Yaesu: deciding between FTM-300D and FTM-500D for wife's mobile

[KD7RJC]

Greetings,

I bought an FTM-500D for my Nissan Frontier; still in the process of installing it but I think I'm going to be happy with it. Wife is going through the study materials now and we're looking at which Yaesu mobile to put in her Jeep Renegade for her to use once she's licensed, with an aim for using C4FM's GPS features for location while out four wheeling, camping, hiking, etc. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of room in her Jeep in order to do a truly clean install, I expect I'm going to have to put a separated head here in one of these three variants (aqua, orange, or purple):



For what it's worth I've already disassembled this part of the dashboard and done some investigating on how a remote-mounted head could be installed.

The 500 would have been a slam dunk if it fit a little better. Unfortunately because it would physically stick out further from the dash it will make it tougher to access the HVAC controls underneath.

So my question, when modifying settings in memory-mode on a particular memory slot for things like wide vs narrow, repeater settings, tone, etc, the 500 automatically saves those changes to that slot as one makes them. One doesn't have to manually save the entries. Does the 300 work in the same fashion?

For what it's worth I'm aware that the 300 is getting a little long in the tooth, but I want the true dual receive capability that the newer small-head FTM-200D lacks, and that I'll have to either place the radio body where the speaker could be heard or will have to use an external speaker since it lacks the 500's in-head speaker.

I suppose, if anyone has significant experience with both the FTM-300D an the FTM-500D, I'd like to hear your thoughts. The manuals don't really help much with the feel of using them and unfortunately the most prolific producer of videos on Youtube seems oriented towards clicks/views rather than towards real deep dives into using them.

Thanks.

 

[kg4icg]

500 Has 2 speakers, 1 in the body, 1 in the head, so you can mount the body hidden, and place the head whichever way fits best. Use the sdcard slot to upgrade firmware and mem channels on the radio when you need to for which sd card slot is in the head. Mount mic to body or head also whichever works best.

 

[AK9R]

I bought an FTM300D because I thought it was a good compromise between the large size of the FTM500D's head and the lack of dual receive in the FTM200D. I intend to mount the 300 in my Dodge Durango this spring.

In most amateur radios that I've used from Icom, Kenwood, and Yaesu, if you change the settings of a memory channel, you have to re-save the channel to retain the settings.

 

[KD7RJC]

I bought an FTM300D because I thought it was a good compromise between the large size of the FTM500D's head and the lack of dual receive in the FTM200D. I intend to mount the 300 in my Dodge Durango this spring.

In most amateur radios that I've used from Icom, Kenwood, and Yaesu, if you change the settings of a memory channel, you have to re-save the channel to retain the settings.

So the 300 updates the minor settings in a given memory slot similarly to how the 500 does?

 

[AK9R]

Oops, you are correct. I remember this being a quirk of Yaesu's later mobiles that I don't like.

I just walked through this with my FTM300D. I set up a frequency in the VFO with repeater offset and tone. I saved that VFO to memory #2. While in Memory mode, I turned off the tone, changed the channel to memory #1, changed back to memory #2, and the tone was still off. So, it's writing changes made to channels in memory mode immediately to that memory.

That's not what I'm used to with other radios, therefore, I don't like it.

 

[KD7RJC]

Oops, you are correct. I remember this being a quirk of Yaesu's later mobiles that I don't like.

I just walked through this with my FTM300D. I set up a frequency in the VFO with repeater offset and tone. I saved that VFO to memory #2. While in Memory mode, I turned off the tone, changed the channel to memory #1, changed back to memory #2, and the tone was still off. So, it's writing changes made to channels in memory mode immediately to that memory.

That's not what I'm used to with other radios, therefore, I don't like it.

Thank you for testing that. More research to do still but that helps to at least know that this aspect of the two units is similar.

 

[k6cpo]

Greetings,

I bought an FTM-500D for my Nissan Frontier; still in the process of installing it but I think I'm going to be happy with it. Wife is going through the study materials now and we're looking at which Yaesu mobile to put in her Jeep Renegade for her to use once she's licensed, with an aim for using C4FM's GPS features for location while out four wheeling, camping, hiking, etc. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of room in her Jeep in order to do a truly clean install, I expect I'm going to have to put a separated head here in one of these three variants (aqua, orange, or purple):

View attachment 158036

For what it's worth I've already disassembled this part of the dashboard and done some investigating on how a remote-mounted head could be installed.

The 500 would have been a slam dunk if it fit a little better. Unfortunately because it would physically stick out further from the dash it will make it tougher to access the HVAC controls underneath.

So my question, when modifying settings in memory-mode on a particular memory slot for things like wide vs narrow, repeater settings, tone, etc, the 500 automatically saves those changes to that slot as one makes them. One doesn't have to manually save the entries. Does the 300 work in the same fashion?

For what it's worth I'm aware that the 300 is getting a little long in the tooth, but I want the true dual receive capability that the newer small-head FTM-200D lacks, and that I'll have to either place the radio body where the speaker could be heard or will have to use an external speaker since it lacks the 500's in-head speaker.

I suppose, if anyone has significant experience with both the FTM-300D an the FTM-500D, I'd like to hear your thoughts. The manuals don't really help much with the feel of using them and unfortunately the most prolific producer of videos on Youtube seems oriented towards clicks/views rather than towards real deep dives into using them.

Thanks.

I know that sometimes there is no alternative, but I'd avoid mounting the radio down low like that. Looking at it means taking your eyes off the road and that's not always a good thing, especially when going off road. I don't like to do it on the highway either, but I live in SoCal where a moment's inattention to the road can be fatal.

 

[KD7RJC]

I know that sometimes there is no alternative, but I'd avoid mounting the radio down low like that. Looking at it means taking your eyes off the road and that's not always a good thing, especially when going off road. I don't like to do it on the highway either, but I live in SoCal where a moment's inattention to the road can be fatal.

Unfortunately there's no real choice, the position of the HVAC vents on top of the dash like that means anything mounted above would be too, high, and the lower edge of the vents are too close to the top edge of the infotainment radio.

For what it's worth I'm doing something different in my Frontier.

If I go with the FTM-300D I'm likely going to use this disassembled switch panel that is nearly all blanks in order to mount through to a bracket behind the dash.



These are the two places I could reasonably place a screw through, either into the radio head mounting boss or into the clone of the YSK-7800 bracket that the head can snap into:



Likely if I go with the FTM-300D I'll install a 6P6C jack (RJ-12) into one of the slots that isn't blocked by the head itself, so if I mount the head on the left (aqua) then I'd mount the hadnmic jack on the right.

 

[KD7RJC]

After some further disassembly of the Jeep I think I'm just going to go with another FTM-500D after all.

I had time to test if the hazard switch in that spot (purple in the earlier post) and I was able to confirm that it is just a momentary, it's not a CANBUS trigger. I plan to install a hazard switch somewhere else, most likely in that gap between the two HVAC vents above the radio. Relocated thus the ham radio can go right over the current spot, centered.

So this is what the dash looks like without the hazard switch panel:


When I install the now-empty switch panel, it lines up like this:


the dash structure/frame is behind two sets of open switch panels.

The YSK-7800 superimposed on that gives this view:


So if I drive fasteners in through the the two innermost green open holes where switches should go, those fasteners can attach to the dash structure/frame. This will hold the bracket on tightly. if I need to use nuts on the back of the dash structure I can access them through the open cavity while I have the infotainment system out.

Bracket position without the annotations:


And radio head held up to give an idea of position:


Thanks for the input, it did help with the decision even if I didn't end up going with the FTM-300D. The speaker and handmic jack are just too useful.

 

[HandiScratchy]

I have an FTM300 mounted on the center of the dash above the screen in my F150. I can read the frequency no problem but other things like the memory number aren't easily determined by a glance. I think that location would be similar for your wife so the larger FTM500 screen is probably the better choice.

 

[own1bigtruck]

I went with the 500. Granted I utilized a previous dash mount that I had already installed for a fire department mobile. The head mount you can get for the 500 attaches with double sided tape, so you could put it up on top of the dash in a pinch. Lido also makes a mount that uses the passenger seat rail bolt and puts it up beside the console. There are options. The plus side is the speakers and mic connection in the head. My "radio" is actually mounted behind my back seat, so I have the rear speaker turned off.

 

[KD7RJC]

Got the FTM-500DR installed...

 

[Mountaineer304]

Love my ftm 500