Yaesu FTM-350 Review

[Moleculo]

Moleculo, I have a question for you. On VFO A I have a specific repeater programmed in and it sounds real scratchy (both on the control head and chassis speaker) If its programmed in on the VFO B side (right) it comes in clear. Back on the A (left side) all other frequencies simplex or offsets come in super, just a good as the right side. It only seems to be that freq and only on that side. I've not changed any other settings. Any ideas?

That's an interesting problem. I will have to do some more monitoring on mine to see if I can duplicate the problem. I did notice that the specs of the radio show that the Left VFO and Right VFO use different 1st IF frequencies. It's possible that this is what is causing the slight difference that you're experiencing between the two sides.

The other possibility is that because of the different 1st IF frequency, you're actually picking up a very slight "birdie" on that frequency. Try this and tell us if it makes any difference: Go into the SET menu and select the SYSTEM menu. Then go to menu G07-OPERATION MODE and change the value to "B". This will shift the clock frequency, which will only help if you are getting a "birdie". It will be interesting to hear if that makes any difference.

 

[Moleculo]

Before I answer too many more questions, I wanted to show some of the basic functionality and then get into some of the APRS and GPS functionality in subsequent posts.

Here is a picture of the basic, standard dual VFO screen:

In this screen you can see that I'm monitoring a simplex 2 meter frequency while also monitoring my local police department. The right side VFO could just as easily be VHF, UHF, 800Mhz, or Air band. The left side also covers AM broadcast, FM broadcast, and Line-In port.

The big arrow over the top of the right band in this picture designates the "Main Band". The side without the arrow is the "Sub Band". You can change which side you want to be "Main" by just pushing in the big dial on either side of the control head.

the FWD and BCK buttons on the top left cycle through the various other screens, the timer, GPS, Barometer, and other screens. The F button changes the function buttons at the bottom; if you hold it down for a few seconds, it gives you all of the CTCSS, DCS, Pager, and other similar functions.

If you hold down the FWD button on the top left, it changes the Main band into Single RX mode like this:

In this example, I switched the left side VFO to main band first and then held the FWD button to make the simplex frequency the only one in play.

Notice both S-Meters cracked full scale on this pic:

The radio can receive and produce audio output for both VFO's at the same time. You can also change this behavior via the set screen. Here is the Set screen with some of the options so you can see how this works:

Remember, the SUB BAND is whichever one the giant arrow is not over. You can make the SUB BAND mute when you TX on the main band, or when the main band receives a signal, or both. If you turn the Sub BAND MUTE to OFF, it always puts out audio from both receivers.

The left side can listen to AM and FM broadcast by just hitting the B button while the left is selected as the MAIN VFO. However, there are times you when you might just want to listen to broadcast radio or the line-in, but have the rig mute this audio when a signal is detected on a ham or other frequency. To accomplish this, press the F button on the lower right until menu F-2 is shown. On the right side, select the AD-F button, which activates the Dual Audio function. You can now listen to broadcast AM/FM or Line-In while monitoring another frequency. Here is a pic of this in action:

Note that the words "AF DUAL" appear at the top. If a signal is received or you wish to TX on the right side receiver, it automatically mutes the left side. This is different than if you just kept hitting the B button to change the left side to the broadcast FM.

Here are a couple more Audio Setup Options. First is the AF Tone Control settings:

Next is the AF Differential:

This kind of like an auto volume control. Each incremental setting above "Off" sets the base volume a little higher. I haven't had a chance to test this real thoroughly, but it seems to take into consideration the RX signal strength. More on this function will follow after some additional tests.
There are quite a few settings to choose from depending on your speaker characteristics:

Lastly, here is how you control where the audio is output:

You can output the AF to the main radio chassis speaker, the two stereo speakers on the control head, both the control head and chassis, or OFF which kills the audio completely. Incidentally, the chassis or BACK setting also controls the speaker out port on the back of the radio.

I did manage to get some audio reports today and they were all glowing. I haven't messed with the MIC GAIN settings yet, but everyone said the stock mic and radio sounded fantastic. That sure is different than anything I ever got out of my Icom 2720H.

My initial impressions are that this is one of the easiest dual band rigs I have ever used. While I couldn't figure out all of the functions by just fooling around with it, after looking in the manual I found the function I was looking for and found it easy enough to remember. The manual does leave quite a bit to be desired, though.

More to come...

 

[Skysho]

Moleculo, Thanks for the suggestion I'll give it a try when I head off to work. I swapped out the dual band for a tri-band antenna on yesterday in hopes it might make a difference, nope. This is a very nice site, since Aximsite went away and I sold my Ramcharger (ramchargercentral.com), I've needed a new favorite.

 

[Ragnar]

Moleculo thanks for your review I sure am looking at getting one of these. I am sure you will get around to it but this radio have the ability for memory groups like the 8800? I downloaded the manual but did not see anything in there about.
Thanks

 

[SR385]

Wow they really put everything into this...thanks, that totally clarifies the audio muting thing I was getting at.

The TX muting is even better with regard to APRS beaconing disrupting you on the other 'side' of the radio...well though out.

 

[Moleculo]

The TX muting is even better with regard to APRS beaconing disrupting you on the other 'side' of the radio

I'll cover the APRS functionality in detail pretty soon, but real quick: There is a setting called APRS MUTE that you can turn on. When that's on, the APRS chatter is not heard when you set the APRS function to the SUB band and are using the MAIN band for other frequencies.

 

[SR385]

Just for laughs too, to add to the pile.

You have W2IHY gear there, make an adapter, I'm curious how much audio response is passed by this radio for simplex use. The 7800R for instance rolls off pretty heavily at almost 300Hz assuming the user would always be using it with PL ENC/DEC engaged.

In your spare time of course heheh. Yaesu should give you a discount...I think you're selling a few of these for them.

 

[kd7jym]

i've almost talked myself into it...

my vx-8dr shipped yesterday, and i have decided that if i really like what they have done there i will sacrifice some toys to ebay and pick one of these up as well.

if you try hard enough you can rationalize anything

 

[Skysho]

Moleculo

Tried the A B Swap and it didn't change the problem on the left side. I had also popped an email to Yaesu tech support and Ron Fortin shot me a quick reply and suggested a "reset all". It did the trick and all works perfect now. BTW I've always had real quick and accurate tech support from the folks there in SoCal. Plus their customer service reps have been helpful too.

Thanks for your continued reviews!!

 

[-Devil-]

i am pretty much just waiting for the free funds to make the purchase on one ... will figure out head peice mounting once i have it in my hands...

 

[Moleculo]

Yaesu should give you a discount...I think you're selling a few of these for them.

Well, if you know anyone over at Yaesu Marketing, tell the to email me.

 

[Luke_C]

Nicely done, Mol. These radio's look great. All 'round users and good set of options there.

Luke

 

[Moleculo]

Tone Encoding

I mentioned that the manual was severely lacking in a few details. Well, here is an example. The pages about using CTCSS and DCS tones are completely incomplete. They don't make any references to some of the settings that are on the radio! So, here are a few tips for anyone that buys this radio:

When you hold down the "F" button, it takes you to the tone/dcs option menu. The manual says to hit the TYPE button to choose the squelch type. However, it only mentions the "OFF", "TONE SQL", "DCS" and "PAGER" options. However, there are also "TONE ENC", "REV TONE", "PR FREQUENCY".

TONE ENC and TONE SQL
The difference between these two options is that TONE ENC only encodes the selected with the transmission. When TONE ENC is selected, the audio will open for all incoming signals. When TONE SQL is selected, it will both encode your transmission with the tone and also squelch all incoming signals unless they also have the tone.

REV TONE
This is "reverse" tone squelch. In this case, the receiver is muted for incoming signals that have the tone selected and it opens for all other signals.

PR FREQUENCY
This mutes the receiver when it receives a siganl from a radio sending the programmed code. Set the code by pressing the P-FRQ button.

These functions are the same as most other Yaesu radios, but are just missing from this manual. The VX-8 manual has a good description on how to use them, which can be found on Yaesu's website.
Here are a few tips about the Tone and DCS options on this radio

 

[Moleculo]

Missing Functionality

I've identified one glaring (to me) omission on this rig: The inability to do a CTCSS tone or DCS code scan. I attempted to find if it was just a hidden function or even just missing from the manual, but I'm couldn't find anything. I'm of the opinion that this radio cannot do it. I hope they can address with with a firmware update.

 

[Moleculo]

Memory Functionality Review

Here is a review of the memory functionality.

Programming the memory following the manual's instructions couldn't be simpler, in my opinion. Follow the instructions and you can't go wrong. I programmed in a few frequencies tonight, assigning alpha tags using the DTMF mic without much difficulty. Unlike the VX-8, you can actually delete memories and it's very easy to edit them, as well. You can even copy the memory to another slot in case you need to move them around for organization.

Keep in mind that while there are 1000 memory channels available, there really 500 memories for each VFO. The two sides do not share the memories. You can also change the alpha tag display settings to behave differently for each side.

One of the features of the VX-8 that I wish they had incorporated into the FTM-350 is the Memory Group feature. On the VX-8, you can organize the memories into groups and then select a memory "band" so that only the memories in that group are selectable by the dial. I've found that this feature on the VX-8 not only provides a good way to organize your radio frequencies, but also take a lot of the hassles out of dealing with more complex tasks like adjusting for the doppler shift of satellites. It's unfortunate that they didn't include this feature on the FTM-350.

Here is a pic of both sides set to memory mode with alpha tags:

Notice how you can see the memory number and frequency displayed directly above the alpha tag. On the right side, you can see a little "+/-" to the top right of the alpha tag. This icon indicates an odd split. In the displayed example, I set the radio to TX on 146.52 in case someone accidentally keys the mic on this police frequency because I've modified the radio for extended transmit.

There is one last feature that you should be aware of with the memory functionality. If you go into the Special Function menu (with the radio off, hold the Power button and the button to the left of the power at the same time) there is a Left and Right memory sort function. If you do this, it reorganizes your memories by frequency, from low to high.

Now that we've gotten most of the basic radio functions reviewed, the next segments will cover GPS and APRS functionality.