Yaesu: Yaesu FT-65 High Pitch Sound

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TC415

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Hi all, new to amateur radio. I just got an FT-65 and at the lowest volume setting right before it switches to off, the radio puts out a high pitch frequency sound when receiving a transmission. Can someone confirm if that is normal? The only thing I can find related is the reddit post below. Thanks

 

AK9R

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The two FT-65s that I owned emitted that noise. I sold both of them.

What's interesting is that the FT-4X which is a similar radio with a few less features, does not emit that noise.
 

cognetic

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Same experience here from out of the box with 2 separate radios. Returned both, thought the first was just a fluke. The second one seemed to worsen as the radio warmed up. To be frank, I thought this radio was one of the most poorly made Yaesu radios I've ever encountered - maybe even a bit worse than the Baofeng UV-5R... YMMV

-cognetic
 

MTS2000des

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This is what happens when a company outsources their manufacturing to a WoC maker in China. The FT-60/FT-270 are actual real radios not WoC trash. Yaesu is hungry for the market dominated by CCRs. By going low rent, they are putting their reputation for quality on the line. The FT-65/FT-4X are nothing more than badge engineered CCRs. Sure you get a superior warranty, but at the end of the day, one can't polish a turd.
 

kayn1n32008

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This is what happens when a company outsources their manufacturing to a WoC maker in China. The FT-60/FT-270 are actual real radios not WoC trash. Yaesu is hungry for the market dominated by CCRs. By going low rent, they are putting their reputation for quality on the line. The FT-65/FT-4X are nothing more than badge engineered CCRs. Sure you get a superior warranty, but at the end of the day, one can't polish a turd.

BuT tHeY aRe ChEaP
 

N4KVE

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This is what happens when a company outsources their manufacturing to a WoC maker in China. The FT-60/FT-270 are actual real radios not WoC trash. Yaesu is hungry for the market dominated by CCRs. By going low rent, they are putting their reputation for quality on the line. The FT-65/FT-4X are nothing more than badge engineered CCRs. Sure you get a superior warranty, but at the end of the day, one can't polish a turd.
Sadly, this is caused by all the CCR’s on the market now. Since many would rather buy a $30 piece of garbage from China without considering the lack of quality, vs a Kenwoo, Icom, or Yaesu QUALITY radio, the big 3 have had to sell garbage radios from China to keep selling radios. How sad.
 

TC415

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Dang. Pretty disappointed to hear that everyone has the issue. I ended up giving customer service a call to ask about it and they said it does not sound normal. Just dropped it off in the mail for warranty repair but turn around time due to COVID is 3-4 weeks. Hoping they can resolve it, but hearing what you all said, but not holding my breath. Thanks guys, will report back after repairs in case bad batch or something
 

n5ims

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3 - 4 week turnaround time for a brand new radio under warranty. Sounds like a great way to guarantee that you can't return the radio to the store for another brand. I might have been tempted to work with the store you got it from and let them replace it with another one (with you validating that it doesn't have the same issue prior to accepting it) or swapping it out for another model (or even brand) and let them go through the trouble of returning it. One very good reason to support your local store. Now I do understand that not everyone has a local store, but this is exactly why it's worth paying a bit more at a brick and mortar store is worth it over a mail-order place. If you must do mail-order, pick one that will do quick and full returns if there are issues (including user error of getting the AA-123 you actually ordered instead of the AA-123A that you really wanted).
 

MTS2000des

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This is why I buy from HRO Atlanta (local to me) whenever possible. They have, on more than one occasion, stepped up when a manufacturer has shrugged their shoulders and said "send it in and wait a month" in years past. Their after sale service has been impeccable for the 3+ decades I've been going there.

Hey Yaesu "The Radio"...buying cheap garbage pail CCRs and slapping your name on it is like putting lipstick on a pig.
 

k6cpo

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This is what happens when a company outsources their manufacturing to a WoC maker in China. The FT-60/FT-270 are actual real radios not WoC trash. Yaesu is hungry for the market dominated by CCRs. By going low rent, they are putting their reputation for quality on the line. The FT-65/FT-4X are nothing more than badge engineered CCRs. Sure you get a superior warranty, but at the end of the day, one can't polish a turd.

I disagree with your characterization that EVERYTHING made in China is junk. I have an FT-270, purchased in 2010. and an FT-60 purchased in 2012, both from HRO, that were both made in China. They are indistinguishable from the same radios made in Japan. The Chinese are perfectly capable of making quality products if a company demands it.
 

N4KVE

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I disagree with your characterization that EVERYTHING made in China is junk. I have an FT-270, purchased in 2010. and an FT-60 purchased in 2012, both from HRO, that were both made in China. They are indistinguishable from the same radios made in Japan. The Chinese are perfectly capable of making quality products if a company demands it.
Apples, to oranges. The 60, & 270 were designed by Yaesu in Japan, & originally built there. They then moved manufacturing to China on those radios, but it was still a Yaesu product. In the case of this newer radio, it was totally designed, & built in China by “who knows”, with a Yaesu decal. Many years ago, I bought a Yaesu HT that had a problem. The store would have exchanged it for me, except I bought the last one. I called Yaesu, & they told me if I overnighted the radio to them, they’d overnight me back a new one. So the radio I bought on Saturday, & sent to Yaesu on Monday arrived on Tuesday, & the replacevent was sent to me a few hours later. It arrived the next day, Wednesday, & was perfect.
 

MTS2000des

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I disagree with your characterization that EVERYTHING made in China is junk.
No, just 99 percent of the walkie talkie on chip radios are. Feces pieces pure junk. The radios are designed around WoC's intended for use in disposable bubble pack consumer electronic junk like $19 a pair FRS/GMRS radios found at retailers. They are not, nor were ever, to be used as a "serious" radio device anymore than a $15 DVB dongle can compare to a "real" receiver with a true IF front end. Cheap junk is cheap junk is cheap junk. Yaesu chose to contract "cheap junk" shoved in a nicer housing and put their name (and reputation) on it. The polishing a turd analogy applies here.
I have an FT-270, purchased in 2010. and an FT-60 purchased in 2012, both from HRO, that were both made in China. They are indistinguishable from the same radios made in Japan. The Chinese are perfectly capable of making quality products if a company demands it.
Funny you mention that. I owned several VX-150s all made in Japan, one made in 2000 by "Yaesu Musen" before it became "Vertex Standard" circa 2001. In 2006, when they were $69 at Gigaparts, I ordered two. One of them went back to Yaesu 3 times. Bad speaker, bad squelch control, Yaesu service was abysmal in those days, and Chip Margelli gaslit me with lots of promises to make it right but never came through. Guess they realized what turds these radios were and essentially said "for 69 bucks, send him a coupon for a free Lakewood Industries box fan and tell him how to give himself a yellow shower with it".

Took me years to "get over" it but I will NEVER buy ANY Yaesu product made in Chinavirus land. Ever. Their Fusion gear, OTOH, are still MADE IN JAPAN. My FT-2D and FT-70DR have been trouble free. My FT-847, FT-8900R- both Japanese made, and close to 20 years old (FT-847), are perfectly working, never been in for service. This is no accident. Japanese quality speaks for itself.

China is good at some thing, like stealing intellectual property and counterfeit items. Quality radios? I don't think so.
 

k6cpo

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This entire discussion is a bit hilarious. I'm old enough to remember the products coming out of Japan in the 1950s and 60s. The rhetoric about the Chinese radios is virtually the same as what was said about Japan's quality in the 1950s. The Chinese are perfectly capable of building quality products if they care to. How many of you that are criticizing products made in China own iPhones? How many of you use Beats headphones? Guess where they're made? I'm willing to predict that given another decade, the products coming out of China will be as good as, if not better than, those made in Japan.
 

MTS2000des

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Nothing funny to me about radios emitting spurious emissions, causing interference to legitimate part 90 users, or the fact that these companies are funded by their government to steal foreign intellectual property and profit from it. We aren't talking about iPhones or Galaxy phones, or Galaxy fans for that matter- we're talking about low rent trash that in this case, Yaesu "The Radio" chose to OEM using substandard components and or software/firmware and now they'll own it. Hopefully they've learned their lesson.

And the cost for doing business with such thieves is one has to always watch their back...ask Apple about that. Or Motorola Solutions. Or Cisco. Or any number of American companies who have gotten their IP STOLEN by Chinese government funded corporations, such as Huawei and how having the devil as bedfellows is working out for them.

Comparing Japan to China is laughable. Japan isn't a communist red state that abuses it's own people. China is, a cesspool of intellectual property theft, human rights abuses galore, and their companies are only loyal to their rancid government. Yaesu chose to sleep with the devil and is now waking up with an itch down there.

Not a laughing matter at all. Educate yourself on what a wonderful technologically advanced empire this is that in 2020 treats it's own people this way and ask yourself if we should be buying ANYTHING from them.
 

AK9R

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Guys, stop with the CCR bashing, in particular, and China bashing, in general. The thread is about the Yaesu FT-65 emitting a high pitched sound when the squelch is open. The fact that the FT-65 is made in China using inexpensive Chinese components and design philosophy should be well known by now. If you have something to contribute to that line of discussion, chime in. If you are just going spread feces on the thread, take it elsewhere.
 

TC415

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Today I received the radio I had sent in for repair. The issue is no longer there, it was probably just a bad batch of radios going out.

Being in CA, it took them just a couple of days to receive it. It sat in their warehouse for another week until they sent me confirmation of receiving it (the day after I reached out to make sure they had it). They promised it would be back in two weeks but it ended up only taking a week and a half.
 
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