Values are estimates from recent comparable sales — condition, accessories, and included extras vary. Always compare before buying.
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Median sold price per month, trailing 1 months. Roughly flat over the period.
Based on classifieds listings marked SOLD — asking prices sellers marked as sold, not confirmed sale prices. Refreshed daily from our deal-scan comp checks.
| Date sold | Item | Price | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual sold records for this model are still being compiled — the fair-value estimate above is based on 3 recent sales. | |||
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The FT-8900R is Yaesu's quad-band FM mobile — and "quad" really means four transmit bands in one box: 10 meters (28–29.7 MHz), 6 meters (50–54 MHz), 2 meters (144–148 MHz US), and 70cm (430–450 MHz US), FM only, no SSB or CW. Power is 50 watts on 10, 6, and 2 meters (selectable 50/20/10/5 W) and 35 watts on 70cm (35/20/10/5 W). It's a true dual-receive radio, basically two radios in one chassis: the left side can run any of the four bands, the right side runs 2m or 70cm, each with its own volume, squelch, and S-meter, plus VHF/UHF full-duplex and cross-band repeat. Add 809 memories, built-in CTCSS/DCS encode and decode, and wide receive (108–180, 320–480, and 700–985 MHz, cellular blocked) and you get why this discontinued, early-2000s-era rig still moves fast used — there's never really been another mainstream mobile that does 10m and 6m FM alongside 2m/70cm in this form factor. Know what you're actually buying it for. As a 2m/70cm dual-band mobile with cross-band repeat — park the car, work a distant repeater through the rig from your HT — it's excellent, and the 6m FM side earns its keep where there are local 6m repeaters or during sporadic-E openings. The honest catch owners repeat is that most 6m and 10m activity is SSB, not FM, so those two bands are a bonus, not the main event, and 10m FM in the US sits in the General-and-up part of the band. The other practical catch is the single antenna connector with a built-in duplexer: to use all four bands from one feedline you need a purpose-built quad-band mobile antenna like the Diamond CR8900A or Comet UHV-4, and owners are blunt that any one antenna covering four unrelated bands is a compromise — the alternative is a duplexer/switch and separate antennas. Buying used, work the control head first: power it up and confirm the display is fully alive on both sides, the dual volume/squelch knobs feel right (owners call the front-panel knobs flimsy, and the buttons are not backlit — a real annoyance at night), and that nothing is locked or frozen. Confirm exactly what's in the box before you compare prices: the YSK-8900 separation kit (20 ft / 6 m cable plus head bracket) is listed as included in US retail packages by GigaParts and DX Engineering, but Yaesu's own manual calls it optional, and a lot of ledger sales bundle the kit, an antenna, or a programming kit — a bare rig and a full-kit rig are not the same deal. Programming 800 memories by hand is painful enough that owners strongly recommend software and a cable, so a bundled programming kit has real value; a missing separation kit you have to hunt down has real cost. Also ask directly whether the rig has been MARS/CAP / wideband modified, check the cooling fan cycles on a longer transmission (long full-power FM overs and cross-band repeat are hard on any mobile's duty cycle), and test all four bands into a wattmeter if you can — a rig that's only ever been run on 2m may be hiding a dead 6m or 10m section nobody noticed.
It depends almost entirely on where you live. Where there are active 6m FM repeaters, the 6m side gets regular use; when 6m or 10m opens by sporadic-E or F2, 10m FM on and around 29.600 MHz can work serious distance — one FT-8900 owner in that same discussion reported working a New York City 10m FM repeater from outside Nashville. But the consensus in the thread is that most 6m and 10m activity is SSB, which this FM-only rig cannot do, so buy it as a strong 2m/70cm radio with 6m/10m FM as the bonus. Also note 10m FM transmit privileges in the US require a General class license or higher.
Yes — cross-band repeat is a headline factory feature, listed by Yaesu, GigaParts, and DX Engineering: receive on one band and retransmit on another (typically UHF from your HT in, VHF out to the distant repeater), and owners commonly report using Hyper Memories to store complete cross-band setups per repeater. Two cautions owners raise in those threads: you still have to ID legally on both sides of the link and stay in control of the unattended mobile, which limits how far away you can legally/sensibly wander from the vehicle; and cross-band repeat means long transmit duty cycles, so watch heat and consider reduced power.
The FT-8900R has a single antenna connector with a built-in duplexer, so the simple route is one purpose-built quad-band mobile antenna — owners name the Diamond CR8900A (specifically designed/tuned for the FT-8900R, FM segments of 10/6/2/70cm) and the Comet UHV-4. Expect compromise performance versus separate antennas, and note the CR8900A's own instructions say it is tuned for trunk-lid mounting, needs a proper vehicle ground, and is not recommended for mag mounts or center-roof mounting. The other route owners use is separate antennas for the low bands and 2m/70cm behind a duplexer or a manual switch — more performance, more complexity, and you have to remember to switch.
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