The price was great from Gigaparts and I wanted to use it as a remote radio. A couple days after ordering, it showed up.
I removed it from the box, connected up the power, then it was time to configure the radio and Ham Radio Deluxe to control it. I own a FT450D so I was somewhat familiar with how to set it up and some questions about certain settings were quickly answered with some internet searches.
As it came out of the box, the default microphone audio equalization settings did not make me sound as myself. A friend helped me set those up and it took some experimentation to get it close. Other than that, the radio performed well with the following exceptions.
After about a week of playing with the radio at the shack, I’ve found 1 issue with the radio and 1 with Ham Radio Deluxe that I was not able to resolve to my satisfaction and if someone can tell me how to resolve the issue with the 891, I will publicly thank you here.
First of all, Ham Radio Deluxe. I am a registered owner of the software so I do get all the latest releases. No meters were working on transmit at all. There was a TX meter function selection switch that could be added to the layout and it did change the modes on the radio. I opened a ticket with HRD support and inquired if I had a setting not enabled. The ticket was closed and the response was the meter read function in HRD for the 891 was not working. As of this date (8-8-2019) there has been nothing done. I know those guys are busy so hopefully they will get it working in the near future. Follow the link below to view the status. Or better yet, open a ticket because the more of us that ask for a fix, the sooner it will happen. https://development.hamradiodeluxe.com/view.php?id=0003409
The only issue I found that irked me was the radio does not seem to keep the IF shift settings if I change bands. I’ve looked for information how to resolve this but looks like nobody else has complained or the way to fix it is some simple thing I have overlooked.
My only gripe about the 891 is although Yaesu did include a USB port for radio control, they did not integrate a USB sound card so if you want to do anything beyond control of the radio functions, you will need a soundcard to radio interface. Since the current price of a Signal Link is over $125 new, I decided there has to be a cheaper way.
On Ebay, you can buy an Easy Digi kit for around $10. I actually bought 2 and with shipping the cost came to $18 and change. A 6 ft stereo cable with male plugs on each end was less than $4 and a PS2 3 foot long cable with male and female 6 pin Mini Din connector was 5.50. I cut the stereo cable into 2 equal lengths and wired it to the Easy Digi board for the computer sound card connection. I cut the female DIN connector off the PS2 cable, traced the wiring out, and then wired it to connect to the 891 packet radio port. The Easy Digi has a PTT circuit that operates off a serial RS232 but that is unused in mine as keying is provided by the USB control from HRD. The board was small enough that it slipped into a large prescription pill bottle and the wires were routed out through the end cap. So for less than $20, I have an alternative for the $125 signal link or other interface. And since I plan on using the radio remotely under computer control, twiddling the knobs on a Signal Link is not an issue, as all adjustments for transmit ALC is taken care of via software.