Getting my Yaesu FT-857D on the new 60 meter bands
5MHz on FT-857
However things have changed and last weekend the SARL organised a whole weekend’s worth of playing on the new frequencies. Oh what is a man to do when you don’t have toys!
A quick search on Google revealed that there is a MARS mod for the FT-857D, which allows it to transmit on the 5MHz band. I’m not going to repeat all the details here but you should find the following links useful: KU4BY’s MARS mod, Jumper Sheet, Danplanet’s version, and of course Allan Kissack to mention a few.
In summary, I opened my case, unsoldered and re-soldered the jumpers as advised, reset the radio on poweron, and everything was working as expected.
A reminder that you will lose your original memory settings, so if you have a lot of memories stored you should back them up first. I don’t use memory channels so it wasn’t a challenge for me, but I tested the free “CHIRP” program and it worked perfectly.
As always, you are on your own if your actions causes damage, I’m merely relating what worked for me.
