Exclusive - Yaesu Upcoming DR2 Repeater

Sorry to sound like I'm adding fuel to your fire. Maybe I stooped to the level of the discussion and shouldn't have.

No, I don't have your experience. And I never will. And I don't have the budget for what you get to work with. Yes, you are in a different world than I am. I'm glad you are enjoying your career.

Some of us are just "hams." We take products marketed to hams and have fun. And many others join in the fun as well. So we go about using our ham quality products and find they have really enriched our lives. And we have enriched the lives of other who have joined in.

In our area, I can come up with at least 12 working Yaesu DR-1X repeaters. Most of them are actively using C4FM and some are on analog only. They are all working reliably every day, with long transmit times (yes, 20 watts.) No one owning a DR-1X is regretting that we are forced to use sub-standard ham gear. That's just honest.

So, when someone comes along and says things we have found to be absolutely inconsistent with all of our experiences, I would like to give the other side of our "wonderful and cheery life" with this gear.

 

To be fair, they have also proven that they are willing to dump broken designs on the market for years at a time without addressing issues. E.g., the 857 and the 991. It's difficult to get excited about Yaesu products when customers get treated like that.

 

We had two DR-1X in our local radio club, both had to be sent back for repairs, we could never run them at 50W as they would just sound horrible especially on C4FM. They are now replacing it with the DR-2x that does NOT support Wires-X??? This is after people went to buy all of their Wires-X radios??? Wow.

 

What good is the DR2XE repeater if it has the same inherit desense that the DR1X had?

 

Speaking from experience, we have 9 System Fusion repeaters in the greater Chattanooga area and they are performing well. One is the primary 2-meter rag chew repeater on a mountain top tower surrounded by everything from TV, FM, commercial, public safety, microwave and cellular transmitters. Not a peep of trouble. Another 70 cm repeater on the same mountain is the primary link to WIRES-X, and again no trouble despite heavy use. Another is linked to ALLStar. A 10th fusion repeater is being used for the primary DMR repeater in the area that is always on both slots. I know some have been to Yaesu for repair, of have had normal site tweaks. Bottom line though is that they're doing their job. And when someone lights up one of the repeaters with a digital node, works wonderfully for all to use. So, mileage will vary.
John

 

I haven't owned a 991, but I have had the pleasure of running a 897D in my mobile for over 5 years! Outstanding performance, and always reliable operation. Along with my Kenwood, Icom, and yes... Wouxun and Baofeng gear, I also have several Yaesu. Among them, a FTM-350, a FT-100D, FT-847, FT-757gx, VX-8DR, FT-5100 and 5200's, a FT-8900, a FT-2800 that's been an APRS digipeater radio for over 4 years, and my favorite... FT-897D.

They all have their strengths and weaknesses. My Kenwood G-707A mobiles scan too slowly, but the audio is great. The Icom 2100H has great audio, but it ran hot and now the PA is weak. The TS-440 is easy to operate, but the speaker audio could be better.

I realize that everyone has a preference, just like they like a Ford, a Chevy, or Toyota. But because a like a Chevy, I don't have to bad-mouth a Ford or a Toyota. I can just say I prefer a Chevy.

If you have a favorite brand, just say so. I'll respect that. I have found that I like Yaesu gear, but I won't talk bad about your brand to justify it!

 

My comments weren't about favorite brand.

Yaesu had the 857 on the market for nearly a decade before they fixed the hardware filters in the receiver. The datasheet for the filters clearly says that they have to be DC-bypassed with capacitors, but several years of 857's shipped without them. So filters failed in many users' radios, including mine.

If you want to know about the 991, just search "FT-991 blown finals". Look at the eHam reviews for it. Yet that radio has been out for years now, gone through two revisions (at least) and people are still seeing blown finals, sometimes repeatedly.

When radios sit on the market for years with known design flaws that cripple a key part of the radio on a large number of units, that's tells me that the company doesn't care about its customers.

 

I see people talking about how it "Runs fine at 20 watts" but what good is a 50 watt repeater that you can only run at less than 50% of it's capability or it goes up in smoke? A club I was had one fail, when it was taken down the quality of how the heatsink was installed looked like a 5 year old put it together. The heatsink was rubber glued onto a painted surface so there was no heat transfer to the actual heat sink to dissipate the heat.

When I first got my license I was in a club in NJ, the club decided to spend the extra money on a Motorola, it was litterally twice the price of the other repaters on the market. That repeater is still on the air today and still running at 90 watts output and has NEVER had to be taken down for repair, in fact it has never been off the air and it was installed in 1992. It faithfully runs 4 nets a week, is now connected to Echolink and All-Star, still runs like a champ it did not have to be powered at less than 50% its power capability. It is a 100 watt repeater that is set at 90 watts due to interference with a repeater in NY, so it is running at 90% capacity and again, never failed. Antennas and feed lines have been replaced or repaired but never the repeater.

 

that just goes to show...the heatsink has nothing to do with the early transmitter failures of the DR1X (which are fixed in the new ones). The DR1X transmitter has gone through at least 3 revisions that I have seen. The first revision had the standard rear heatsink (similar to early FTM-400s) without the hole for a fan. The 2nd revision had the same heatsink, but a new stainless rear cover with cooling slots and it also heatsinked some of the inductors on the bottom side of the board. The 3rd revision has the same cover, and also the heatsink with the fan hole, allowing air to pass both over and under the radio to cool components. 20 watts vs. 50 watts, a hair over 3db? Call the feds....


The failures were largely NOT the finals blowing or anything to do with the large upper heatsink, it was other components on the bottom side of the board getting hot and failing. The new transmitter design will likely run at 50 watts no problem, and it seems like Yaesu has said the same, of course they could always change their mind.

On another note, the DR2X absolutely WILL support WiresX. Whoever is putting out info that it won't is mistaken. It's already been tested via RF linking, and I'm guessing they are testing the direct connected HRI-200 as we type. Much ado about nothing.

 

Here are a couple photos showing the 2nd rev design vs. the current.

Rev 2


Current

 

Class C amps work fine with Fusion (which is an FM mode). There are no more spurs or emissions with C4FM vs. FM, that's what the low pass filter in your amplifier is for.

 

Excellent point. It also perpetuates the "appliance operator" part of the hobby. Heck 90% of my enjoyment of repeaters in general is assembling everything, particularly linked systems. The "Plug and Play" factor is NOT there, and doing my own wiring, filter tuning, audio alignments and what not leads to a real sense of accomplishment.

This thing is no more than a glorified VCR.

 

Nothing new there. Still just a couple of junk dual banders in a box.

OK - I PROMISE I will stop ranting about it gents - thanks for putting up with me.