the uhf works fine also the vhf has low power output like maybe 2 to 3 watts on high power. I knew that when i bought it but other than that the radio looks great the main gripe i have now is programming it. I don't know if its me or the radio it seems very difficult to program. so far I have had no troubles programming any radio until, Its the Mr potato head mic that's messing me up i think. I will play around with it some more and if i don't get the hang of it then i will put it back on eBay.
Michael
kb0vwg
wqoi992