Railfan Technology > yaesu vx-170

Hello to everyone from cold and snowy northern New York. After reading a positive review in Railfan magazine, and reading the comments on one of the forums on this site, I purchased a Yaesu VX - 170 radio. Although the quality of this radio is far better than any other scanner radio I have ever owned, it also has alot of things I will never need or use. I am having a very hard time trying to figure out how to program channels into the radio for scanning purposes. If there is someone on here that would please give me a call and walk me thru the process it would be very much appreciated. Please send me a private message with your # and a good time to call or I'll give you my #. Thank you very much, Boomer, ( Ed )

I have the same radio and I agree, it's a great radio but sort of a pain to program. Try following the instructions on page 14-15. Ignore anything about offset, PL. CTCSS, splits, power levels or anything that mentions transmitting. It's a good place to start. I use an aftermarket programming kit made by RT Systems that works pretty good. The problem with many of the new radios is that they do so much with so few buttons that every button has 2 or 3 functions, depending on what mode the radio is in.

If no one else can help you out, drop me a PM and I'll see what I can do for you. I'm about to hit the hay now.

John

When I got the VX-150 I read and reread until "I got it". In the end the only way to understand how to program these guys. Just remember they are not scanners and the commands are not set up to facilitate that as their primary function.

Bob

Just don't try to get anything repaired by the company. I bought a VX-150 in June this was my second VX-150. my first went though a car wreck and was damaged. In October the key pad stopped working so I sent it in for repair. They returned it claiming water damage and voided the warranty. I called to challenge the finding and they claimed that the Vice president of the company was the one who opened it up so your Sh*T out of Luck. I don't know how big a company Yaesu is but I find it hard to believe a VP would be doing repairs!!

So I'm back to using my old 150 and will never buy a Yaesu product again.
Derek

OK First thing i like to do is set the steps to channels the RR uses.
Set mode page 68
F Key then 0 Set Key, turn to 45 shows, push F key 15.0, is what you will want, push PTT to go back to normal op.
Now you will get the proper steps as you change Chanel's and makes programing much easier. how is it going? More later if you need it.

Thank you to those of you that replied. I got a little further than before. Is it possible to have all 96 rr frequencies programed into the radio, then scan them as you are driving and / or railfaning and see what traffic you will pickup when you are in unfamiliar areas. When I punch in 161.100 (CP Rail) I am able to pickup local traffic in this area that I was never able to get before with regular scanners and those were all with the properly tuned antenna's. I know this radio has alot of potential and once I get it it figured out I'll be happy with it, Its just getting started. Again I thank you very much for your time that you took to respond, Ed.

Yes you can put all of the in 07 to 97 - 160.215 to 161.565. after you get it set up like my other post. After you get it set up that way you start buy putting in 106.215 and put it in channel 7 turn the dile one click and 160.230 will show, that will be aar #8. Now all you have to to do is save it and go to the next one save next save, till you have all 90 in.

Yes and no. You can set it up that way(100 channels) but then I don't think you can just scan the freq's in your area unless you go through and lockout the others.??(if it like 150)

So in your hood you have five frequencies you like but are scanning all 100.
It will scan way too slow to catch the five you like plus it will probably "hang" on some unwanted ones. Locking out the other 95 can be a great way to kill time while waiting for a train. But then you have to unlock them later.

This is the trade-off of not having 200 channels with banks that you can turn on and off.

Bob

The VX-170 does have banks. The fastest and easiest way to program them is to buy the software for programming the radio. There are 10 banks. I have one of them set with all AAR frequencies so that when I'm in an unfamiliar area I can just start scanning. The others get changed with the software depending on where I'm going.

Mark

MarkW78 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There are 10 banks. I
> have one of them set with all AAR frequencies so
> that when I'm in an unfamiliar area I can just
> start scanning. The others get changed with the
> software depending on where I'm going.
>
> Mark


Like Mark, I use the aftermarket software. I have a bank with Amateur Radio frequencies, another with Public service frequencies. I also have banks set up for CSX, NS, all locally used frequencies (P&L, LIRR, J.R.Corman). Some of these assignments overlap. CSX and NS occasionally us a channel to interchange equipment. That frequency will be in the NS bank, the CSX bank, the locally used bank, and the all AAR bank. I have not figured out how to program the banks like this without the additional software other than duplicating channels to assign to those banks

Great radio, not so great manual.

John

I use the programming software as well. I have it set up to individual areas, i.e. bank 1 is where I live and most frequently go, other banks are setup by locations I commonly go to. Each bank is set to pick up the channels used in a certain area (e.g. the Worcester, MA bank has all CSX and Providence & Worcester channels in the area, plus the Guilford/Pan Am dispatcher) but to use as few channels as possible. Currently bank 9 is empty (can't think of anything else I need for it yet), and bank 10 is all AAR channels. Took me maybe a minute to program it, which was mostly the time typing it into the spreadsheet. Well worth the money in my mind to avoid the frustration, as well as not having to worry if I ever have to reprogram it due to personal need, unit failure etc.

I am taking all of the advice that you guys have been so helpful in giving me and I started looking for the software to help program the radio with. I have put a link below to show which ones are available. Any advice on which one I need ? Thanks again for your time. Off to another cold night at work in northern N.Y. Ed.








http://www.rtsystemsinc.com/yaesu_Template.cfm?yaesupage=ADMSVX170&cfid=3570484&cftoken=82113399

You will need one of the first two. Check your computer to see if it has a 9-pin serial port (most newer computers, by which I mean 4 years and newer, don't have it). Port looks like the front part of this: https://www.pacificgeek.com/productimages/xl/PS2TO9PIN.jpg

If you have that then you will need only the first one. If you don't, then you will need the second one.

boomer08 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am taking all of the advice that you guys have
> been so helpful in giving me and I started looking
> for the software to help program the radio with. I
> have put a link below to show which ones are
> available. Any advice on which one I need ? Thanks
> again for your time. Off to another cold night at
> work in northern N.Y. Ed.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> http://www.rtsystemsinc.com/yaesu_Template.cfm?yae
> supage=ADMSVX170&cfid=3570484&cftoken=82113399

> Like Mark, I use the aftermarket software. I have
> a bank with Amateur Radio frequencies, another
> with Public service frequencies. I also have
> banks set up for CSX, NS, all locally used
> frequencies (P&L, LIRR, J.R.Corman). Some of
> these assignments overlap. CSX and NS
> occasionally us a channel to interchange
> equipment. That frequency will be in the NS bank,
> the CSX bank, the locally used bank, and the all
> AAR bank. I have not figured out how to program
> the banks like this without the additional
> software other than duplicating channels to assign
> to those banks

I have not seen the need to use software. I figured out how to do everything manually. I created this "cheat sheet" for the commonly used functions:

http://home.roadrunner.com/~davehaynes/vx-170.html

The top of the page shows how I have assigned my banks. The bottom gives common functions used for rail scanning.

Dave