Yaesu FT-3D

01-03-2021 3:30pm #1

I'm going to start a thread on the Yaesu FT-3D, I ordered last Sunday and no sign of it yet, damn brexit has really screwed up getting ham gear, if I had ordered from Martin Lynch I would have received it 2 days later. I wish someone would set up a ham radio shop here but I guess the market just isn't there + we'd probably be ripped off.

The reason I bought the FT-3d is it's sheer simplicity to use the digi mode, just program the repeater, hit wires-x search for the rooms you want and you're there, no programming code plugs which is very tiresome on DMR and it's a major pain in the ass.

I think cross mode is easier with the FT-3d too from the videos I've watched.

I'll update when I receive it probably end of the week at this stage if I'm lucky.

Popoutman · 01-03-2021 5:35pm

IIRC the FT-2DE has a lot of commonality in the menus and functionality.

Both are great pieces of kit.

The APRS stuff is something I'm just beginning to get my teeth into, looking at possibly setting up an APRS iGate at some point with an Aliexpress box and the Ft-7800 I picked up cheap. One part of me dislikes the advertising of location and identity given the paranoia applicable to working in the computer and network security area, another part of me sees the true utility of this with the outdoor sports side of things.

I have found the FT-2DE to have pretty good audio, fair battery life, and general ease of use once I got my head around some things - as some things are just plain weird! (To beacon APRS, both of the A/B receivers must be shown on screen. I have B tuned to 144.8 MHz, and I can beacon when tapping F(MW) then BCN-TX, but only when both receivers are showing on screen).

The Wires-X functionality, either with real Fusion repeaters or with an MMDVM hotspot set for YSF, is definitely much much easier than DMR. DMR does work, eventually. Fusion is just so much easier overall it's not funny. It's easy enough to see that the digital methods converged on their methods from different directions - the DMR from a "config by an admin and given to a user" and Fusion by "how can this be easy for the user to change".

I have found that the standard antenna is better than one would expect, but if going for a different antenna my recommendation would be https://edsantennas.weebly.com/ and the DBJ-2 (would need Addresspal to get it shipped) dual-band j-pole by Ed Fong, or a small Yagi like the EAntennas 13 element dualband https://www.wimo.com/en/dy-5-8

You'll enjoy the FT-3DE whenever it finally arrives!

01-03-2021 6:31pm

Popoutman wrote: »

IIRC the FT-2DE has a lot of commonality in the menus and functionality.

Both are great pieces of kit.

The APRS stuff is something I'm just beginning to get my teeth into, looking at possibly setting up an APRS iGate at some point with an Aliexpress box and the Ft-7800 I picked up cheap. One part of me dislikes the advertising of location and identity given the paranoia applicable to working in the computer and network security area, another part of me sees the true utility of this with the outdoor sports side of things.

I have found the FT-2DE to have pretty good audio, fair battery life, and general ease of use once I got my head around some things - as some things are just plain weird! (To beacon APRS, both of the A/B receivers must be shown on screen. I have B tuned to 144.8 MHz, and I can beacon when tapping F(MW) then BCN-TX, but only when both receivers are showing on screen).

The Wires-X functionality, either with real Fusion repeaters or with an MMDVM hotspot set for YSF, is definitely much much easier than DMR. DMR does work, eventually. Fusion is just so much easier overall it's not funny. It's easy enough to see that the digital methods converged on their methods from different directions - the DMR from a "config by an admin and given to a user" and Fusion by "how can this be easy for the user to change".

I have found that the standard antenna is better than one would expect, but if going for a different antenna my recommendation would be https://edsantennas.weebly.com/ and the DBJ-2 (would need Addresspal to get it shipped) dual-band j-pole by Ed Fong, or a small Yagi like the EAntennas 13 element dualband https://www.wimo.com/en/dy-5-8

You'll enjoy the FT-3DE whenever it finally arrives!

Thanks for the antenna tips, not sure I will order from Germany again it takes forever, my OH gets stuff sent from her parents there and it can take a month via regular mail, seriously. I had UPS option but at 34 Euro's I said no, it's probably the same time from all over the continent, the tracking is also a joke from DPD. It might get updated once a day or less, last update was the 25th.

Have you any experience with D-Star ? it looks a lot easier than DMR but all these reflectors and what not seem confusing, do you or anyone know if all you have to do is just search for reflectors and they come up in a list like fusion ? and I presume you can save them just as easy too ?

One thing I noticed is that D-Star audio quality is pretty poor I have to say compared to DMR but Fusion seems to have the edge and not only that but with DMR I'm constantly having to turn the radio up or down, it's not very XYL friendly I can tell you but on my Friends FT-3d the audio was a lot better that way.

04-03-2021 8:35am

I got the FT-3D on Tuesday and had a bit of time to play with it, well what can I say ? it's as it should be, I turned it on, entered repeater and hotspot and remembered for some reason to get Wires-X to work you have to do a full reset first so think of that if you buy one, if wires-x doesn't work or it just beeps when you press the button to do a full reset.

But, once I did this I just had to find the wires-x rooms I wanted and store them, really simple to do no messing with a code plug, a channel for every talk group, then assigning this tg to the channel, then receive group lists bla bla bla and on and on it goes for DMR it's ridiculous.

I got the RT systems software to program in some repeaters which is very useful and will be useful if I travel, I can just pull them down from repeater book and load them into the software.

So for Fusion, all I have to do is add the repeaters, my rooms, reflectors, talk groups, whatever you want to call them will still be stored, whatever hotspot I use, whatever repeater, I don't have to go in and create a new channel for every single talk group for every single repeater ( are you freaking kidding me ? ) yes this is how painful DMR is.

A lot more tricky is to figure out how to cross mode with the FT-3d to DMR, D-Star, the FT-3d makes this a lot easier just have to figure it out.

I'm not anti DMR and will still use some DMR TG from time to time but if anyone is seriously considering digital ham voice modes and does not want to spend forever figuring out how to program a DMR radio then get the FT-3d or any other fusion radio it's so simple to use.

Shyboy · 04-03-2021 2:09pm

Deleted User wrote: »

I got the FT-3D on Tuesday and had a bit of time to play with it, well what can I say ? it's as it should be, I turned it on, entered repeater and hotspot and remembered for some reason to get Wires-X to work you have to do a full reset first so think of that if you buy one, if wires-x doesn't work or it just beeps when you press the button to do a full reset.

But, once I did this I just had to find the wires-x rooms I wanted and store them, really simple to do no messing with a code plug, a channel for every talk group, then assigning this tg to the channel, then receive group lists bla bla bla and on and on it goes for DMR it's ridiculous.

I got the RT systems software to program in some repeaters which is very useful and will be useful if I travel, I can just pull them down from repeater book and load them into the software.

So for Fusion, all I have to do is add the repeaters, my rooms, reflectors, talk groups, whatever you want to call them will still be stored, whatever hotspot I use, whatever repeater, I don't have to go in and create a new channel for every single talk group for every single repeater ( are you freaking kidding me ? ) yes this is how painful DMR is.

A lot more tricky is to figure out how to cross mode with the FT-3d to DMR, D-Star, the FT-3d makes this a lot easier just have to figure it out.

I'm not anti DMR and will still use some DMR TG from time to time but if anyone is seriously considering digital ham voice modes and does not want to spend forever figuring out how to program a DMR radio then get the FT-3d or any other fusion radio it's so simple to use.

Hey Mad_Lad. Great to hear that you finally received the FT-3d. Sounds great, and yes, fusion is much easier to set up than DMR.

If you are on it either tomorrow or Sat night, I will catch you via my DVStick to give it a real test.

04-03-2021 2:11pm

Shyboy wrote: »

Hey Mad_Lad. Great to hear that you finally received the FT-3d. Sounds great, and yes, fusion is much easier to set up than DMR.

If you are on it either tomorrow or Sat night, I will catch you via my DVStick to give it a real test.

Yeah I'll be on, where do you want to try it out, on a fusion channel or DMR ? maybe ysf-ie that links the two but it's a lot busier, I can crossmode to any TG easy with the openspot 3 anyway so if you can't then that's what I'll do.

Shyboy · 04-03-2021 8:31pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Yeah I'll be on, where do you want to try it out, on a fusion channel or DMR ? maybe ysf-ie that links the two but it's a lot busier, I can crossmode to any TG easy with the openspot 3 anyway so if you can't then that's what I'll do.

I don't mind at all. I can connect to any of the fusion channels on the DV Stick or can just use my DMR radio and crosslink via ysf-ie.

Maybe we will check ysf-ie at the time and see if it is in use and go from there.

04-03-2021 8:52pm

Shyboy wrote: »

I don't mind at all. I can connect to any of the fusion channels on the DV Stick or can just use my DMR radio and crosslink via ysf-ie.

Maybe we will check ysf-ie at the time and see if it is in use and go from there.

Ok sounds like a plan. We can try various channels, I'd like to compare you on the DMR and the DV stick too.

Right so we'll say Sat night 21:00 on ysf-ie ?

Shyboy · 05-03-2021 7:17am

Deleted User wrote: »

Ok sounds like a plan. We can try various channels, I'd like to compare you on the DMR and the DV stick too.

Right so we'll say Sat night 21:00 on ysf-ie ?

Cool....sounds good.

07-03-2021 12:19am

Thanks Shyboy for a great QSO and thanks for your patience while I sorted out the issues I was having which turned out to be my dodgy 4G internet. I'm amazed it was better tethering to the Iphone 3g with 2 bars of signal lol.

Shyboy · 07-03-2021 10:50am

Deleted User wrote: »

Thanks Shyboy for a great QSO and thanks for your patience while I sorted out the issues I was having which turned out to be my dodgy 4G internet. I'm amazed it was better tethering to the Iphone 3g with 2 bars of signal lol.

No worries, Mad_Lad. Glad it turned out to be internet related, rather than anything with the gear itself.

It will probably work 100% today.

07-03-2021 11:46am

Shyboy wrote: »

No worries, Mad_Lad. Glad it turned out to be internet related, rather than anything with the gear itself.

It will probably work 100% today.

Yeah probably work today, I haven't talked on it yet, just listening, HF is impossible for me today because of the arching ESB pole that I have been trying to get the ESB to fix since 2017 but they keep ignoring me so I have built up some evidence which I will present to the ESB for the last time before I contact Comreg. Or maybe I will just contact Comreg and be done with it.

Digital is handy for times like this too where HF is next to impossible.

08-03-2021 2:02pm

I'm learning how to do crossmoding on the FT-3D and this is what I discovered so far for anyone who has the FT-3D and the Openspot 3.

When you hit wires-x on the FT-3d and click all, the list of profiles that you created show up, so my profiles are this. 1 = Fusion, 2 = DMR and 3 = D-Star.

In the radio settings if you select "signalling" then DTMF, then no.4 "DTMF Mode" and select "mode" then change it to auto.

Then go to DTMF Memory and select memory 1 then enter #91 for tg 91 #2723 for Ireland chat and so on.

Then when in the radio on the brandmeister network you simply press PTT, DTMF and No 1 and this recalls the DTMF memory entry for TG 91, no 2 Ireland chat and so on.

It would be nice if you could search tg from the wires-x menu on the radio and store them in the wires-x memory.

Not sure how to change Reflectors on D-Star yet. But I was on REF 30C yesterday talking to a chap from the U.K for about 10 mins so that was my first QSO on D-Star.

Not sure if I'm using D-Star properly because when I look at the openspot 3 dash it shows my call as normal and anyone else is CQ CQ CQ or something like that ?

Shyboy · 09-03-2021 6:14pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Yeah probably work today, I haven't talked on it yet, just listening, HF is impossible for me today because of the arching ESB pole that I have been trying to get the ESB to fix since 2017 but they keep ignoring me so I have built up some evidence which I will present to the ESB for the last time before I contact Comreg. Or maybe I will just contact Comreg and be done with it.

Digital is handy for times like this too where HF is next to impossible.

Yes, although HF is still my favourite mode, conditions and local noise can really make it hard work. The problem with the ESB pole that you are having sounds a nightmare. I would just go straight to Comreg and let them get on the case.

Digital just works...(internet permitting

)

09-03-2021 7:02pm

Shyboy wrote: »

Yes, although HF is still my favourite mode, conditions and local noise can really make it hard work. The problem with the ESB pole that you are having sounds a nightmare. I would just go straight to Comreg and let them get on the case.

Digital just works...(internet permitting )

The Problem with Comreg is that if they come out and there's no noise then I might never hear from them again. It is intermittent and sometimes a lot worse.

Digital is convenient absolutely, when carrying a HF radio + antenna isn't practical you can talk anywhere any time with a small HT in your pocket. Even without using a hotspot if you got a repeater near by.

Shyboy · 12-03-2021 6:08pm

Deleted User wrote: »

The Problem with Comreg is that if they come out and there's no noise then I might never hear from them again. It is intermittent and sometimes a lot worse.

Digital is convenient absolutely, when carrying a HF radio + antenna isn't practical you can talk anywhere any time with a small HT in your pocket. Even without using a hotspot if you got a repeater near by.

Sorry Mad_Lad, there was a tragic death of a close neighbour and relative of my wife on Weds, so have not been near this forum until now.

Yes, I understand what you mean. If the problem is intermittent, it will just be typical that it will not happen when they come out.

I will catch you on the radio over the weekend.

12-03-2021 6:56pm

Shyboy wrote: »

Sorry Mad_Lad, there was a tragic death of a close neighbour and relative of my wife on Weds, so have not been near this forum until now.

Yes, I understand what you mean. If the problem is intermittent, it will just be typical that it will not happen when they come out.

I will catch you on the radio over the weekend.

Oh dear sorry to hear that.

Just to update on the FT-3d, the audio from the speaker is crap, lol yes, it's bad. Having it up to a reasonably audible volume sounds distorted and in the car it's next to impossible to hear and I can't pair it to the car's audio system so my next thing to do is to see if I can get it to work via the Aux in.

Audio via bluetooth headphones is not so good, there's always a noise present.

FM Broadcast sounds really poor via headphones because the phone profile is used for the headphones using meaning.

So between this and Fusion being blocked off the Repeater network, along with D-Star I am not very happy, at home the audio is decent enough but it's nothing like the Anytone 878, the difference is immediately noticeable.

The TX and RX audio quality from the external mic is better but it's not good enough especially in the car.

Now, the other thing is that I can't use Wirex-X, Yaesu block Wires-x from hotspots so you can only use reflectors and I'm not sure using crossmode from the openspot 3 will provide the best audio quality but for DMR it's actually quite good so probably no difference the ft-3d audio quality is just bad, shame because it's a nice radio and decent to use and no code plugs is a dream.

You can use wires-x button on the OS3 which does not connect to wires-x rooms only reflectors. I didn't know this before I got it.

Yeah lets catch up at the weekend, probably one of the DMR channels.

Shyboy · 13-03-2021 11:11am

Deleted User wrote: »

Oh dear sorry to hear that.

Just to update on the FT-3d, the audio from the speaker is crap, lol yes, it's bad. Having it up to a reasonably audible volume sounds distorted and in the car it's next to impossible to hear and I can't pair it to the car's audio system so my next thing to do is to see if I can get it to work via the Aux in.

Audio via bluetooth headphones is not so good, there's always a noise present.

FM Broadcast sounds really poor via headphones because the phone profile is used for the headphones using meaning.

So between this and Fusion being blocked off the Repeater network, along with D-Star I am not very happy, at home the audio is decent enough but it's nothing like the Anytone 878, the difference is immediately noticeable.

The TX and RX audio quality from the external mic is better but it's not good enough especially in the car.

Now, the other thing is that I can't use Wirex-X, Yaesu block Wires-x from hotspots so you can only use reflectors and I'm not sure using crossmode from the openspot 3 will provide the best audio quality but for DMR it's actually quite good so probably no difference the ft-3d audio quality is just bad, shame because it's a nice radio and decent to use and no code plugs is a dream.

You can use wires-x button on the OS3 which does not connect to wires-x rooms only reflectors. I didn't know this before I got it.

Yeah lets catch up at the weekend, probably one of the DMR channels.

Damn...that's a real pain. The radio was not cheap by any means, and it is a beautiful radio, but for the audio not to be great is disappointing.

Yes, if you are free this evening, we can catch up via DMR.

13-03-2021 12:10pm

Shyboy wrote: »

Damn...that's a real pain. The radio was not cheap by any means, and it is a beautiful radio, but for the audio not to be great is disappointing.

Yes, if you are free this evening, we can catch up via DMR.

No not cheap radio but I got it on Wimo for a lot less than on martin lunch 270 Euro's inc VAT.

It's a really cool radio to use and the touch screen is great, I'm going to try the bluetooth headset again and see if I can make up a lead to connect it to the car aux in.

When at home the audio is fine but it's just too low for the car.

Yeah See you on the YSF-IE channel around 9pm if anyone wants to chime in too all welcome or will we try HF later and if conditions are not good we can try YSF-IE ? i'll post on the normal place here if anyone else is interested.

Yaesu FT-3D

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