FT3DR Sticks in transmit mode

[nick59349]

Hello,

I have a Yeasu FT-3DR and have been using the APRS function transmitting on 144.390 while out hiking. It works great but somethimes I'll notice it is stuck in transmit mode and the only way I can get out of it is to power cycle the radio. Has anyboy else has this issue? Just wondering if I'm doing something wrong or if it's just a bug in the firmware. It doesn't seem to matter what the transmit interval is but it usually happens after 10-15 minutes or so when it does.

Thanks.

Nick

 

[robertmac]

Do you have a non Yaesu microphone plugged in? Have you set the transmit time out to less than 3 minutes?

 

[vagrant]

I have used my FT3DR for extended periods of transmitting APRS, well over 10-15 minutes, and I have not encountered that problem. A guess would be something wonky with your smart APRS settings, but that may not be it.

Here are my versions which are the latest.
Main Ver 1.02
Sub Ver 1.02
DSP Ver 7.02

Perhaps backup your memories and then reset your radio to factory defaults. Then do the initial setup of your radio again when you turn it on and give APRS a whirl and see if that solved it. If APRS works normally, then restore just your memories and not the settings.

 

[nick59349]

Do you have a non Yaesu microphone plugged in? Have you set the transmit time out to less than 3 minutes?

No, no external mic but I do have it set to less than 3 minutes. Does it matter?

 

[ClemsonSCJ]

No, no external mic but I do have it set to less than 3 minutes. Does it matter?

I called Yaesu about mine doing it today. The tech I talked to said he had only heard of it one other time and they didn’t have a definitive known cause. He suggested I do a factory reset and manually set up APRS to see if that fixes it as it may be some glitch that got programmed into the radio with programming software.

I googled it and found one other post about it, and someone responded saying they fixed theirs by turning off AMS and programming their APRS memory with just the regular analog FM mode. That did not fix mine though.

 

[nick59349]

I called Yaesu about mine doing it today. The tech I talked to said he had only heard of it one other time and they didn’t have a definitive known cause. He suggested I do a factory reset and manually set up APRS to see if that fixes it as it may be some glitch that got programmed into the radio with programming software.

I googled it and found one other post about it, and someone responded saying they fixed theirs by turning off AMS and programming their APRS memory with just the regular analog FM mode. That did not fix mine though.

strangely, I changed the interval to 3 minutes and it hasn’t done it since. Not sure why that is.

 

[ClemsonSCJ]

strangely, I changed the interval to 3 minutes and it hasn’t done it since. Not sure why that is.

Did you ever figure out what the issue may be? I’d hate to think their solution is to not utilize a feature of the radio lol. But then again, I dealt with that with FCA for years.

 

[nick59349]

Funny thing, It did it once yesterday but that’s the first time in months. It used to do it every day. Not sure how switching to 3 minute intervals helped. I was hoping the guy that suggested switching it would chime in and tell why it would make a difference.

 

[WA0CBW]

Do you have "smart beaconing" turned on?
BB

 

[nick59349]

Do you have "smart beaconing" turned on?
BB

No, smart beaconing is turned off.

 

[ClemsonSCJ]

Funny thing, It did it once yesterday but that’s the first time in months. It used to do it every day. Not sure how switching to 3 minute intervals helped. I was hoping the guy that suggested switching it would chime in and tell why it would make a difference.

Just now coming back to this after continued problems with mine and didn’t realize you responded.

So I would imagine the reason the 3 minute interval helped is because you’re transmitting less often. If your radio encounters the problem on average once every 10 transmits, then 10 transmits every 30 seconds would occur in a 5 minute period, rather than a 30 minute period every 3 minutes. So you’re simply making the problem occur less frequently by transmitting less often. That’s why I said before I don’t want to change my settings to that because Yaesu needs to own the problem rather than saying “well just transmit less often.”

That being said, I’ve found multiple posts on various sites about this issue, yet every time I call Yaesu about it they act like it’s the first they’re hearing of it. I finally took a video of it doing it and sent it to a tech and he said to send it in and they’d look at it and if they couldn’t figure it out and fix it they’d send me a new radio.

 

[KC8RFE]

I've noticed the problem happens mostly when the A band is in C4FM mode and has been listening to digital. Then the B band APRS tends to lock in TX.

There are reports of this happening on the FT-2 as well. I've also personally had this happen with an FT-1DR and also the VX-8G. I think it's something inherent in the Yaesu TNC that is causing it. If you have the time out timer set it seems to transmit until it hits that then stops. Yaesu was no help when I contacted them and they wanted me to send in the radio. Since it's intermittent I was not confident sending it in and them ever having the problem.

 

[ClemsonSCJ]

I've noticed the problem happens mostly when the A band is in C4FM mode and has been listening to digital. Then the B band APRS tends to lock in TX.

There are reports of this happening on the FT-2 as well. I've also personally had this happen with an FT-1DR and also the VX-8G. I think it's something inherent in the Yaesu TNC that is causing it. If you have the time out timer set it seems to transmit until it hits that then stops. Yaesu was no help when I contacted them and they wanted me to send in the radio. Since it's intermittent I was not confident sending it in and them ever having the problem.

I still haven’t gotten around to sending my radio in, but the guy I talked to on the phone had me get it on video and send it to him.