Having owned a 200 for 3 weeks I would like to let everyone know who is curious, how APRS works. The FTM-200 is single recieve but the radio has a "dual recieve mode" (menu option 50). In order for APRS to work this menu option needs to be enabled and set to A-B dual recieve. This is essentially just switching the radio really fast between recieving 2 frequencies. The rate of this switching is set in menu option 51 which is dual recieve interval. I have mine set to 0.5 seconds. If you have APRS set up to transmit on intervals or smart beacon, when you are driving, as long as you are not currently transmitting on A the beacon will send. However please note, if you are currently scanning either VFO or scanning memory channels, beacons will not send. Also if you have the PMG screen open whether set to auto or manual, beacons will not send either. I have sent an email to Yaesu about this. Hopefully this can be addressed in a firmware update. I see no reason why the scanning can't pause for the fraction of the second needed to send the beacon then resume. So as long as you are not scanning and not in the PMG screen, then beaconing works as you would expect. Great little radio so far, and I have no regrets getting it. If you have any questions about the radio, please don't hesitate to ask. 73 Matt W3MMW
I use a cutting board with my Bteck 10/25 watt rig. The hole in the handle is where the seat/shoulder belts go through. Use 15 pound industrial Velcro to attach the mount of the radio to the board. I have the Y 80 watt rig in a Tac Com carrier. Have it set up so I use the carting strap as a "loop", and run the belts through it.
Let us know if in a quiet environment what you hear when changing Modes from FM to DN and back. Is your radio emitting a low level hum/buzz from the radio in DN mode?
I really like my FTM-300 except for one thing... the box includes a longer cable for the remote head, but not for the microphone. I had to order the extension cable for the microphone. After a week or two of owning my radio my metal water bottle slid off the seat of my car and hit the display, so now I have a dime size splotch on it. I'm not sure how much Yaesu would charge to repair or replace this part.
2:44 So you CANNOT run APRS on the B band of a 300? If it is dual RX why not? Also confused because the 200 is single RX so how is it possible to do APRS at the same time?
Yes you can run APRS on either band on the 300, that's what I run in my truck. I think it'll quickly switch to the B band on the 200 if the A band isn't in use.
@@HamRadio2 What was confusing was that John said it was a difference in the two. I later heard you say you used APRS on your 300 all the way in. Quickly switching over is pretty useless for trying to RX APRS full time. If this is what it does then the 300 wins. If I just want to mindlessly send out an APRS beacon I'll turn on the really bad feature of my soon to be sold Alinco DJ-MD5XTG. They should never have put this non listening beacon feature on this radio. It's a good DMR/Analog radio but this is not a feature anyone should use. Equal to shouting then not listening.
I have one FTM-300 and wanted to get the 200, but with the current Yaesu rebate the 300 was cheaper than the 200. Feature wise the 300 was tough to beat.
1:16 "It does not cross band repeat on digital" and then he talks about making copies of copies and sounding horrible. But that's not how digital works. Each digital copy is perfect. Did he misspeak or do I misunderstand?
This is purely a guess, so please don't quote me as having the answer, but I'm guessing it is essentially 2 independent radios in 1. So the digital transmission would be received, converted to analog then re-encoded as digital again to go back out the other side. This conversion from digital to analog then back to digital again would probably sound pretty bad.
@@matthewweaver1123 There is no reason to covert to analog. In fact, it's the other way around. It's coming in as analog radio signals which have to be converted to digital, then sent out through another sound card in the radio, converting it back to analog output. It would have to do the exact same thing if it was outputting a digital mode, it would just make modem sounds with the built-in soundcard instead of people talking sounds. Also, plenty of analog repeaters repeat other repeaters and it sounds so good nobody can even tell. My local repeater is one of those because our terrain is so rough it's the only way to cover the whole county with a "single" repeater.
@@LarsLarsen77 Each time it is received and rebroadcast, the “bad sound quality” would be doubled. It works once, maybe twice if the tx and rx are good solid signals, which of course we all know is not normally the case, but after 2 it goes down hill in a hurry! Try it.
200 vs 300 it's all good but re-do the ft 8900r with c4fm in it I like cross and twin vol sq . Cause cheap tyt 8900 ain't cutting it need that meter ft m 725 r was $209 when it quit selling bring that back mis that c4fm $200 or less in Mobil.
I wish they'd bring back the 7900 and 8800 too. Excellent radios with no good reason to discontinue. Used prices show that they would still sell like crazy.
Sorry, that is not correct. It’s a “digital mode”, but you receive the digital signal, convert it to analog, and play it thru speaker so you can hear it (you cant hear 1’s and 0’s). To cross repeat it is then converted back to digital again, and tx’d in a “digital mode” again, received and converted to analog again….. each time converted, you are “doubling” the poor quality of a digital signal, after only 2 iterations (which would be the case he described), it would almost be un-intelligible. Just like a bad photo copy or fax, getting re-copied or re-faxed. ;-)
@@Machria23 Wrong, I've owned Pro, Pro III, IC 7800 and Yaesu's FTDX 101MP... Icom's menu driven simplicity is by far superior as user friendly. I've always been Yaesu oriented way back to the Tempo 1 and the 101MP software/firmware F/N Sucks! The VC Tune units burned up in my 101MP just because I exclusively had them engaged to enhance signal to noise ratios. Second failure the integrated memory tracking in the VC Tune units lost their ability to track (VC Position Sensor) 2022 Yaesu Jan through April 22 had my radio more than I did. I sold it with full disclosure and shipped out directly from Yaesu service center Calif to a Ham 60 mi from the repair center. Their using the Consumer as BETA Testers, I now Detest the thought of having to send anything to them for repair! Still think I'm in marketing for another competing company? PLV
@@Machria23 Speaking as a 90% loyal Yaesu owner, Yaesu is absolutely terrible on the software/firmware side of things. The fact people put up with it is a testament to them being decent on the hardware side.
@@EricFullwood Depends on what you mean by other companies. If you mean other Japanese companies, sure. But Chinese companies are coming out with radios constantly.
Having owned a 200 for 3 weeks I would like to let everyone know who is curious, how APRS works. The FTM-200 is single recieve but the radio has a "dual recieve mode" (menu option 50). In order for APRS to work this menu option needs to be enabled and set to A-B dual recieve. This is essentially just switching the radio really fast between recieving 2 frequencies. The rate of this switching is set in menu option 51 which is dual recieve interval. I have mine set to 0.5 seconds. If you have APRS set up to transmit on intervals or smart beacon, when you are driving, as long as you are not currently transmitting on A the beacon will send. However please note, if you are currently scanning either VFO or scanning memory channels, beacons will not send. Also if you have the PMG screen open whether set to auto or manual, beacons will not send either. I have sent an email to Yaesu about this. Hopefully this can be addressed in a firmware update. I see no reason why the scanning can't pause for the fraction of the second needed to send the beacon then resume. So as long as you are not scanning and not in the PMG screen, then beaconing works as you would expect. Great little radio so far, and I have no regrets getting it. If you have any questions about the radio, please don't hesitate to ask.
73
Matt
W3MMW
So it's doing what FTM-100 was supposed to be doing, just this time it works?
Great job mic'ing him up in a busy environment, Jason.
Thanks, it is a necessity in a Hamfest
Good idea to compare the two.
I think so too!
I use a cutting board with my Bteck 10/25 watt rig. The hole in the handle is where the seat/shoulder belts go through. Use 15 pound industrial Velcro to attach the mount of the radio to the board.
I have the Y 80 watt rig in a Tac Com carrier. Have it set up so I use the carting strap as a "loop", and run the belts through it.
great explanation of the two
Let us know if in a quiet environment what you hear when changing Modes from FM to DN and back. Is your radio emitting a low level hum/buzz from the radio in DN mode?
I really like my FTM-300 except for one thing... the box includes a longer cable for the remote head, but not for the microphone. I had to order the extension cable for the microphone. After a week or two of owning my radio my metal water bottle slid off the seat of my car and hit the display, so now I have a dime size splotch on it. I'm not sure how much Yaesu would charge to repair or replace this part.
Drop the 300 down to 350 bucks.
2:44 So you CANNOT run APRS on the B band of a 300? If it is dual RX why not? Also confused because the 200 is single RX so how is it possible to do APRS at the same time?
Yes you can run APRS on either band on the 300, that's what I run in my truck.
I think it'll quickly switch to the B band on the 200 if the A band isn't in use.
@@HamRadio2 What was confusing was that John said it was a difference in the two. I later heard you say you used APRS on your 300 all the way in. Quickly switching over is pretty useless for trying to RX APRS full time. If this is what it does then the 300 wins. If I just want to mindlessly send out an APRS beacon I'll turn on the really bad feature of my soon to be sold Alinco DJ-MD5XTG. They should never have put this non listening beacon feature on this radio. It's a good DMR/Analog radio but this is not a feature anyone should use. Equal to shouting then not listening.
@@HamRadio2 I'm pretty sure at least 50% of the things that Yaesu dude said were false.
The PMG scan is a neat feature.
So is the 200 full analog APRS? I can't find it to buy it anywhere?
Yes
I have one FTM-300 and wanted to get the 200, but with the current Yaesu rebate the 300 was cheaper than the 200. Feature wise the 300 was tough to beat.
Agreed
Old CB slide mount on the 200!
These products are confusingly similar.
Touch my camera through the fence bro. Hell ya! I'm a left twix guy!
1:16 "It does not cross band repeat on digital" and then he talks about making copies of copies and sounding horrible. But that's not how digital works. Each digital copy is perfect. Did he misspeak or do I misunderstand?
I didn't ask him to elaborate on that
This is purely a guess, so please don't quote me as having the answer, but I'm guessing it is essentially 2 independent radios in 1. So the digital transmission would be received, converted to analog then re-encoded as digital again to go back out the other side. This conversion from digital to analog then back to digital again would probably sound pretty bad.
@@matthewweaver1123 There is no reason to covert to analog. In fact, it's the other way around. It's coming in as analog radio signals which have to be converted to digital, then sent out through another sound card in the radio, converting it back to analog output. It would have to do the exact same thing if it was outputting a digital mode, it would just make modem sounds with the built-in soundcard instead of people talking sounds.
Also, plenty of analog repeaters repeat other repeaters and it sounds so good nobody can even tell. My local repeater is one of those because our terrain is so rough it's the only way to cover the whole county with a "single" repeater.
@@LarsLarsen77 Each time it is received and rebroadcast, the “bad sound quality” would be doubled. It works once, maybe twice if the tx and rx are good solid signals, which of course we all know is not normally the case, but after 2 it goes down hill in a hurry! Try it.
200 vs 300 it's
all good but re-do the ft 8900r with
c4fm in it I like cross and twin vol sq .
Cause cheap tyt 8900 ain't cutting it need that meter ft m 725 r was $209 when it quit selling bring that back mis that c4fm $200 or less in Mobil.
I wish they'd bring back the 7900 and 8800 too. Excellent radios with no good reason to discontinue. Used prices show that they would still sell like crazy.
@@CMDR.Gonzo.von.Richthofen
I really enjoyed the twin band cause I use 6m ,& 70cm mainly .
But the 7800 or 7900 nice big read-out.
Yes good stuff .
I don't get what he was saying about not (repeating) copying digital because of degradation.
The photocopy analogy is not relevant in digital, only analog. 1s and 0s are still 1s and 0s no matter how many times they’re copied
Sorry, that is not correct. It’s a “digital mode”, but you receive the digital signal, convert it to analog, and play it thru speaker so you can hear it (you cant hear 1’s and 0’s). To cross repeat it is then converted back to digital again, and tx’d in a “digital mode” again, received and converted to analog again….. each time converted, you are “doubling” the poor quality of a digital signal, after only 2 iterations (which would be the case he described), it would almost be un-intelligible. Just like a bad photo copy or fax, getting re-copied or re-faxed. ;-)
Isn’t there a “400” now?
400 was the first one, it has been out the longest.
Be Damn Careful buying Yaesu, there last in Firmware know-how. No need to ask how I know.
We know exactly “how you know”, you work in the marketing dept of another competing company. Lol
@@Machria23 Wrong, I've owned Pro, Pro III, IC 7800 and Yaesu's FTDX 101MP... Icom's menu driven simplicity is by far superior as user friendly. I've always been Yaesu oriented way back to the Tempo 1 and the 101MP software/firmware F/N Sucks! The VC Tune units burned up in my 101MP just because I exclusively had them engaged to enhance signal to noise ratios. Second failure the integrated memory tracking in the VC Tune units lost their ability to track (VC Position Sensor) 2022 Yaesu Jan through April 22 had my radio more than I did. I sold it with full disclosure and shipped out directly from Yaesu service center Calif to a Ham 60 mi from the repair center. Their using the Consumer as BETA Testers, I now Detest the thought of having to send anything to them for repair! Still think I'm in marketing for another competing company? PLV
@@Machria23 Speaking as a 90% loyal Yaesu owner, Yaesu is absolutely terrible on the software/firmware side of things. The fact people put up with it is a testament to them being decent on the hardware side.
The 200 has issues....
@NuclearCowboy why, because it doesn't want to be called 200 anymore?
Hard pass on both. Yaesu really has me scratching my head lately🤔
Meanwhile the other companies haven't released a new mobile in 5 years. Yeah, damn you, Yaesu with your innovation and new products. #SMDH
@@EricFullwood Depends on what you mean by other companies. If you mean other Japanese companies, sure. But Chinese companies are coming out with radios constantly.
@@LarsLarsen77 and they all suck equally