Yaesu: Looking for some help with getting the FT-817 on HF.

[Shanecopps]

Hi folks.
I just got my General about a month ago and have been putting together some parts and stuff to put my HF up. I am starting with an Ft-817, to a ATU-100 tuner to a Off center dipole antenna. One of the things I don't know much about or understand is the power on the 817. I set this up today and when I tried to tune the atu, I was getting a power output of 1.8 W. I have it plugged into external power and it has 11.8 V. I also tried with a different set up for power and had 13.8 volts. I changed the power settings and the best I saw on the ATU was 1.8 W of transmit power. The 817 is supposed to transmit at 5 w (or 6w depending on what site you look at) when hooked to power.

Any thoughts on what might be going on. I have worked through numerous websites and youtube videos and this just doesn't seem to be an issue because everyone just says it should be 5 watts when you apply external power.

Thank you everyone.

 

[hill]

Do you have it set for low power?

Also for a new ham you will frustrated trying to make contacts at 5 watts. You should at least start with a radio that can do 100 watts.

QRP is really only good to use with experienced hams.

 

[Shanecopps]

I tried all the settings on the 817 and the best I got was 1.8. After that I had 1.3, .7 and .3 W

I got this radio given to me so I was trying to make it work. I have been toying with the idea of getting another radio but I hoped I would not need one.

 

[lamarrsy]

But isn’t the 817 an 1.5 watts AMer radio ?
It puts out 5 watts on SSB, but only1.5 watts on AM if I remember correctly, so I would tend to say that your readings are “in specs.

 

[ak7an]

Put the 817 in CW mode push the MOX and I bet you will see 5 watts..

 

[adhoc]

Did you check the manual?

There are 4 power levels. Visual indicators for power levels are not conventional.

Read up.

 

[Shanecopps]

Adhoc, YES, I read the manual,four times in fact. I came on here and asked for help because I couldn't find anything else to read.

AK7an: Thanks for that Idea, I was running in FM because that is what I read I was supposed to tune on. Thank you.

lamarrsy, Thank you as well, I have the radio on FM to tune it, I will try it on SSB. I appreciate the help.

 

[WA8ZTZ]

... I will try it on SSB. I appreciate the help.

Be aware that tuning up in SSB will produce no power out unless you speak into the mic.