Yeasu 500dr "lock"

[PuddlePirate]

Preparing to take Tech test soon. I bought Yeasu ftm-500dr to monitor tfc to learn proper protocol so I don't sound like an idiot when I am able to transmit.

My problem is on first pwr up step 1 is to enter call sign. Trying to bypass that step to start monitoring. I must have done something wrong since any button hit displays LOCK.

Thanks in advance for help'

Tim (WSAC215/GMRS)

[PuddlePirate]

8 minutes ago, PuddlePirate said:

Preparing to take Tech test soon. I bought Yeasu ftm-500dr to monitor tfc to learn proper protocol so I don't sound like an idiot when I am able to transmit.

My problem is on first pwr up step 1 is to enter call sign. Trying to bypass that step to start monitoring. I must have done something wrong since any button hit displays LOCK.

Thanks in advance for help'

Tim (WSAC215/GMRS)

Figured out the LOCK function now is there a way to bypass call sign input?

[kidphc]

No.

It's required for wirex.

Plug your gmrs call sign or we'll part of it. You change it later, or revert the radio to factory.

Kinda $$$ for not having a license. Would of chosen a straight analog radio to practice with. Since there are features that won't be used on systems like digital ID, groupid or group monitor.

Don't worry about sounding like an idiot. We all started somewhere. Tell then you are new, the otherside will normally congratulate you and will take the time to answer your questions.

Ham does not equal whatever notarubicon makes us sound like. There are as@holes in every group. We do self police (fcc wants us to) some are way too fundy and the grump comes out. At least it has not turned into the wild wild west like uhf-cb and 11m cb.

Enjoy... and have fun.



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[PuddlePirate]

kidphc,

That worked, thanks for the info and encouragement!

[WRYZ926]

I will make a suggestion that once you pass the Tech practice tests with at least a 92% score every time then you are ready for the real test. Another suggestion is once you start getting a 92% or higher each time on the Tech test, go ahead and start studying for the General test too. There isn't much difference in the two. General does go into more technical details but it is pretty easy. Tech is limited to a small portion of the 10m band only. General opens up all of the HF bands.

Like @kidphc said, there are bad apples in every bunch. Just ignore those type of people and you will be fine. Most guys will be helpful when they find out you are new to amateur radio. Don't hesitate to find an Elmer (long time amateur radio operator) in your are that will be more than happy to help you study and answer questions.

There are some curmudgeons even on GMRS in my area. I ignore the curmudgeons no matter what band or frequency they are on.

[BoxCar]

17 hours ago, PuddlePirate said:

Figured out the LOCK function now is there a way to bypass call sign input?

IMHO you would be better off right now with a cheap handheld like a Baofeng UV-9 (Ham version). No need to have a call sign and you can program in channels easily with Chirp-Next. That will let you listen and get a feel for how amateur radio functions. Go to the ARRL site and look for clubs in your area that have web sites. Those sites will often list the local repeaters and any nets conducted showing the repeater, day(s) of the week and the time the net runs. You may have to add hours to the time shown as many use Zulu or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

[WRYZ926]

22 hours ago, BoxCar said:

IMHO you would be better off right now with a cheap handheld like a Baofeng UV-9 (Ham version). No need to have a call sign and you can program in channels easily with Chirp-Next. That will let you listen and get a feel for how amateur radio functions

That was the exact advice that the head VE gave me when I went to my first meeting.

There is nothing wrong with wanting a nice radio. I usually suggest a cheap hand held for new people just getting started. Sometimes they realize that amateur radio is not for them. And one can never have too many hand held radios.

[SteveShannon]

18 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

That was the exact advice that the head VE gave me when I went to my first meeting.

There is nothing wrong with wanting a nice radio. I usually suggest a cheap hand held for new people just getting started. Sometimes they realize that amateur radio is not for them. And one can never have too many hand held radios.

I agree there’s nothing wrong with wanting, or even buying a really good radio.  One thing I see though is people buying something that is way over their heads when they’re just starting out instead of getting something simple at first.  I absolutely understand wanting to buy something that’s quality made; nobody want the bitter taste that accompanies a poor quality piece of crap that other people deride and which fails prematurely. But as your VEC pointed out and you and @WRXP381 are correctly passing along, there are some inexpensive basic radios that are great starter radios and which will do a great job of allowing a person to learn the basics without getting lost in the extra features.  A radio that uses DMR, YSF, or D-Star is just about the worst way to advise someone.  
If a person wants a mobile ham radio to use as a stepping stone, there are some really decent ones that can always be converted into go-boxes as they grow into more expensive radios with more features.  And if a person wants to buy one radio that will be the only radio they ever need, they should prepare themselves for either a steep learning curve up front or being frustrated later on because when you first get into ham radios you have no idea what will interest you later and you don’t know what you don’t know.

For a new ham wanting a name brand dual band radio that will be a workhorse for many years, the Yaesu FTM-6000, the Icom IC-2930A, or the Alinco DR-735 would all be very reasonable as starter radios that will continue to give great value over the years.  The FTM-6000 is only $210 right now! 
If a person doesn’t feel the need to buy name brand, things like the Radioddity db20g can easily be a great starter radio for either GMRS or ham radio.  

[kidphc]

Well he has the radio so he is going to be forced to learn the advance features to use it, not a bad thing. It will convolute the learn path, let's face it digital is a side path with its own learning hill and concepts.

He'll be fine. Just do some basic research on questions, before asking someone. It will limit the side branches of topics, there are a lot. I have friends that can spend hours just talking about pl tones, from why some tones are better than others, it's history etc.

My brother who works mobility for the federal government said it best. "People buy flagship phones not because they need it but because they can, most don't even use 20% of the phone capabilities. Even myself and you whom are phone geeks barely use more than 50% and we are serious power users." Features go unused that can cause headaches and vulnerabilities.

Enjoy the radio. If it becomes too much buy a ceaptacular bofeng uv5r, it's pretty basic and disposable (as a gift, if it get destroyed oh well).



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[WRYZ926]

I have to agree that just sticking with the basics is best when starting out. I still have not gotten into DMR, Yaesu Fusion, Icom D-Star, etc. due to the added complexity and steeper learning curve. And none of those digital modes are compatible. Yaesu uses Fusion while Icom uses D-Star. Most others use DMR.

I wanted something simple when I replaced my TYT TH7800 in the shack. I was looking at the Icom IC-2730 and ID-5100. I went with the IC-2730 since I didn't want to mess with D-Star at all. In hind sight I should have started out with the Icom IC-2730 instead of the TYT TH7800.

The Yaesu FTM-500 will serve @PuddlePirate quite well even if he never dips his toes into digital. He has already dipped his toes into radio by having his GMRS license. 

[SteveShannon]

55 minutes ago, kidphc said:

Well he has the radio so he is going to be forced to learn the advance features to use it, not a bad thing.

And unfortunately that’s sometimes the issue.  People buy an expensive high end digital radio that’s so difficult to use for regular analog communications that they get frustrated and give up (and as a bit of a confession I realize my statements don’t make him feel any better about it).  I almost think he might be better served by boxing up the FTM-500 temporarily, picking up a basic dual band radio such as one I mentioned, and learning all he can about basic analog communications.

[kidphc]

And unfortunately that’s sometimes the issue.  People buy an expensive high end digital radio that’s so difficult to use for regular analog communications that they get frustrated and give up (and as a bit of a confession I realize my statements don’t make him feel any better about it).  I almost think he might be better served by boxing up the FTM-500 temporarily, picking up a basic dual band radio such as one I mentioned, and learning all he can about basic analog communications.

Nah. You kinda described the negative. I think all healthy opinions should always be welcomed. It's negative, berating behavior that shouldn't be tolerated on a forum. Sarcasm, jokes etc are hard to read/pickup on at times in text.

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[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, kidphc said:

Nah. You kinda described the negative. I think all healthy opinions should always be welcomed. It's negative, berating behavior that shouldn't be tolerated on a forum. Sarcasm, jokes etc are hard to read/pickup on at times in text.

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Fortunately the FTM-500 can easily be used as a basic analog radio. Dual receive and the dual display could be temporarily disabled to reduce a little confusion and then re-enabled as the user’s skills grow. 

[kidphc]

Fortunately the FTM-500 can easily be used as a basic analog radio. Dual receive and the dual display could be temporarily disabled to reduce a little confusion and then re-enabled as the user’s skills grow. 

Yup. Only reason I didn't upgrade the ftm400 to the ftm500 was the lack of a touch screen.

For me the ftm400 was a nice analog radio, main selling point was aprs. The touch screen was deal breaker, for the ability to write aprs sms messages, aprs winlink, and simple aprs text.

Each to their own, I guess that is the moral of this message.

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[SteveShannon]

1 minute ago, kidphc said:

Yup. Only reason I didn't upgrade the ftm400 to the ftm500 was the lack of a touch screen.

For me the ftm400 was a nice analog radio, main selling point was aprs. The touch screen was deal breaker, for the ability to write aprs sms messages, aprs winlink, and simple aprs text.

Each to their own, I guess that is the moral of this message.

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I have the ft5d. It works great for me, but a blind friend has the ft3d and a touchscreen is extremely difficult for a blind user. He’s great about learning to use keyboards. A sighted vendor tried to talk him out of getting a vx-6. He thought it would be too difficult, but I sent him mine to try for a few weeks. He loved it and bought one for himself. 
He still has the ft3. Sometimes he’ll FaceTime me so I can steer his fingers to use the touchscreen. Lately I’ve been wondering if the ft70 would work better for him for fusion rather than the ft3. 

[SpeedSpeak2Me]

@PuddlePirate, I have this mobile rig, and don't let it overwhelm you, it's a great radio (transceiver).  Couple of quick suggestions, once you've become familiar with the amateur radio terms and what they do...

First, grab the RT System software for it, and the programming cable.  It'll help with the programming of the radio (memories, limits, settings, etc.), and it is way better than the Yaesu proprietary software.  Additionally, if you do get other rigs that RTS supports, it will make it easier to port your memory channels between them.

Second, read the manuals (Owner Manual, Advanced Manual) a few times.  There is a lot to digest, and it can get overwhelming fairly quickly.  Since it sounds like you'll be primarily using it for analog, take note in the Owners Manual of page 28.  Particularly where it shows the different modes (analog, digital narrow, digital wide, etc.).  Using the DX button on the top of the face lets you switch between them.  You can also tap the upper right corner of the screen to change the modes.  It doesn't take much to accidentally switch to the wrong mode and make it difficult to communicate.  Short version, if there is a line over the letters, it's in automatic mode (AMS).  That will allow the radio to automatically switch the to mode it is receiving.  *the DW and VW modes require a settings change in the full menu (#14) to enable "wide" mode.

Each memory channel can be individually programmed to the mode you want to use.  Additionally, if you happen to program in the wrong one, and then change it on the radio, it will automatically save it to the memory for you.  Just be sure to "read" from the radio before making changes in the programming software, that way your latest settings will be captured.  Doesn't hurt to make versions of the codeplug (save files) so you can go back if a mistake is made.

 

[WRYZ926]

While the only Yaesu radio I have is my FTDX-10. I can say that having the RT Systems software and programing cable sure makes things easier compared to using the Icom programming software. One of the nice things about RT Systems is they have versions of their software for both Windows and Mac. 

Don't be afraid of the radio or afraid to ask questions. There are enough forum members here that will be glad to help you.

[kidphc]

That is part of the negative of modern digital transmission radios, well a lot modern radios.

Everything is buried in menus, buried under another menu. Yaesu being one of the worst, I think Icom does better with the menus.

I inadvertently pull up memories of high school calculus, when trying to adjust even simple things like squelch on the ftm400 couple that with it always is kinda done when driving and it becomes painful.

Those that complain, about Uv5r programming need not look at some of the higher end radios. I have copies of the manual, on my phone, in glove box, at home and a travel back pack.

I push rtsystems, at least it is fairly consistent across multiple radios, does most what everyone wants. You have a really good chance on finding a setting. Too bad they have nothing for LMR radios.

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[WRYZ926]

1 hour ago, kidphc said:

Everything is buried in menus, buried under another menu. Yaesu being one of the worst, I think Icom does better with the menus.

You aren't kidding. And yes Yaesu seems to be the worst. I just got an Icom IC-7300 and put it in line instead of the Yaesu FTDX10. The Icom menu is definitely easier to use. I'm printing out the IC-730 manual now so I have it handy. I bought it from one of the old timers in my club but he couldn't find the manual.

The FTDX was given to me but the USB port is bad so I have to use an external sound card for FT8. Otherwise it has worked fine for me. The other reason for switching is that I can use the same Heil headset for my Xiegu G90, Icom IC-2730 and Icom IC-7300. That simplifies things so I don't have to worry about using the wrong headset with the wrong radio.

[kidphc]

You aren't kidding. And yes Yaesu seems to be the worst. I just got an Icom IC-7300 and put it in line instead of the Yaesu FTDX10. The Icom menu is definitely easier to use. I'm printing out the IC-730 manual now so I have it handy. I bought it from one of the old timers in my club but he couldn't find the manual.
The FTDX was given to me but the USB port is bad so I have to use an external sound card for FT8. Otherwise it has worked fine for me. The other reason for switching is that I can use the same Heil headset for my Xiegu G90, Icom IC-2730 and Icom IC-7300. That simplifies things so I don't have to worry about using the wrong headset with the wrong radio.

If you aren't using some type of cat control, which i recommend for the yaesu hf radios, especially since a computer is probably already hooked up to the radio.

I recommend cat knobs. The one I have for the ft991a is discontinued (I believe) he's switched over to a touch screen interface. Either way it had 4 programmable knobs, that sit above or below the radio and is daisey chain able. It was a game changer I am only a technician, but listening on hf was a real pain with everyone running different bandwidths on ssb stc. It allowed me to program one rotary dial to something like bandwidth size, freed up a programmable on screen button, btw that you yaseu but why can't I add more that 4n ever heard of scrolling menus or swipe arrows.

Either case it let me have quick access to thing I would be adjusting just so I could listen clearly. Instead of the dread 3 button menu clicking. Sdrconsole and omni rig took care of a lot of other complaints.

Link to cat knobs to give you an idea.
https://www.catknobz.com/

Miss the old radios because of the simple lack of knobs on new radios.

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[WRYZ926]

CAT control is a must when running digital modes like FT8 or Whisper. I went with the Yaesu SCU-17 external sound card since the FTDX USB port is bad. The SCU-17 has little dials to adjust RX and TX. I'm just running a USB cable straight to the IC-7300 and it is working fine with WSJT-X. 

[kidphc]

CAT control is a must when running digital modes like FT8 or Whisper. I went with the Yaesu SCU-17 external sound card since the FTDX USB port is bad. The SCU-17 has little dials to adjust RX and TX. I'm just running a USB cable straight to the IC-7300 and it is working fine with WSJT-X. 

Cool.

Played with my friends icom 7300, from a user stand point it was a more pleasure experience then the ftdx. He sold both and got a ts590, set it up with a sdr and panadapter.

Funny enough I think he is crazy happy with the setup. Loves ft8, 5w to europe, 10w to Australia. That is with a 46" ultimax dx snaking through his kitchen and living room that i gave him as a bday gift. Gotta keep reminding it's a random wire and incredibly inefficient.

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[WRYZ926]

I found a few videos that should help with the FTM-500D. The Youtube videos are from N4HNH Radio. He makes pretty good videos on other radios. I watch most of his videos on the Yaesu FTDX10 and found them easy to understand and very helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm0V68QtSkU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee6ErAsRBmc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf0LDrmaoAk