so ive been putting this off for like two years because i was nervous about opening up the radio but finally just did it last weekend. pulled the mars/cap mod on my FT-857D so i can cover the extended TX range and also went ahead and did the collins filter swap while i had everything apart. took me about 3 hours which is embarrassing because honestly its not that complicated once you get the covers off.

the filter swap made a way bigger difference than i expected on SSB receive, the stock filter is honestly pretty mediocre and i dont know why yaesu still ships these with it. also redid the mic gain and processor settings after because the defaults seem kinda off after the mod, not sure if thats just coincidence or if i bumped something.

anyway if anyones been on the fence about doing this, at least the filter part, its worth it. just take your time with the connectors on the display assembly because those ribbon cables are not happy when you force them

the stock DSP filter on those is pretty bad yeah. i did the same thing on mine maybe 4 years ago and went with a Murata filter instead, cant remember the exact part number off the top of my head but it made SSB much tighter. did you notice any difference on CW or were you mostly running phone?

also word of warning to anyone else reading this, the mars mod on the 857 technically voids the warranty but more importantly just double check your local regs before transmitting outside the amateur bands, seems obvious but ive seen people get confused about what the mod actually does vs what theyre allowed to do with it

I've had my 857D for going on 8 years and never cracked it open, partly scared to mess something up and partly because it's been working fine for what I do. But the filter thing is tempting, on a crowded 40m SSB night it does feel a little mushy compared to my older 706. Maybe a dumb question but do you need any special tools or just normal JIS screwdrivers and steady hands