This is not the first time I’ve had a FT818ND – ok, maybe it is, my first one was an FT-817ND, but effectively, they’re the same. This second time around I decided that when I got this radio I wanted to do it right, and do all the mods I wanted to do the first time around, but couldn’t afford to. My list of mods (and my thoughts on each mod) are below:
BHI NEDSP-1901
These DSP units are legendary. The 1901 is the upgraded version of the DSP for the FT-817/818. There’s a little bit of messing around to get it installed, you need to remove the main board which involves removing two ribbon cables, the RF linking cables and a 3 pin connector that runs through the main body to the lower board. The instructions are pretty good but the leads for the unit are, in my opinion, a little long. The wires in the kit could be a little shorter, but the unit fits quite well. The drilling and mounting of the keyboard is, if I’m honest, a little stressful. Drilling holes in your brand new FT-818ND is a little bit scary, and if it doesn’t scare you a little bit you’re probably doing it wrong. The pads that you have to solder the audio leads to are very small and I secured the wires with a little bit of superglue once they were soldered as to rely on the solder to protect against mechanical failure of the soldered connection on a very small pad is, in my opinion, naive at best.
I had really high hopes for this unit, and in noisy environments it really does deliver. It’s given me the ability to pull signals out of the noise when using it at home – but not better than the DSP in the FT-950 on my desk can. It’s a little slow to mute the background noise when a really strong signal comes in and a little slow to mute the audio at the end of a QSO. To work effectively you MUST tune the audio levels per the manual, I had mine in and out three times before I got these levels right.
Honestly, would I recommend this? Probably not. It’s a cool unit and it works reasonably well, but it’s not as responsive as I would expect from the money spent. It’s a difficult install that should inspire some fear in the installer, and in the field running activations I almost never use it. The noise floor is usually low enough that turning it on makes absolutely no difference at all.
BX-184 MH31 Voice Keyer
https://www.dh8bqa.de/bx-184/
https://www.box73.com/product_info.php?products_id=2360
I tried a cheap speech compressor solution that worked – but really didn’t like RF Feedback. I tried a bunch of things to cut the RF Feedback down and every time I tested it in the shack – it worked, in the field, it wouldn’t. It became pretty evident that out in the field I was going to lose my voice so I bit the bullet and bought the BX-184 Speech Compressor and voice keyer.
There’s no two ways to say this. I love this thing. It’s easy to use, fits inside the MH31 microphone case well, it’s easy to put together, the documentation is great and it works exactly as advertised. It took me about an hour to put together and i was taking my time, and that included time for my glue gun to warm up. Soldering in the jumpers was a bit of a pain and I wish the default design for the FT-817/818 would just have straight jumpers, but it is what it is. It’s not hard, just a little bit fiddly.
Out of all the mods, if you do nothing else to your radio, I would recommend this.
Windcamp Powerpole Adaptor
We’ve all seen these, they plug into the back, they work as advertised, they’re an investment in protecting the power port of your radio.
Just buy one and be done with it.
4000mAh LiPo Conversion
/https://zindello.com.au/the-ultimate-ft-817-818-internal-battery-solution-maybe/
This is a mod by my own design/making. It involves bulding a custom 3S 4000mAh LiPo pack with a BMS that has built in protection AND cell balance, as well as upping the charge rate of the radio so that the pack can be fully charged from the inbuilt charger. I’m still testing this mod but so far the test results are good. I used it on a park activation this morning that lasted about an hour and the battery didn’t even start to look like it was getting low. Power output on the FT-818ND was good and QSO reports were by all accounts good.
This is a mod I would recommend, BUT it does require removing the main board to mod the charging circuit, and this circuit is one of the few differences between the FT-817 and the FT-818 so FT-817 users you’ll have to research that mod yourself.
817iPad FT-817/818 iPad Interface
This isn’t really a mod per-se, more than it is an accessory and a shameless plug
https://zindello.com.au/shop/817ipad-ft817-ft817nd-ft818nd-ipad-audio-interface/
I use this with my iPad to run PSK-31 on my FT-818ND when I’m portable – which I haven’t really done yet. This is a rehash of a product I used to produce a number of years ago so this is a bit of a shamless plug. I do plan to do some SSTV and PSK31 from future activations and *if* anybody ever releases a FT8 app for the iPad I’ll be using this interface with it.
It reportedly also works with Android tablets, and I’m using a modified one to power a FT-212L for my home APRS Digi/IGate and it works really, really well.
And that’s it for now. I’m pretty happy with where my FT-818ND is at and I probably won’t be doing any more mods. Now it’s time to enjoy what I’ve got and go spend a bunch more time in the field.
73 de VK2MES
