Modification of Yaesu FT-817 to reduce consumption during reception: The FT-817 also consumes quite a lot during reception, according to the manual it is approx. 250mA with the RX silencer closed and approx. 450mA with the silencer open, which is quite a lot, and according to my experience, the TRX can only last for approx. 6 hours during reception and not even approx. 15 minutes of broadcasting on the internal 1400mAh battery. Therefore, even a minimal reduction in consumption will help. I found one description on the Internet. The LED on the front panel indicates an open silencer in green and transmission in red. Income is also indicated on LCD the display with an S-meter and thus it is possible to save on the LED, when we disconnect the power supply resistor from the LED so that it does not light up during reception with the silencer open, approx. 12 to 15 mA are saved during reception. While broadcasting, when pressed PTT the LED will remain red, as it was originally. Disassemble the TRX, remove the front panel, disconnect the connecting cables between the front panel and the body TCVR. Pull the rubber off the button, there is a small screw under it that you loosen with a 1/16 INCH Allen key. Pull the knob, loosen the nut, pull out VFO tuning member. Pull out the SEL button. Unscrew the screw holding the PCB to the plastic front panel. Carefully pull out the circuit board from the bottom, where there are no two white latches.
The LED is located on the front of the circuit board above the hole for the VFO knob. It is a small plastic square with 4 outlets. Now find the two resistors just next to the LED on the left. Remove the resistor that is close to the VFO hole, not the one that is close to the top edge.
Carefully reassemble the entire TCVR. When you turn on the radio and open the silencer the LED should not be green, when broadcasting the LED should be red, just like before.
However, in my opinion, the entire modification will not bring such a significant effect on the overall reduction of consumption and the extension of the TRX's battery usage time. Compared to the labor involved in disassembling the front panel and removing the resistor powering the LED, I wouldn't do it a second time...
Jozef, OM1CI, http://jbalaz.szm.com