Yaesu: Yaesu FT 5 bluetooth compatibility

[Stretchman]

Has anyone who has an FT 5 been able to get it to bluetooth sync with a mission ready shoulder mic? I am curious as to what the bluetooth inside the radio will actually link with. Don't need much more than PTT and speaker, but it would be nice to know up front before spending that kind of bread on a radio.

I know most people who review ham gear aren't really that heavy into commercial quality peripherals, and the people that are aren't usually looking at a fusion radio, so I am not expecting that there'll be a lot of answers here. For me, Fusion is good because it'll cross mode to anything. I have a Johnson 5100 and a Motorola 6550 and for quality, they are both light years ahead of anything else out there, but they are radios that are more purpose built for commercial environments. With Fusion, you don't need to download a contact database, because the radio will get it's info from the spot device in cross mode. I don't really need to watch the radio in scan mode, since it'll probably live on the belt, and, it's ip67, or so they say, but, does it work with anything out there that also is in the way of accessories?

With Yeasu, the market is so small, and, the limitations that Yeasu themselves build into their stuff makes it difficult at best to get anything ele to work with it. The APRS system is purposely crippled, support for spot devices can be a kludge, and it's like they go out of their way to make it harder for anyone to do anything but Yeasu with the radio. However, the AMS system is great, WiresX even supports analog, WV mode does fantastic on P25, and it will even cross mode to dstar and sound good with a Spot 3. But anything aftermarket is a big ??? Plus, the system doesn't really support anything outside of their stuff. Be nice if it linked up to stuff like allstar. 'If' you could send text and data. It's capable of doing it, but it's just not there. It's like they have no problem with everyone working with them, but, they won't do anything for anyone else.

I'd be fine with the FT 70. Easy to program, wonderful receiver, and a tough little unit. Well, except for the speaker mic connection. And, the volume control. No Bluetooth. IP 54. What were they thinking? These are the guys that built the vx 8. They didn't see this?

Thanks in advance if you can help me out here.

 

[Firekite]

I’d settle for working with Bluetooth earbuds. Apparently they’re using something so old that modern Bluetooth headsets and earbuds aren’t even able to be backwards compatible with it. Why would they choose that? I have no idea, but it’s certainly frustrating.

If you find something, whether just some earbuds or a “mission ready” shoulder mic, please do share.

 

[ko6jw_2]

My advice would be to buy Yaesu's bluetooth earbud. Bluetooth for a two way radio does not work the same way as it would with a cell phone. The phone is duplex and does not need a PTT switch whereas an HT is simplex and does need PTT. This is why normal telephone bluetooth headsets don't work with HT's. It has nothing to do with outdated protocols. The bluetooth protocols are backward compatible. SBC is the lowest common denominator and is probably what Yaesu is using. For music there are ACC, aptX and LDAC, but these are not needed for telephone or two-way radio use.

Both Pryme and Otto Engineering make bluetooth speaker mics. The Pryme's are about $100+ and the Otto Engineering ones are around $250. More than I would pay for sure.

Your other complaints about the FT5 design and APRS are puzzling. First, I wouldn't spend that kind of money on a radio to use it with a hotspot. The cross mode capability is in the hotspot not the radio. Explain how the APRS is "purposely" crippled. I've never had a problem with it. Do not use analog on Wires-X unless you want people to yell at you. Also using WV on Fusion or Wires-X is not a good idea because it does not transmit your position etc.

Yaesu is selling only C4FM. They are trying to promote that so, of course, they won't support other digital modes. There is not and probably never will be a Swiss Army knife radio with all digital modes.

As for water resistance or submersible radios, get a VX-6R. No digital, but you can pound nails with it - underwater. Yaesu probably doesn't see a huge market for those features in a Fusion radio.

As for the FT70, I have one of those too. What's wrong with the speaker/mic connection? Rather have it on the top? Me too. Oh well.

Maybe you shouldn't get a Yaesu radio.

 

[AK9R]

The APRS system is purposely crippled...

If you are referring to the lack of access to the TNC (versus Kenwood's APRS radios), that's been standard for Yaesu APRS radios from the beginning. Yaesu has never provided the kind of access to the TNC for third party applications that Kenwood does. AFAIK, the best you can do is get the radio to output APRS position reports in a format that an external APRS client and read and display on a map.

 

[Stretchman]

My advice would be to buy Yaesu's bluetooth earbud. Bluetooth for a two way radio does not work the same way as it would with a cell phone. The phone is duplex and does not need a PTT switch whereas an HT is simplex and does need PTT. This is why normal telephone bluetooth headsets don't work with HT's. It has nothing to do with outdated protocols. The bluetooth protocols are backward compatible. SBC is the lowest common denominator and is probably what Yaesu is using. For music there are ACC, aptX and LDAC, but these are not needed for telephone or two-way radio use.

Both Pryme and Otto Engineering make bluetooth speaker mics. The Pryme's are about $100+ and the Otto Engineering ones are around $250. More than I would pay for sure.

Your other complaints about the FT5 design and APRS are puzzling. First, I wouldn't spend that kind of money on a radio to use it with a hotspot. The cross mode capability is in the hotspot not the radio. Explain how the APRS is "purposely" crippled. I've never had a problem with it. Do not use analog on Wires-X unless you want people to yell at you. Also using WV on Fusion or Wires-X is not a good idea because it does not transmit your position etc.

Yaesu is selling only C4FM. They are trying to promote that so, of course, they won't support other digital modes. There is not and probably never will be a Swiss Army knife radio with all digital modes.

As for water resistance or submersible radios, get a VX-6R. No digital, but you can pound nails with it - underwater. Yaesu probably doesn't see a huge market for those features in a Fusion radio.

As for the FT70, I have one of those too. What's wrong with the speaker/mic connection? Rather have it on the top? Me too. Oh well.

Maybe you shouldn't get a Yaesu radio.

The FT 70 has a broken jack. I was using a Pryme speaker mic, but getting in and out of the car, bumping into things, etc, and it eventually gave up the ghost. The radio still works fine.

I have a Johnson 5100 ES (P25) and a Motorola XPR 6550 ( DMR) and both are great radios. Personally, I think the Fusion radio itself is better than either of those, but, the limitations are with the radio's construction. I do have a VX 5r from way back in the days (2001) and it still works, but is analog only. With WiresX analog I have heard repeaters that are linked and they sound good.

Yeasu's APRS system will link with an APRS client for RX only. Doesn't accept any info from the computer to the radio. The issue with Yeasu's bluetooth and it's limitations are known. Same problems with the FT3, and there's plenty of stuff on the net about how 'great' Yeasu's bluetooth stuff is. I did hear one report about someone getting the Yeasu to work with a Motorola Mic of some kind. IDK, I haven't tried it.

 

[micart]

The FT 70 has a broken jack.

I agree. The same for the FT5. I broke the socket. In the very beginning if the external mi cable was pulled downwards radio was transmitting. Recently the socket broke inside, and the jack push it into the radio. I had to open ht and superglue it. FT-5, in general, is good. But I would like to see it in a VX-8DE-like shape. GPS antenna stands in the way of the speaker mic connection. Or maybe if it would be screwable like in VX-6 but from the side. Currently, I'm looking for a VX-8 with GPS speaker-mic. I used to have the radio on my backpack for hiking, but FT5 does feel not strong enough.

Greetings,
Artur, SP6C

 

[k6cpo]

<snip>

I'd be fine with the FT 70. Easy to program, wonderful receiver, and a tough little unit. Well, except for the speaker mic connection. And, the volume control. No Bluetooth. IP 54. What were they thinking? These are the guys that built the vx 8. They didn't see this?

Thanks in advance if you can help me out here.

If the FT-70 had the same features as the FT-5D, then you'd be paying the FT5 price. The FT-70 was designed as an inexpensive way for people to get into Fusion®. It was meant to counter some of the popularity of the cheap Chinese DMR radios.

The FT 70 has a broken jack. I was using a Pryme speaker mic, but getting in and out of the car, bumping into things, etc, and it eventually gave up the ghost. The radio still works fine.

<snip>

I agree. The same for the FT5. I broke the socket. In the very beginning if the external mi cable was pulled downwards radio was transmitting. Recently the socket broke inside, and the jack push it into the radio. I had to open ht and superglue it. FT-5, in general, is good. But I would like to see it in a VX-8DE-like shape. GPS antenna stands in the way of the speaker mic connection. Or maybe if it would be screwable like in VX-6 but from the side. Currently, I'm looking for a VX-8 with GPS speaker-mic. I used to have the radio on my backpack for hiking, but FT5 does feel not strong enough.

Greetings,
Artur, SP6C

You guys must be horribly rough with your radios. I have five different Yaesu HTs in my possession, a couple of which I've had for 12 years or more and I've never encountered any issues with the mic jacks. And I'm far from gentle with my radios. (My FT-60R has a star-shaped crack in the window over the LCD, but the LCD is fine.)

 

[AK9R]

I've never encountered any issues with the mic jacks.

I had trouble in the past with the mic jack on FT-50s and VX-10s wearing out from use. One of the issues with the single-pin mic plug is that the plug can rotate. That movement was hard on the plating used on the connectors in the older Yaesu radios. I've not noticed the problem on newer ones.

 

[pcunite]

I agree. The same for the FT5. I broke the socket.

This is why I moved on from the FT3DR to the VX-6/7 line. Too fragile while out hiking. Makes a great desktop radio! Haha, Wish'd they make a proper replacement for the VX-8DR.