Railfan Technology > Yeasu 270 scanning question

Hi All:

Just picked one of these babies up and I'm all set to go. Just one question - I'm told the up arrow in the upper right corner of the keypad is for scan forward. Now when I fold that up arrow in, I do indeed scan all the freqs in that one bank. However, when I let go it stops scanning the bank and just stops on whatever random channel in the bank it's scanning the moment I let go of the up arrow.

What am I doing wrong?

This thing is a beast to learn, but I'm getting better at it day by day. I just want to be able to scan my banks lol.

Any help greatly and I MEAN greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Frank

Yeasu radios are full of modes or functions that you don't know that you're in. All I can say is I'm using the fabled software package to load the frequencies and haven't had an issue with getting it to scan. Kinda primitive but I can still hear trains and even get a picture or two.

I'm not trying to save every frequency used by mankind stashed in every little corner of the radio. It only has about 15 that I know work. When I travel somewhere I load another 15 in there and lose the first batch, until I load them back in through the s/w.

If you Google Yeasu FT-270 there's a bunch of info on the www. There's also some HAM discussion Groups on Yahoo. Some of the HAM's don't share info with monitor-only folks, but a lot of them do.

Try just touching it briefly to start the scan. Lots of the buttons are very time sensitive and will do different things depending on whether touch or hold, and touch is just that, very brief.

Bob

On my 270, when I press in the up arrow for a second or two, it continuously scans the bank selected until it is briefly pressed again. If you are pressing it twice, it may be stopping the scan.

Any reason not to purchase FT-270R to replace aging VX-170? Will software, etc for FT-250 also work with FT-270R?

Thank you,

John

DocJohn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Any reason not to purchase FT-270R to replace
> aging VX-170? Will software, etc for FT-250 also
> work with FT-270R?
>
> Thank you,
>
> John

The FT-270R works a well as a VX-170 for what it is--an analog amateur radio with extended receive. What it DOES NOT have, however:

1) The FT-270 is not an NXDN digital radio (no current amateur radio or scanner is). If a railroad is using an NXDN digital channel, all you will hear with the FT-270 is noise. Yes, there are railroads using NXDN--though very few of them right now.

2) The FT-270 will NOT tune the new narrow band "splinter" frequencies that are now available for railroad use since narrow-banding. Again, railroads aren't using the splinter frequencies much, if at all, as of yet, but they likely will be within a few years. I haven't checked lately, but I don't think that there is any amateur hand-held radio that will do the splinter frequencies. One mobile amateur radio that will is the Kenwood TM-281A. Several of the Chinese commercial/amateur radios WILL tune the splinter frequencies, but the quality of some of the Chinese radios can be suspect. They often can be hard to program and/or don't have features that one would expect to find on a typical amateur radio. The key specification to look for on a radio that indicates that it will tune the splinter frequencies is that it has 2.5 kHz tuning steps. If the radio has 5 kHz tuning steps, it will not tune the splinter frequencies--even if the radio has a narrow-band function.

The choice for railfans essentially boils down to this right now--one can purchase a relatively inexpensive amateur radio, knowing that it will receive neither the splinter frequencies nor NXDN digital and will, within a few years, be obsolete; or one can spring for one of the NXDN-capable digital commercial radios made by either Icom or Kenwood and know that it will be usable for a fairly long time into the future.

Add to the options list buying a HAM or Industrial radio of some level of quality anticipating a resale value into the HAM market when the ideal RR Hobby radio makes it to market.

Choosing between the present poor quality hobby radios on the market right now still puts your travel expenses at risk of not catching any trains. Or to paraphrase, choosing between poor quality radios is still choosing poor quality radios.

Thank you to all for your replies. I ordered the FT-270R from Universal Radio this afternoon. I had my first railroad scanner (Heathkit) around 1976 so I am not going to worry about how long it will be useful.

John

If you need any help setting this up, shoot me a message.

BTW, did you pick up the programming software? Worth every penny it costs.

Frank

Thank you, Frank. I had more than enough experience with the VX-170 and the FT-250 to know the value of the programming software. Also, the software for the 270 is not the same as for the 250. Both are both USB and not the serial cable needed for the 170. I don't travel far from home without my laptop and bag with the cables.

John