Recently, the Ham Radio community found out through FCC Filings that the much awaited replacement to the Yaesu FT-817ND was to finally be produced, and that the model number would be the FT-818.

It was with great pleasure that I shared this news in a fun way with a link to the FCC filings on a youtube channel I am part of – Rate My Radio

However, I was very dismayed to find that within hours, the following ‘photo’ appeared on both youtube and an internet blog site, with the ‘creator’ claiming to this day that it is the “first, leaked photo” of the new FT-818.

This photo is an outright fake; a fiction of the creator’s imagination purely designed to mislead fellow Hams:

This made me both ANGRY and SAD.  

I am angry, because I personally believed Hams were better than to participate in ‘Fake News’; the radio…