Yaesu: Yaesu FT-4XR
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I have never met a yaesu that couldn't, many ham yaesu have common origins in public service,LMR ,so being able to retune and frequency agility ,put a proper cut,SWR match on and go
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KN0JI
Member
Do tell! Love to know how to do that.
kayleesdad
Member
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- 663
$75 for the 4xr and $82 for the 65r...at gigaparts.
not bad for dual band HTs that actually work. .I guess yaesu is giving the CCRs some competition.
I like the 65r with good transmit and receive quality, but donated my CCRs because I hate the poor transmit and receive capabilities.
not bad for dual band HTs that actually work. .I guess yaesu is giving the CCRs some competition.
I like the 65r with good transmit and receive quality, but donated my CCRs because I hate the poor transmit and receive capabilities.
KN0JI
Member
Funny you mention the CCRs, because both the Yaesu FT-60R and FT-4XR are ECRs.
kayleesdad
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- Oct 22, 2007
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- 663
Yeah, maybe call these Yaesus "YCCRs" that work to distinguish them from the CCRs like Baofeng and the other weird name brands that don't work so well.
wd9ewk
Member
Hi!
In the months since I posted to this thread, there has been a blog article about the insides of the FT-4XR. It is very similar to the Baofeng-type HTs, even using the same transceiver-on-a-chip RDA1846S that has been used in those radios. Razvan YO9IRF/M0HZH posted his article, complete with pictures.
ARRL has finally done its QST review of the FT-4XR, appearing in the May 2019 issue. ARRL members who have an account on the ARRL web site can download the product reviews from this issue.
Short answer... the FT-4XR complies with FCC rules for transmitted spurious signal and harmonic suppression. This is just like what ARRL found with the FT-4XR's bigger brother, the FT-65R, in that review that appeared in the October 2017 QST.
I have used the FT-4XR to work some of our amateur satellites. The FT-4XR is not capable of full-duplex operation (hearing the satellite downlink while simultaneously transmitting). It could be used with another radio for full-duplex operation, or can be used half-duplex (just like working a terrestrial repeater) through groups of memory channels. With the squelch open, I have been able to work the AO-91 and AO-92 satellites. I posted some YouTube videos showing an FT-4XR receiving satellite downlinks with a dual-band MFJ-1717 whip on the radio.
73!
In the months since I posted to this thread, there has been a blog article about the insides of the FT-4XR. It is very similar to the Baofeng-type HTs, even using the same transceiver-on-a-chip RDA1846S that has been used in those radios. Razvan YO9IRF/M0HZH posted his article, complete with pictures.
ARRL has finally done its QST review of the FT-4XR, appearing in the May 2019 issue. ARRL members who have an account on the ARRL web site can download the product reviews from this issue.
Short answer... the FT-4XR complies with FCC rules for transmitted spurious signal and harmonic suppression. This is just like what ARRL found with the FT-4XR's bigger brother, the FT-65R, in that review that appeared in the October 2017 QST.
I have used the FT-4XR to work some of our amateur satellites. The FT-4XR is not capable of full-duplex operation (hearing the satellite downlink while simultaneously transmitting). It could be used with another radio for full-duplex operation, or can be used half-duplex (just like working a terrestrial repeater) through groups of memory channels. With the squelch open, I have been able to work the AO-91 and AO-92 satellites. I posted some YouTube videos showing an FT-4XR receiving satellite downlinks with a dual-band MFJ-1717 whip on the radio.
- Receiving AO-91 in July 2018:
- Receiving AO-92 in July 2018:
- Receiving AO-92 in August 2018:
73!
The only Question most intelligent Hams had was when?
Baofeng and other CCRs set the bar low and the price lower .
Sociologist give generations different names boomers,millenials gen X etc.
We now have a generation of hams that will be known as baofeng , and the major existing brands have gotten there clocks cleaned with the baofeng generation ,so wondering who,when and how was the Chinese assault on amateur radio gonna be answered is not a mystery anymore.
If you are a ham for any length of time you will have noticed:
Flagship models have been lingering ,not the break neck pace they used to be released at,when you thought you wanted "X" brand A releases there answer to radio "X" ,and so on .
The dumbing down of capabilities and features ,even flagship models are coming with less abilities ,like the advent of dual band single band radios ,cutting budgets,cutting innovation and since many of the baofeng crowd expexts less and dont aspire to better radios we all pay .
We are also seeing brands become more focused on there individual world , with everything an expensive option or "you cant get there from here " mindsets ( most hams are resoucefull and have developed work arounds ) so some of these companies shot themselves in the foot by not including parts ,or buying crap parts that fail , they are no longer considered a premium brand ,Icom was the leader for along time ,but in cutting quality and making things options,and manipulating the price of radios new and used so badly to try and drive profits ,they are facing a decline in customers ,(i used to be a die hard Icom loyal customer then they burned customers & consequently there market share ,image) . Kenwood has not done this , Yaesu looked like it might be a race to the bottom with Icom , i think Yaesu saw what was happening and turned a page,saying "we arent going down that road".
So Yaesu ain't perfect , (I personally have never liked there menu system ,i always have cheat sheets in my wallet ) but the fact there fighting this cheap Haz Mat dumped here by the Chinese gives me hope .
There not turning out crap ,when they screw up a radio ,they usually make good on it ,and when they do something stupid and they realize it ,it gets addressed and then the next batch of radios is an A or X, or XDR to denote fixing something or bettering something .
So I have alot of respect for Yaesu ,and even more now that it looks like we will not be burying them next to Icom anytime soon .and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for them ,they seem like the last company willing to battle for the 2 types of vastly different consumers the "budget budget budget" I don't care ! And the Flagships that us older buzzards have always bought ,and dare I say some of there recent offerings appear to be well placed as "mid level" not targeting the budget crowd or the flagship but "inentivising features" to make themselves appealing as a justifiable ,worthwhile budget friendly upgrade.
They hopefully will succeed where the "Dstar tax" failed , there making affordable entry and mid level access to most of digital ,but still saving some to keep the Flagships crowd buying, and possibly relaunching wires into a successful mode ,it's been around my entire ham life with not much growth, but wires X may ignite some passions , there are people who have done amazing things with it ,but you need full digital HRI 200 nodes to find the other communities that wires X dominates the market in digital tinkering .
Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk
Baofeng and other CCRs set the bar low and the price lower .
Sociologist give generations different names boomers,millenials gen X etc.
We now have a generation of hams that will be known as baofeng , and the major existing brands have gotten there clocks cleaned with the baofeng generation ,so wondering who,when and how was the Chinese assault on amateur radio gonna be answered is not a mystery anymore.
If you are a ham for any length of time you will have noticed:
Flagship models have been lingering ,not the break neck pace they used to be released at,when you thought you wanted "X" brand A releases there answer to radio "X" ,and so on .
The dumbing down of capabilities and features ,even flagship models are coming with less abilities ,like the advent of dual band single band radios ,cutting budgets,cutting innovation and since many of the baofeng crowd expexts less and dont aspire to better radios we all pay .
We are also seeing brands become more focused on there individual world , with everything an expensive option or "you cant get there from here " mindsets ( most hams are resoucefull and have developed work arounds ) so some of these companies shot themselves in the foot by not including parts ,or buying crap parts that fail , they are no longer considered a premium brand ,Icom was the leader for along time ,but in cutting quality and making things options,and manipulating the price of radios new and used so badly to try and drive profits ,they are facing a decline in customers ,(i used to be a die hard Icom loyal customer then they burned customers & consequently there market share ,image) . Kenwood has not done this , Yaesu looked like it might be a race to the bottom with Icom , i think Yaesu saw what was happening and turned a page,saying "we arent going down that road".
So Yaesu ain't perfect , (I personally have never liked there menu system ,i always have cheat sheets in my wallet ) but the fact there fighting this cheap Haz Mat dumped here by the Chinese gives me hope .
There not turning out crap ,when they screw up a radio ,they usually make good on it ,and when they do something stupid and they realize it ,it gets addressed and then the next batch of radios is an A or X, or XDR to denote fixing something or bettering something .
So I have alot of respect for Yaesu ,and even more now that it looks like we will not be burying them next to Icom anytime soon .and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for them ,they seem like the last company willing to battle for the 2 types of vastly different consumers the "budget budget budget" I don't care ! And the Flagships that us older buzzards have always bought ,and dare I say some of there recent offerings appear to be well placed as "mid level" not targeting the budget crowd or the flagship but "inentivising features" to make themselves appealing as a justifiable ,worthwhile budget friendly upgrade.
They hopefully will succeed where the "Dstar tax" failed , there making affordable entry and mid level access to most of digital ,but still saving some to keep the Flagships crowd buying, and possibly relaunching wires into a successful mode ,it's been around my entire ham life with not much growth, but wires X may ignite some passions , there are people who have done amazing things with it ,but you need full digital HRI 200 nodes to find the other communities that wires X dominates the market in digital tinkering .
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I am not saying this will be easy to find ,i haven't seen any really for sale ,but with the new features recently added to FT 2 ,it might shake loose some FT 1's ,when they discontinued them they blew them out at $199,so used they should be cheaper ,but it will give you dual vfo dual recieve etc , the FT 2 is just a touchscreen display version of the FT1 being they are both flagship HTs ,they discontinued the FT1 because they were competing for sales with themselves ,the only thing it lacks is the PDN mode that they just added to the FT 2 and has the traditional display and keypad , it will even take and send digital pictures in you break the bank and buy the speaker mic with the little camera in it , as i was told, so shall i tell you save the money its not an kind of real quality resolution image ( its decent for quick snaps if your a die hard storm chaser but its not even cell phone quality),but that would give you back the features the 4 is short of ,without much expense.
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Good day all, i just bought one of the tiny Yaesu,FT-4xr hand helds, interesting radio in many ways,however" after setting it up with simplex stuff i then set it up for the area repeaters. the issue is i can not key any of them,440 nor two meters,despite double and triple checking the usual,offsets,tones,ect;.the price was decent however at this point i could do better with one of the cheap china made radios, even adding a much better antenna still does little to help,fair on simplex but lacking even at full power,shame a brand,name radio, is worse then one of the el cheapo ones.one gets what they pay for i know,however'i have not found any software for this radio? any ideas or input? tnx
Spankymedic7
Member
"One thing which is not explained very clearly is that some menus have sub menus. Specifically the tone selection. You need to select from TX and from RX. But you don't know there is an option to see the other selection. I believe you need to press V/M to toggle between the sub menus."
I had the same problem, you're right, there's no reference on where to look for the sub-menus. Fortunately I had the sense to come here and yell for help...problem was solved shortly thereafter. It's a great little radio, I picked it up as a "checkout impulse buy", and use it as my take-to-work radio.
I had the same problem, you're right, there's no reference on where to look for the sub-menus. Fortunately I had the sense to come here and yell for help...problem was solved shortly thereafter. It's a great little radio, I picked it up as a "checkout impulse buy", and use it as my take-to-work radio.
Spankymedic7
Member
Does anyone have the new FT-4XR yet? I am in the market for a new HT and it looks nice. I don't think I want to pursue any C4FM or D-Star HT's (not enough folks to talk to here). Thanks very much!
I just bought one, I really like it. I'm generally not a fan of small radios, but this one didn't look like most others. This one has more of a "robust" design, it looks a bit larger than, for instance, the VX-1 or VX-2 from years ago.
I just bought one, I really like it. I'm generally not a fan of small radios, but this one didn't look like most others. This one has more of a "robust" design, it looks a bit larger than, for instance, the VX-1 or VX-2 from years ago.
Thanks for the input Spankymedic 7, i did after rereading some posts and messing with the sub menus,figure out and set the machines, a bit tricky and such but seems to work ok,i will say this, after doing this i see that the radios not as strong as the china made ones. nor brings the machines in as good as those cheap ones.even adding a bigger and better rubber duck,it did not help a great deal,some but not a lot. all in all,a pretty good radio for the bucks,
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