Yaesu Musen

"Musen" is the Japanese word for "wireless" or "radio".

 

I wish Standard would come back out of this....... I sure do miss them! It was hard to beat the 528 or 5900 back in the day.

 

Yaesu - Kevin

I don't think that Kevin Karamanos will be joining Yaesu to soon as he is the Director of Sales and Marketing for Powerwerx, Inc. and is promoting the Wouxun brand of Amateur and commercial radios in the United States.

http://www.powerwerx.com/wouxun-radios/

 

Mr. Allen-san (W9CW)- Domo Arigato ( Thank you ) for the translation. While on the subject of Yaesu / Wouxon / etc. products- this might be a good time for one Technician to put out a little advice to the more recent technician crowd: Your hard-earned dollars for that first radio really should go toward a mobile, rather than hand-held rig. You will most undoubtedly be able to reach more repeaters with a 50 watt rig in the car than a 5 watt rig. You might think that you will be a 'distracted driver', but this will be less an issue with a separate coil-cord microphone and some common sense. Do not be afraid to just 'drop the microphone' and drive. Others will understand if you have a turn to speak but cannot speak up for a few parts of a minute. Be respectfull and have fun! 73-Jon-KB0MNM

 

Hi Clint,

I have a Yaesu vx5 which is a fine HT. But it has lots more features than I need. So selling the vx5 and buying the vastly underpriced wouxan's made perfect sense. in fact, I basically bought two radio for the price of one used one...

The 'feature' bubble is exactly the one that Christensen talks about and what drives disruptive technologies. He details case after case where companies in mature markets think they can extend their revenues with more features, and higher prices, while the little fish jump in with far less sophisticated entries with dramatically lower prices.

Price--at a nominal level of features and quality wins-- ALWAYS.

The problem for Yaesu and ICOM is that they may not be ready strategy-wise to jump in to the SDR paradigm shift. Because its high end, the FLEX xcvrs--which are superb BTW-- aren't going after the same market segment. BUT 50 watt fully featured digitally driven SDR's will saturate the ham market at $600-800 in the next decade. They will likely be made in PRC. Porobably not FLEX or YAESU or ICOM.

JRC had a spectacular radio-- JST 245-- 15 years ago. I had one. The reason it failed is that they went after the high end, when the entry is from the low end.

If Yaesu private brands a PRC SDR radio they may, like Gibson and Fender, fight off the disruptor. IOW, 'xxxx by Yaesu', for example.

73,
Chip W1YW

 

Wait, you mean I don't need a Built-in Barometric Pressure Sensor on a mobile rig like the FTM 350?

 

Same here , I sent my 706MKIIG in for repair last year due to it's randomly losing audio . had it back in less than a week , cleaned , repaired and realigned for under 200 dollars including shipping both ways . not so happy with yaesu service , sent the FTM350 in for warrenty service , got it back promptly and it has been working FB since . where they dropped the ball is that I did not get the remote cable or the mounting hardware
back . They claimed I did not have it in the box . HRO Anaheim removed the missing parts from a new boxed set and shipped them to me .
andrew
kd5pnt

 

With any manufacturing business, the ways to attract customers that often make sense ( and cents ) are price and features. Yaesu has a system called ARTS which is very similar to the tracking of the Garmin Rino. The timing of when these features go from drawing board to an actual product is very critical. The amateur radio operator who has been watching new features for a few years saw a few new innovations: Built-in Terminal Node Controllers for Packet and APRS, Internet linking, Crossband ( this has been around for a while, but only recently in one radio for hams ), Weather / Altitude, and Ethernet(tm) type data linking. It all costs $$. -73

 

Very interest extrapolation is their (Yauesu) new digital initiative.

As many know there is a big 'controversy' about the patented CODEC in D star (Icom?) and alternative approaches.

The reason that stuff isnt open source is NOT to exclude the end-user fun, but to keep the disruptors from walking away with it.

In many scenarios in telecom, digital radio is the obvious winner. At ham VHF its not quite as clear, although one would assume it should be.

I do little repeater stuff, so consider my ignorance vast in comparison to most others on this.

73,
Chip W1YW

 

>> ... Price--at a nominal level of features and quality wins-- ALWAYS ...

We'll see if your bargain-priced radios last anywhere near as long as a VX-5R bought when new does.

>> ... doesn't properly transmit a couple CTCSS tone/frequency combinations (making it impossible to hit a couple repeaters I can literally SEE) ... have non-standard antenna connectors ... are unintuitive to manually program ...

We have differing standards for our handheld equipment. Those who are gobbling up these sub-$100 are blinded by the price point, and are dismissing what I consider to be unacceptable flaws merely due to the units' pricing.

It is going to be an exciting 2012 in the amateur radio industry, IMHO!

Clint K6LCS
http://www.k6lcs.com

 

Haven't had any issues with the wouxans so far...had them for 10 months. Is there a history of gripes? Couldnt find any in a google search.

73,
Chip W1YW

 

What type of antenna connectors do the new low cost radios use?

 

>> ... Is there a history of gripes? Couldnt find any in a google search.

There is a demonstrable problem with production runs of the 2M/220 Wouxun HTs - where a couple freq/tone combinations will not work correctly. And there's the unintuitive programming of 'em all ... and the antenna situation ...

>> ... what kind of antenna connector ...

The Wouxun HTs use a reverse SMA configuration.

Clint K6LCS

 

Hi Clint,

I am not downplaying your gripe. Just pointing out that its the only one I've seen, and I've looked.

Plus, its silly to chastise wouxan for reverse SMA's... everything is heading there to discourage illegal use of hi gain antennas by unauthorized or illegal users. . It's the countries that want this; not wouxan or any manufacturer.

Hams have no probs getting adapters:

" Wouxun SMA Female to UHF (SO-239) Antenna RF Adapter
Adapt from the Wouxun specialized antenna connector to the more conventional SO-239 style, greatly increasing your optional antenna choices. Ideal for permanent antenna installations. Fits Wouxun models KG-UV3D, KG-UVA1, KG-833 and more.
SKU: WXS16"

...under six bucks...

73,
Chip W1YW

 

LOOK at almost every Wireless Access Point (WAP) or Wireless Router and you will find a Reverse SMA, TNC or BNC connector for the antenna.
That is required for FCC Part 15 devices using the 2.4 GHz spectrum. Connectors are READILY available (and inexpensive) for those that need them.

Lest you forget, part of that "WiFi" 2.4 GHz spectrum used by those wireless network devices is allocated to amateur radio !!!

w9gb