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Yaesu FT3DR
- Thread starter Mudfoot
- Start date
I have an FT-2DR, it's pretty handy and I like it. It does more than I need. I don't use it much, though.
lol maybe... honestly I personally have little use for a full-featured HT, the little Chinese ones I use suit me just fine.
That's why they make different radios. If I'm stranded on a deserted island and a full featured HT washes ashore, I'll know how to use it to get rescued. You'll be eating coconuts.
Lol
Lol
***rant warning***
I’m seeing list prices of nearly $600 for this radio. Of course, in typical Yaesu fashion, it will be discounted by hundreds of dollars after the first year or so of production, screwing all the people that buy in early. And I suspect Yaesu will continue it’s convoluted firmware update process, which is unnecessarily complex and time consuming.
Ever since Yaesu began production of this new generation of dual band digital radio, their quality has gone down hill. The FTM-400DR has terrible front end rejection for what was a $600 radio. Yeah, it looks nice, but it is really a sucky radio (same is true of their DR1X repeaters...terrible front end rejection and don’t run them at full output power). Of course, few hams realize this as they tend to use these expensive radios to talk only via the internet through a hotspot, while pretending it has something to do with amateur radio. They don’t realize the shortcomings of these radios, when used in an actual RF environment.
The FTxDR series of HTs has horrible battery management and all have the potential to corrupt their own firmware (I know of several FT1Ds that had to go back to Japan to be reflashed (couldn’t be done in California), and not due to any operator error).
Back in the early days of Wires X and all these new C4FM-enabled radios, I was involved in a group of hams that were early adopters, installing and linking repeaters and nodes, and we found all the issues with these radios. I have since sold off all my Yaesu gear, except for my FT-891 which is Yaesu’s only good value they offer (at the current $600 price...not the $900 they sold it for when originally launched !).
I’m seeing list prices of nearly $600 for this radio. Of course, in typical Yaesu fashion, it will be discounted by hundreds of dollars after the first year or so of production, screwing all the people that buy in early. And I suspect Yaesu will continue it’s convoluted firmware update process, which is unnecessarily complex and time consuming.
Ever since Yaesu began production of this new generation of dual band digital radio, their quality has gone down hill. The FTM-400DR has terrible front end rejection for what was a $600 radio. Yeah, it looks nice, but it is really a sucky radio (same is true of their DR1X repeaters...terrible front end rejection and don’t run them at full output power). Of course, few hams realize this as they tend to use these expensive radios to talk only via the internet through a hotspot, while pretending it has something to do with amateur radio. They don’t realize the shortcomings of these radios, when used in an actual RF environment.
The FTxDR series of HTs has horrible battery management and all have the potential to corrupt their own firmware (I know of several FT1Ds that had to go back to Japan to be reflashed (couldn’t be done in California), and not due to any operator error).
Back in the early days of Wires X and all these new C4FM-enabled radios, I was involved in a group of hams that were early adopters, installing and linking repeaters and nodes, and we found all the issues with these radios. I have since sold off all my Yaesu gear, except for my FT-891 which is Yaesu’s only good value they offer (at the current $600 price...not the $900 they sold it for when originally launched !).