FT-857D

Notes will be erratic for a while.

I have one of these that seems to work fairly well. 

ANTENNAS  I used an ATAS-120A hard mounted to the rear of my van.  After playing with the original setup I went to a separate dual band antenna on the front to save retuning the ATAS more than necessary.

BlueCat I invested in the module from England to tune my radio to nearby repeaters, but I lose access to the CAT port unless I unplug it.  Its handy when travelling.

MARS/CFARS   One of our frequencies is just below 7 MHz and of course out of range of the antenna’s auto-tune.  Contrary to what Yaesu told me, there is a work around.  Tune the rig to the closest frequency that the program will allow, 7.001 MHz then dial to the channel.  The swr does not indicate a problem and you can communicate.  I have not tried forcing the antenna from the panel, but I expect the results to be the same.