I recently picked up the Yaesu FTM-300. There are some things I think are great and some not so great. I can't help but wonder if the design was to try and make a "big brother" for the FT3. They have the same size screens, when measured diagonally. However, the screen on the FTM-300 is not a touch screen. Not sure why, considering the FTM--400, FT-2 and FT-3 all have touch screens. My old eyes prefer the size of the FTM-400 screen and is why I have relegated the FTM-300 to the shack. It is an extremely easy radio to program, but Yaesu has not put out free programming software as of yet. If interested I will be contacting Yaesu to see if this radio has the ability to crossband repeat.
The screen size is perplexing and lack of touch ability is perplexing. It appears that Yaesu went backwards in some ways, and forward in others. C4FM on both VFOs seems to be the only feature that would place it above the FTM-400 for me. Thanks or the video. Its helpful to see someone manipulating the radio.
I have my own issues, in addition to ALL of the above issues. Mine has bricked, twice...no Xmit..scan..loss of control. The only thing that fixed it (had to reboot twice) was to pull the power cord off for 30 seconds to get it to recover. Not a happy ham. What the hell is going on with QC at Yaesu. HRO says to send it in for repair. Great, i'm on vacation and the boxes are home. Thanks a bunch
I have only heard through the rumor mill (HRO Employee) that the FTM-300 was made in china. This could be the issue.....
HRO Anaheim has had several FTM-300s returned that were bricked during menu programming by the user. They were able to conduct a test with a brand new, off the shelf unit, and replicated the problem. Probably best to wait for Yaesu to fix the problem or settle for the FTM-400.
I bought mine from HRO Anaheim. Hopefully I got a good one. I do use the FTM-400XDR in my truck. I have never had any issues with it.
Already sent mine to Yaesu as well. Worked for about 2 weeks then stopped TX in any digital mode, can't change modes, looses RX on all modes. UGH.
Had these same issues with the FTM-400... Twice! Sent them back and no more! It was really a great rig if it only worked!!
I got mine today. Got my frequency's programed in. Talked on it a little bit. The radio sounds good. The replies said I sounded good.
I just got mine from HRO (Atlanta ) on Friday. Clearly marked on the box "Made in China". If I had done a little more research I probably would have went with Icom instead. Yaesus FTM-100 had some made in China & others made in Japan. I had one made in Japan. In hindsight I should have kept that one and not upgraded to the FTM-300. You might see an ad here on QRZ for an FTM-300 for sale. Yaesu has had models over the years made in China and usually there are problems with them. Hopefully Yaesu will come out with a firmware update that will solve the issues.
The touch screen can certainly be a matter of preference. The screen size on the other hand seems ridiculous. The FTM-400 seems to be a good balance of not being too large or too small. I have several radios mounted in my car, and the FTM-400 is by far the safest to operate: it takes very little time to glance at the screen and see what is there, certainly compared to any grayscale screen (even larger ones).