Yaesu FTM-350 Data Squelch Issue

[W4THA]

My APRS beacon gets transmitted while I'm listening on the RX band no matter how I configure E18. In other words I can be having a QSO on a repeater and while the RX band squelch is open (I'm listening to a station) a beacon is transmitted which blocks the receiver.

Anyone else running into this? Am I missing something?

Thom

 

[Moleculo]

What do you have A05 - SUB BAND MUTE set to? Also, how have you configured E16 - DATA BAND SELECT?

 

[W4THA]

Thanks for the reply. I have A05 set for TRX MUTE and E16 set to the default (APRS Sub Band & DATA Main Band). I always run with APRS on my sub band which in my case is always my right side and I only use the left side (main band) for QSOs. This may change in time but for right now that's how I have things setup. Am I misinterpreting the setup?

Regards,
Thom

 

[N3KDJ]

350 APRS

I think that's normal behavior. I have the left side set for APRS, but I believe when the set beacons that RX audio on the other band is briefly interrupted. I'll check tomorrow in the car, but it's been no big deal for (I think).

 

[rhyary]

I have it set the APRS to both L fixed and it does not interfer with my R main band

 

[W4THA]

I thought the idea was to inhibit beaconing while the receive squelch is open. I see you are ARES and RACES affiliated. Yesterday was an example of this being somewhat of a big deal as while net control was giving me directions for a pickup my APRS beacon went off causing me to miss an important part of the message. Net control was also relying on our APRS beacons to track our positions so there wasn't really a choice of turning it off. Of course I was able to have net control repeat the message but the activity was heavy and it took me another few minutes to have the information repeated.

Like I said I may be misinterpreting either the function or it's implementation so at this point I'm not critical of the radio.

Regards,
Thom

I think that's normal behavior. I have the left side set for APRS, but I believe when the set beacons that RX audio on the other band is briefly interrupted. I'll check tomorrow in the car, but it's been no big deal for (I think).

 

[W4THA]

Thanks for the input... I have tried this but my APRS beacon is still not inhibited on my R main band. Perhaps I have a bad radio, although this would seem to be a software issue only and I am using the latest version, who knows.

Anyway thanks for giving me something else to try.

Regards,
Thom

I have it set the APRS to both L fixed and it does not interfer with my R main band

 

[N3KDJ]

Try A0-5

I don't think it's that we want to inhibit the APRS transmit, it's that we don't want the incoming audio on the band to be muted right? When my radio Xmits an APRS beacon, it interrupts the incoming signal from a QSO in progress on the other side of the radio like you say above. It's pretty brief, but I wonder if changing A0-5 to something OTHER THAN TX MUTE or TRX MUTE would solve this?

I would paste a few words from the manual in here but of course Yaesu locked the PDF so you can't cut and paste from it which is a PITA.

Anyway, I will try this, but I suspect that's what is going on. See page #32 top of the U.S. FTM-350 Op manual. I think the function is similar to what I had on 2 Kenwood mobiles....if you are talking on 440 on the right band and a signal is received on the left band say on 2M, then in order to prevent you re-transmitting that 2M audio into your QSO on the 440 side [l;et's just call it that for now] the TX (or TXR) Mute stops the audio output where you are receiving. This is usually good, because you're generally RX-ing and TX-ing on the same side, and the 'other' side of the radio is just RX. Not so with APRS, it's Xmitting right? And we've told the radio "If I am Xmitting and there's audio on the 'other side' then mute that side." ...The fact that it's the RX audio from net control in your in progress QSO is not known by the radio...I suspect it's just doing what we told it. I'm going to switch to A0-5 = OFF and see if this becomes a non-issue.

 

[Moleculo]

If I understand correctly, the problem isn't that you can hear the APRS transmission on the other VFO, rather the problem is that when it beacons, you hear nothing at all on the other VFO?

My radio acts the same way. I don't think that there is a way to prevent it from blanking out the RX while it is transmitting. If you think about it, it makes sense anyway. How would you prevent the RX from desensing if it wasn't switched out of line momentarily?

 

[N5DGK]

FTM-350 Data Squelch Issue

I'm having the same problem, or at least I'm intepreting the function of the data squelch the same way.

I assumed the data squelch would prevent the APRS from beaconing while the squelch was open on the other VFO. That is, it would not let the APRS beacon interrupt the transmission being received. As soon as the other VFO squelch closes with no transmissions being received, now it's okay to beacon. At least, that's how I think it should work.

Has anyone found a workaround for this or am I misunderstanding the Data Squelch function?

Thanks,

Brook

 

[Brlux]

I have the same problem with my VX-8GR hand held. They really need a setting where you can set it to hold/delay beacon transmission if the other band has open squelch.

 

[KC7HP]

Review the thread,
Yahoo! Groups
For the FTM-350, the function called Data Squelch (E19) and your choices are RX band, and TX/RX band.

 

[BrianJ]

I have read this thread, but I did not see anyone post a solution. I am interpreting the manual the same way as you are. Like you, I do not want the beacon transmitted while my Main band is TX or RX`ing (or at least not muting my Main band while the Sub band TX my beacon).

Was anyone successful with finding the right combination of settings to make the radio behave this way?

Brian

My APRS beacon gets transmitted while I'm listening on the RX band no matter how I configure E18. In other words I can be having a QSO on a repeater and while the RX band squelch is open (I'm listening to a station) a beacon is transmitted which blocks the receiver.

Anyone else running into this? Am I missing something?

Thom

 

[K4VPZ]

I too have been frustrated by the RX mute when my beacon was transmitting. Still looking for the elusive setting I've accidentally triggered.

Kelley
K4VPZ

*From the Yahoo! FTM-350 forum: "This a normal behavior. If both VFO are on same band (vhf in this case) the receiving VFO is being made deaf while the other transmits. It's not FTM-350 specific any twin bander (ft8800, ft8900, tm-d710 ...) act the same."