Adding a CW filter to my trusty FT-817

I decided to add a CW filter to my FT-817. Although I would hardly call it a mod, it still falls under the heading of “doing a modification” I guess, so I will describe it here.

A month or 2 ago I decided that it’s time to do another new thing in this nice Radio Amateur hobby we have. I decided to learn “the code”, a.k.a. CW, a.k.a. morse code!

I will write about my experiences in doing this some other time but suffice it to say that in CW mode you really need filters. Without a filter you can hear 5 (or more) different contacts going on at the same frequency at the same time. It’s very difficult to understand in the end who you’re talking to, especially for a person just starting out in morse code.

In the end I decided to get a 500Hz filter. This will remove more or less 80% of other signals as long as I tune (zero beat) right. The 300Hz filter would be a bit to narrow and would only work good in contest situations, not in the day to day CW contacts.

Putting the filter wasn’t much of a mod I must say. The people at Yaesu already made room for it in the transmitter and they did this pretty fool proof. You have to push the filter on top of a few pins; 3 on the left side and 4 on the right side which makes it pretty well impossible to do this wrong!

Anyway, as with my other mods I will show a few pictures of how it looks in a before and after situation.

The start; box and instructions

The start; box and instructions

The before situation. You can see at the bottom, next to the ribbon cable some open space where the filter will be placed.

The before situation. You can see at the bottom, next to the ribbon cable some open space where the filter will be placed.

A close up of the same open space where the filter will be put.

A close up of the same open space where the filter will be put.

The filter is put in. As you can see there are 3 pins on the left and 4 on the right of the filter so it's (almost) impossible to put it in the wrong way!

The filter is put in. As you can see there are 3 pins on the left and 4 on the right of the filter so it’s (almost) impossible to put it in the wrong way!

That’s it! It sounds simple, it looks simple and it was simple! 🙂


This article was first published on www.pa1ca.nl and is published here with permission of the author.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.