[Yaesu-FT-991-group] Serial Number

My radio is 4N020430. The last owner took delivery Jan 2015.  I recently traded a IC-7100 for it.  However shortly before he saw my ad in qth.com, he had already sent the radio back to Yaesu. They up dated the Firmware, found the PA bias was out of adjustment and fixed that. Bill had a ton of issues with the ATU and the radio with or without the ATU going into HISWR. The replaced parts in the ATU and did some other mods, but would not tell him what they were or why they did them, even though he called a number of times and asked. He was very open to the condition of the radio and what he did and why before he approached me for a trade. 3 weeks later (Yaesu was slow), he got the radio back, tested it and the same day he mailed it to me and we did the trade...

Was the radio bad?  It appears so.  It also appears he headed off blown finals... 90% of the time the radio was used vhf/uhf and 10% PSK31 at 20-30 watts.  

The ATU is still as bad as the FT-450/AT I once had... 3:1 in a radio that is intended for a field radio these days is just plain stupid.... It will load my G5RV on 40 and 20 meters only. It will smooth the SWR on my vertical on 40, 20, 17, 15, and 10 meters. If I want to use it with a EndFed 9:1 unun, then the internal ATU is useless.  Luckily I have a MFJ-2289 Big Ear portable full size dipole for 20-6 meter and with the added coil a OCD for 40 and 30 meters and don't need the internal ATU. The antenna has a built in Guanella Balun and I can honestly say it is THE SINGLE BEST portable antenna I have ever used and that is a long list.

I have had the radio for only a few weeks... Still learning it. Basically a nice radio, but far from easy to use as compared to say the IC-7100, my K3 or even my KX3 and other I have had. I would rate the radio good to very good at this time but far from great. Because all the repeaters in the White mountains of AZ, where I live,  belong to clubs and they jumped at the special fusion deal, I will have this radio probably for quite awhile for C4FM/FM. At the time I have used in the radio 95% of the time for Digital using FlDigi. Soon I will tackle WSPR and WSJT-X. 5% if the time FM. I have not tried C4FM as of yet.

Just some history of radio with a S/N of 0430 and the 11 months it has been on the air..minus 4 weeks at Yaesu.  Not sure if the information is totally useful. Hope so. 

Answer

I was using a Off center Dipole and it seemed to work OK, but it has to be replaced as it was damaged earlier this year.

I installed a End Feed Antenna with a 9-1 UNUN and found the tuner would not work, seemed like the SWR would change with each transmission and sometimes took several attempts to tune the antenna with limited success.

I switch to the LDG YT-1200 and no problems on any band.

Answer

A number of radios on the market have marginal ATU's. They were designed for base station use, where the antenna SWR will be 1:1 at one end of the band and maybe 2:1 at the other. Therefore a 3:1 would work. There are other radios with ATU's that will load up a wet string. The K3/100, KX3 are two I know for sure. The T-T Eagle is a bit stupid at times and requires multiple tries, but that said will load a lot. My IC-756PROII always amazes me. It will take my 102 ft G5RV and load 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 with no problem and never more then 1.5:1 and usually less. 30 and 17 more like 2:1. 

I had he FT-450/AT and the ATU was a joke in that one too. When Yaesu sold the FT-897 they had a outboard ATU. Another piece of junk. Most everyone dumped it for the LDG AT-897. It would load well past 10:1 and was the same size and looked the same as the Yaesu junk ATU.

So recently when I did my trade I knew the ATU was going to be at best minimal and in most cases useless. The radio is designed for portable operation and to replace the FT-897/D. If you are going to have a internal ATU then only a idiot would design a 3:1 and not a 10:1 or 32:1 ATU.  Since my bad experience with a FT-857/D that was a BFC radio and fighting with Yaesu about low power and the ATAS-100 not working, I have had very little use for the Y brand. I did try the FT-450/AT. Nice radio with factory know it all limits and a useless ATU. Traded it for a real radio...IC-7200 with LDG ATU. 

In this case needed and want HF and because of repeaters using Fusion and ARES/RACES also using C4FM/FM I was basically forced to trade my IC-7100 for this radio.  Basic functions are nice, but in general the radio is hard to learn as compared to the IC-7100 and lacking features and functions. 
Would I recommend this radio at this time?  Not really....Maybe someday if Yaesu does some clean up with firmware or the users needs HF and vhf/uhf C4FM/FM..... Just my opinion at this time.. Only have had the radio for about 3 weeks... 6 months from now I will see how I really feel and do a review with eham.net. At this time it is a 3 out of 5. The lowest I have even considered for any radio. .

Answer

I added an ldg yt1200 and haven't look back. I stressed these PAs to the limit with heavy many hour cw contesting. If the manual is correct, the internal tuner will record its setting on at 2:1 or less swr. It is not a 3:1 tuner and it acts like it. I don't know why the 10 or 15 radios, out of thousands sold, get so much press on this group. An awful lot by people who don't own the radio have offered their valued opinion.