A new addition to the Shack - the Yaesu FT-891

My original shack in a box portable set up used the FT-450D.

This is a smashing little radio except in my portable setup it includes an auto-tuner with limited capability and I integrated the Power Supply.

The whole thing along with a fairly large mounting bracket was a little large and quite heavy to carry.

I decided a diet was in order and when the FT-891 came along it seemed the perfect rig being of mobile form factor and 100 watts

I learned a lot from building and using my original shack in a box so the new system includes

• Flip off front (rather than a fold down front)
• Microphone holder
• FSKit RTTY interface and sound card
• Volt meter
• FT-891 
• LDG Auto tuner

I excluded the power supply

As you can see it all fit in a neat little box with power, CW USB cables and antenna sockets at the rear.

The RTTY interface includes a volt meter so I can keep an eye on the batter volts whilst portable.

I ditched the mains power supply. I figured I could carry this separately and leave it behind if I intend to work of a battery.

The FT-891 really is a smashing little transceiver, like the FT450 no filters required but the filtering and DSP in the the FT-891 seems much more flexible. It really wowed me. It a step change from the FT-450D and would recommend it to anyone looking to go portable or mobile.

It also has excellent stability so I bought a second one to replace my old 2m 28Mhz IF

I use an FT-891 to drive my Kuhne Electronics transverter. A simple switching box ensures the 5 watts power is fed through a 20db attenuator to achieve the necessary drive. The transverter is GPS locked and after 3 minutes warm up listening to GB3VHF the stability of the rig is shown to be excellent with virtually no drift.

I tried an outboard speaker but the internal speaker is so good I stopped using it!