Yaesu VX-8r Review

[douggle]

Setting Time on vx-8r

I had the same problem.. The directions are written a little odd..

First of all. you can change ths SIG option on and off and just press the PTT button to save. HOWEVER!!!!
If you want to set the time and date.

Set the date and time as per page 120 in the manual.
1. Menu key for 1 sec to get into the menu
2. Rotate to 98 TIME SET
3. Press MENU to go into the date set screen
4. rotate dial fo the date and press MODE to get to the next field..
Yatta.. Yatta... Basically pay careful attention to step 8
Once you are on the field where you are able to alternate the SIG option.. (I have off) then do this:
"Press MODE, PRESS V/M, then press PTT

I think the problem is many of us are thinking.. "I don't care if I'm correct to the second.. " GUILTY
So I didn't press the V/M button first.
That was the problem..

 

[douggle]

That might be part of it, but there were times that I was able to hold the repeater, but I just wasn't getting any audio through. I was told "You're holding the repeater open, I just don't hear you saying anything."
I spoke with the salesman at AES that I purchased it from. I'll be taking it in on Saturday to swap it for another unit. It's supposed to be a nice day for a motorcycle ride anyway.
Hopefully the new one will work fine. I've NEVER had problems with Yaesu in the past, and anybody can produce a defective unit.
I'll let you know how it goes.

I would love to know the results of your diagnostics.. I am new and purchased the same radio.. I was FINALLY able to reach people when I stand outside in the cold. Inside.. nothing.. Can hear fine. but they can't hear me.. Another problem with transmitting even outside on Simplex to someone 5 miles away is I appearantly cut in and out any tme I move.. (or shiver as the case was)

 

[Wise87]

I would love to know the results of your diagnostics.. I am new and purchased the same radio.. I was FINALLY able to reach people when I stand outside in the cold. Inside.. nothing.. Can hear fine. but they can't hear me.. Another problem with transmitting even outside on Simplex to someone 5 miles away is I appearantly cut in and out any tme I move.. (or shiver as the case was)

Thats the same problems I was having with mine. I sent it into Yaseu to have them look at it.

 

[KO4GS]

Thanks. That was it....you do need to be on SET before you
press V/M and PTT.

 

[SR385]

Just be sure you know how little range an HT has.

Do your other HTs work, when this one doesn't?

I live close enough to a repeater that I could shoot it with an arrow and 2m indoors will still be a bit noisy unless I'm on full 5W power. It's normal 'here' at least.

Another 440 system that is 20 air miles away, I'm DFQ on 1W from one spot in my second floor...walking around, it's nearly gone.

It 'could' be your handheld...but be sure you have a comparison in the same location with something else at the same power. It's why I'm not a big fan of an HT as the first and only radio for new hams...they are frustrating unless you live in a very densely RF covered area....inner city with dense 440 coverage as an example. NYC you can live on an HT alone for years in many spots. In the burbs here, not so much. My HT is mostly a scanner while watching TV.

 

[kg4iqm]

well 2 weeks later and i did buy the rig!! AND GLAD I DID I LOVE IT!!!!!
only i cant seem to get the aprs to transmit my info it pulls station in and key like it transmitting but i never see anything on apsr.fi or other such tracking sites?????? what did i miss i followed the book to the t and even did a factory reset and did it a second time same results???????????? i do have the software to program it so if you got a working file i can import might help as well thank all you are the reason i bought the rig!!

 

[djb_rh]

well 2 weeks later and i did buy the rig!! AND GLAD I DID I LOVE IT!!!!!
only i cant seem to get the aprs to transmit my info it pulls station in and key like it transmitting but i never see anything on apsr.fi or other such tracking sites?????? what did i miss i followed the book to the t and even did a factory reset and did it a second time same results???????????? i do have the software to program it so if you got a working file i can import might help as well thank all you are the reason i bought the rig!!

How do you know you're near a working digipeater? You may not be near enough to one. The closest one to me is 10 miles away but only seems to receive signal if I'm within one mile of it. It's on a tiny tower and apparently has a less than stellar antenna. *shrug*

It's not like we have nationwide APRS digipeater coverage...far from it.


--Donnie

 

[kg4iqm]

How do you know you're near a working digipeater? You may not be near enough to one. The closest one to me is 10 miles away but only seems to receive signal if I'm within one mile of it. It's on a tiny tower and apparently has a less than stellar antenna. *shrug*

It's not like we have nationwide APRS digipeater coverage...far from it.


--Donnie

i live in west central florida and there is a digipeater located on the ni4ce tower at over 800 feet above sea level there are also many digi peater near me at least o get a lot of -1's in the list

--Marc

 

[djb_rh]

Well, one thing I noticed is that the 8R and 8DR both took a while to actually start sending for some reason. Like needed to be turned on 30 minutes to an hour. I can't explain it, but both my radios just eventually started working. After that, they didn't need the warm up time. *shrug*

Make sure and go through ALL the APRS menus and make sure you're set to automatically send beacons. You can manually send beacons with the WiRES button, but ONLY while in one of the APRS screens. Turn up the volume on that VFO and go to one of the APRS screens and hit the WiRES button. Do you hear it try to transmit?


--Donnie

 

[kg4iqm]

Well, one thing I noticed is that the 8R and 8DR both took a while to actually start sending for some reason. Like needed to be turned on 30 minutes to an hour. I can't explain it, but both my radios just eventually started working. After that, they didn't need the warm up time. *shrug*

Make sure and go through ALL the APRS menus and make sure you're set to automatically send beacons. You can manually send beacons with the WiRES button, but ONLY while in one of the APRS screens. Turn up the volume on that VFO and go to one of the APRS screens and hit the WiRES button. Do you hear it try to transmit?


--Donnie

i can hear it i can someday get data and then nothing for a few days just rest the ht and it worked a bit till i set a repeater on vfo a?? but a am seeing sum data

 

[wildwest46]

VX8R "B" Band problem

Hello,
Not sure if this is a problem or not, when I transmit in "B" band I can't kerchunk the repeater in most bands, I can work simplex with no problem, just can't work repeaters. I did a reset but it didn't change things. Any ideas?
Roy
AA6QQ

I figured out what the problem is, I have my VX 8R set up for APRS with the modem set at at 1200 bps so when I try to kerchunk the repeater it sends that instead of the proper tone to open the squelch of the repeater.

So what I have learned from this exercise is that if you want to transmit on the "B" band you must go to APRS menu setting #4 and turn off the modem.
Roy
AA6QQ

 

[mtaylor]

VX-8R mod and VX-8DR

Does the Yaesu VX-8R mod work on the new VX-8DR? If so where is a good place to purchase one?

 

[W1MSG]

Ok today is the day, driving up to HRO this morning and picking up a VX-8DR. Lets see how bad the wallet takes a hit. I expect this is gonna be painful

 

[W1MSG]

It was a beautiful day to drive the Mustang up to HRO in Salem NH. As always I ended up spending way more money than I wanted to, but I am now the proud owner of a VX-8DR, Boom Mic with GPS, extended Battery with Cradle Charger. Ouch :headbang .

So far so Good, I did the mod and got the APRS running but I have found a couple of issues.

APRS Mute doesnt seem to work, I can still hear the packets.

You cant set the display for Alpha tags when doing dual band, this sucks. At least they got it right with the FTM-350.

B Band ( bottom ) RX audio is horrible.

Maybe at some point there will be a firmware upgrade to fix the little annoyances, and maybe they will finally release a user package for upgrades.

Anyway so far so good other than listening to the damn packets ...

 

[ka4aaa]

Re: APRS Mute

I just set the volume on B-Band to 0 (zero).