Yaesu FTM-400DR Product Reviews

I own three FTM-400DR's. And absolutely love the radio. The touch screen works great and it spoils me - I hate going back to a "conventional" radio.

I've had no issues with the GPS. It will typically lock within 1-2 minutes of when I start my commute in the morning. It's quite a kick to be on the repeater linked via WiRES-X and seeing distances of 300, 600, or 3,000 miles show up on the screen!

The biggest surprise for me was the quality of the receiver. In highly congested RF areas (in my case 35 W north, south, and through Minneapolis), I could not work our repeater with my Kenwood TM-V71A. They could hear me, but the QRM was too much for the Kenwood. With the FTM-400 I now have continuous coverage through this same area. At most I might miss a syllable or two. What a huge difference!

The radio is also nice in that it really does make 50 watts - even when the car is shut off and the battery is down to 12 volts.

Another big plus is the ability to use a micro SD card to store/back-up radio programming. This allows me to use a different SD card for trips to different areas as well as copy my channels to the other FTM-400's. (Having different channels in different positions on three different radios will drive you crazy!)

To be honest, there were some reliability problems in the beginning. I had to return both my 400's (only had two at the time) for repair. But the units were updated with design fixes and have now been quite good.

BTW, I'd be crazy to buy a third FTM-400 if I didn't really like the radio and felt that it would be solid over the years.

I primarily got the radio because it does Fusion. At first there wasn't much Fusion activity in our area, but it has now really taken off. And, quite frankly, I much prefer to operate Fusion to FM. It's just more fun.

If you do decide on the 400DR, I hope you enjoy it as I have enjoyed mine.

Yaesu FTM-400DR Product Reviews

This entire radio is poorly thought out and engineered. It seems like Jun Hasegawa, sat everyone down in a board room and said, forget about actual usage, let’s just make this radio and fusion look good on paper. The biggest annoyance is that the screen is way too bright at night, even on its minimum setting. The touch screen is mostly useless and obviously an afterthought. The screen on this thing is like time traveling back to the 1980s. APRS is crippled, if Yaesu cannot do it right they should just leave it off. The STUPID camera mic, take 10 minutes out of our day to send some extremely low quality photo at a completely useless resolution. Then if someone keys up in analog you get to start all over.

System Fusion is a disaster! According to the repeater book there are 34 Fusion repeaters in my area. I have tested and only 2 of them are set up to work on Digital. There are 30-something more between Minneapolis MN and Omaha, NE and during a recent drive, there is only 1 that has digital enabled in Des Moines, IA. Digital and analog should not be fused. Now we have people linking analog/digital repeaters and the audio is mostly unintelligible horrible garbage. Wires X is the dumbest thing to ever hit ham radio. What a total mess! Now we are in this never ending “waiting on firmware” before it works on the repeaters. The firmware isn’t coming. Stop wasting time waiting for it! It’s like Yaesu is having a GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE with their lame repeaters and dirt cheap prices on the FTM-400DR.

Yaesu FTM-400DR Product Reviews

I've owned a TH-7, a 700 and 710 from Kenwood and this rig beats them hands down. I have no issues with the display brightness, nor with the touch screen, its works great. There are a lot menus but the rig has a lot of features. Programming the micro sd card and then copying the programming from that to the rig beats the hell out of taking the rig out of the truck to program or hauling a computer out to the vehicle. Good job Yaesu. The mike switch is too sensitive so I bent the spring and filed the PTT button on the switch inside the mike down to give it more travel. Works fine now. That is the only criticism I have for a fine radio. Some have complained about lock up time on the satellites for APRS. This radio finds and locks onto the birds much faster than my Rand McNally GPS does. IT can even see the birds when I am parked under my metal carport. I have no issues with the built in GPS. Perhaps those with problems don't have the control head out where it can see the satellites. Mine sits on top of the dashboard with a clear view through the windshield.

FTM 400D APRS Basic Setup

FTM 400D APRS Basic Setup

http://youtu.be/HZcovAWeJYA

Yaesu FTM 400 Setup

Yaesu FTM 400 Setup

http://youtu.be/_hC2G5vBCO4

Yeasu FTM-400DR Programiing

Yeasu FTM-400DR Programiing

http://youtu.be/NxDIwnENW7E

FTM-400DR is a flop - so disappointed

I own many FTM-350ARs and have not had any real complaint with them. When Yaesu discontinued it for the 400DR, I was looking forward to it to add into my car with its snazzy touch screen. I figured the $699 premium was going to be everything the FTM-350AR was plus digital, plus a touch screen, plus an SD card input. plus.. plus plus.. etc. Boy was I wrong.

I saw pictures of it last year, and it didn't make a showing at Dayton this year when I visited, which was very disappointing. I snagged the manual months ago when the FCC certification process kicked off so I could glimpse through it while waiting. It looked promising. Finally yesterday, they landed at HRO. I started to compare it to the 350AR. Sigh...

First off, they made some huge changes to the hardware I do not like. The Mic no longer can attach to the head unit. There is also no speaker, mic or ptt on the head unit like the 350AR. This reduces the cable from an RJ45 to an RJ11. I do not like this change. The only positive is the head unit is about half the weight.

The FTM-400DR is missing the LineIn connector. Uh oh... I didn't like where this was going.

They did not supply the typical audio L/R splitter like they did
with the FTM-350AR & FTM-10R radios. This scared me into thinking they had no plan for it. Sure enough, the menu item that was listed in the FCC manual under [TX/RX -> Audio, choice #1] "Mix / Separate" was missing in the radio and release manual. This is horrible. I like splitting the audio out for VFO separation.