I bought this radio on eBay right after I got licensed … and it didn’t seem to work. I sent it off to a repair facility, they worked the machine over and sent it back saying it now worked like new. I still couldn’t hear anything on it.

I had an electrician friend put an antenna up in the attic. I could now hear a few things, but no one seemed to hear me. So, I bought another radio, and it didn’t work either! I had to send it back to the factory for repair … which fortunately was covered by warranty. It now works, kind of.

I bought a couple of hamsticks for the 20 meter ham radio band, mounted those on a pole about 25 feet off the ground in the back yard. Suddenly, my original radio worked very nicely on 20 meters. The new radio also works on 20 meters, but not nearly as nicely as the simple, older radio.

This Yaesu FT-840 has definitely found a home in my Ham Radio Shack!