Yaesu FTM-350 lock-up problems

[Moleculo]

My Yaesu FTM-350 has started locking up frequently. I like the features and useability of this radio, but it appears that it has a stability problem. It has locked up on my a total of three times today within the last 5 hours...twice within the last hour.

• The radio has not been in use transmitting during the last 24 hours, except to transmit APRS beacons. I'm turning off the beaconing to see if this changes anything.
• The radio is in a base environment on a 100 amp power supply running at 14 volts.
• I've been monitoring 146.52 and using APRS on 144.39 during the time it has locked up.
• The GPS module is attached.

If I can think of any other circumstances to relate about this issue, I'll report it here. I encourage any others who experience this problem to also log the details in this thread

 

[Moleculo]

I left the radio on overnight and it was locked up again in the morning. I reset it and turned the APRS modem off. I'll see if it's locked up when I get home today.

 

[Chop]

do you know if this is a problem with them from the factory? maybe just a bug they need to work out of the first editions. will yaesu do warranty work for the problem?

 

[Moleculo]

do you know if this is a problem with them from the factory? maybe just a bug they need to work out of the first editions. will yaesu do warranty work for the problem?

I don't have any idea of what type of problem this is yet. They will definitely warranty a problem like this, but first they have to figure out what the cause is. I'm hoping an online log will help them out and provide useful information for others.

 

[Wise87]

Well after reading your great review, I ordered the FTM-350R and it will be here Wed. I was torn between the IC-2820 and the 350 but after I saw the price tag for the D-Star add-on component, I went with the 350. The issue with the lockups/freezing doesn't bother me too much for the fact it will be covered under warranty. I don’t plan on using GPS or APRS right away so if I have any lockup issues, I will post here.

 

[doctordave]

So....was the radio locked up tonight, after having the APRS modem off all day?

 

[Moleculo]

I checked it first thing after I walked in the door and it was fine. I had the APRS modem turned off, with it monitoring two 2 meter frequencies. I've now switched the APRS modem back on with the radio set to single band operation so the only thing it's doing is monitoring APRS traffic and beaconing every 10 minutes. If/when it locks up, I'll turn the beaconing off and see if that makes any difference.

 

[Skysho]

I left mine on all day with APRS on and on the simplex freq, used it a few times. No lock ups, however I filtered down the beacon receive to a 10 mile radius.

 

[Moleculo]

The radio was left on overnight only using one band for APRS. The radio was set to beacon every 10 minutes. It was NOT locked up this morning.

I'm turning it back to dual band RX on 2m, both sides with APRS turned on to see if I can make it lock up again.

 

[Moleculo]

Radio was locked up when I got home. It was RX'ing an APRS packet while it locked up. I still think that is the common thread through every lockup.

 

[Moleculo]

I left the radio on overnight on single band mode receiving APRS traffic with it beaconing every 10 minutes. It did NOT lock up under this configuration.

Before I left for work, I set one band to a 440 frequency and the other band to handle APRS traffic, also beaconing every 10 minutes. We'll see if it's locked when I get home.

So far, the only condition where it regularly locks up is when one band is monitoring 2m and the other band is doing 2m APRS stuff.

 

[Moleculo]

Before I left for work, I set one band to a 440 frequency and the other band to handle APRS traffic, also beaconing every 10 minutes. We'll see if it's locked when I get home.

Didn't lock up under this scenario today. I'm setting the 440 side back to a 2m side to see if that's the common issue.

 

[doctordave]

Just got my 350 today and installed in vehicle/programmed it. No issues with screen flickering/radio re-boots when the radio is on and the vehicle is started/turned off (as had been reported by some other users).

Curiously, I installed an external speaker (Yaesu brand) & selected both front & rear speaker output in the menu..... both the left & right sides (or main & sub) of the radio came through the external speaker nicely for about 5 minutes. Then, the left side radio audio began coming through nicely on the external speaker and only faintly on the internal speaker.....and the right side of the radio did just the opposite. This did not change when I toggled which side was main -vs- sub. I tried the reset (#5) and it did not correct....and I sure wasn't about to do the full reset (#6) after having just programmed both sides of the radio with my data. We shall see. I can live with this audio pattern if it does not correct. Yet another quirk with this radio. Out of curiosity, is there a way to force 100% of the main audio into one speaker and force 100% of the sub audio into another speaker? I've yet to discern this via the menu....the audio settings seem global with respect to speaker selection (short of what's happened with my glitch).

Audio reports with the stock hand-mike were outstanding on both the main & sub bands - despite the odd audio output issue.

 

[Skysho]

This was basically the same problem I had, the volume was low and with a slight scratch compared to the opposite side. The stranger anomaly was it only on one frequency where the problem was apparent. I hated to do the full reset due to the programming, but it corrected the issue. The bright side is I'm much more proficient in programming, bagged the alpha tags the second time since I'm waiting for RT Systems to kick out their programming software and cable. Good luck.

 

[doctordave]

Thanks for the reply. I may just try that maneuver if it does not correct....or if it gets worse. I actually do really like the fact that one side comes through the internal speaker and the other side is now only on the external speaker. There was some initial scratchiness - but that has fully extinguished. I just went through the paper-based and online user manual again - don't see any way to full-time select the main & sub bands to be on separate speakers. Am I missing something?