Yaesu FTM-350

[nakman]

I bought one. Intrigued by the features of the 400, turned off by the price tag, I am hoping I struck a balance here with a used 350. So far all I've done is see it operate in the back of the PO's vehicle... initial impressions are I like the big screen, I like how it displays both the frequency & station name, like how you can plug the hand set into either the faceplate or the radio body, and I like how the faceplate has its own speaker and mic.. so lots of options for how to use this thing. A quick QSO on simplex and I was sold.



I downloaded the manual to my phone, hoping to mess with it a bit this coming weekend. the letters "APRS" are included in the manual and OS, and so far that is the full extent of my knowledge on the subject... but certainly on the long-term list. geek away.

 

[Uncle Ben]

Nice score! I really like those radios. Hard to chew on the price tag as I am only a novice HAM and have no desire to dive in any deeper.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I had an FTM-350 for several years. Sold it about a year ago when I changed radios in the truck. Solid analog radio, lots of features. I have the programming cable and software. Also have a Argent GTRANS cable that lets you connect the data output to some Garmin receivers. I used it with a Nuvi 350. What it does is pushes heard APRS stations out as NMEA waypoints, which are then displayed on the GPS and can be used as navigation. I messed with various colors and as I recall the reddish-orange worked well day and night. One thing you'll want to memorize is the menus and buttons to adjust the backlight brightness. There's not a single setting that is great for bright and dark. That's really the only complaint I can think of with it. The internal speakers aren't really loud enough if you put the radio body under a seat so I run an external speaker with it. The face panel speaker isn't audible if you're moving.

 

[nakman]

Ok that is interesting... I'll have to check the model number of the Garmin that came with the truck this is going in.. the Garmin is the monitor for a wireless backup camera. That would be serendipitous if I was just a cable away from nerdville here.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I'd have to revisit the Garmin stuff, but it's possible you would not need the GTRANS. I think if the GPS can accept NMEA waypoints as inputs then all you need is a serial cable. I didn't need the GTRANS for my GPSMap 78, for example. But I never ran it with the FTM-350, so it would be an experiment.

 

[Stuckinthe80s]

Any updates @nakman?

 

[nakman]

Nada. I keep thinking I'll get to it, but haven't made time for it yet... still in the box.

 

[Stuckinthe80s]

Well that sucks! What good are you?