Home | Open Account | Help | 323 users online |
Member Login
Discussion
Media SharingHostingLibrarySite Info |
Railfan Technology > Yaesu FT252 opinions pleaseDate: 06/07/15 12:23 Yaesu FT252 opinions please Author: kgmontreal The volume control on my Yaesu FT250R is acting up. I'm considering a replacement scanner. Has anyone had any experience with the Yaesu FT252?
Thanks, KG Date: 06/07/15 13:00 Re: Yaesu FT252 opinions please Author: TCnR Interesting reviews/comments from HAMs here:
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/11170 Date: 06/07/15 13:36 Re: Yaesu FT252 opinions please Author: WW If you are going to stick to an amateur handheld radio--none of which that I know of that will receive the "splinter" narrow-band railroad channels--then the Yaesu FT-250 and FT-270 are still about the best out there. In a mobile radio, the Kenwood TM-281A will do the splinter channels. Otherwise, you're likely looking at one of the Chinese commercial/amateur models (and it's a jungle trying to find what radios will do what). As of now, as noted many times, NO amateur radio is NXDN-digital-capable and--vaporware claims notwithstanding--only Icom and Kenwood make NXDN-capable mobile and portable radios (Ritron does make an NXDN locomotive radio).
So, if one is happy with using an analog radio (whether or not it will do the analog splinter channels) for the period of years until the railroad industry plunges headlong into NXDN digital, then a good amateur radio like the FT-250 or FT-270 is OK. If one is buying a railfanning radio for the long haul, though, then one of the Kenwood or Icom NXDN ("IDAS" in Icom nomenclature) commercial radios is the better (but more $$$) choice. Date: 06/07/15 14:36 Re: Yaesu FT252 opinions please Author: kgmontreal WW Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------- , then a good amateur radio like the FT-250 > or FT-270 is OK. The problem is that the FT-250 is a discontinued product. The dealer that I usually use no longer has them. They've been replaced by the FT-252. Hence my question about the FT-252. The second reply to my question points me toward reviews from Ham users. These reviews are very contradictory. Some of the Ham guys hate the FT-252. I was hoping to hear from a railfan user. I also have a Baofeng UV5+ which is my backup scanner. But my Yaesu FT250R is a better scanner and I was hoping to buy another Yaesu as my primary scanner. KG Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/15 14:42 by kgmontreal. Date: 06/07/15 15:02 Re: Yaesu FT252 opinions please Author: WW Though most sellers show the FT-250R as discontinued, it oddly still appears on Yaesu's website. The FT-270 would be a far better choice than the FT-252, in my opinion. I have the FT-270's older brother, the VX-170, and it has been a good radio. I still use it for my amateur stuff and it is about a decade old. My only beef about the 170/270 is the lack of knob-adjustable squelch, but nearly every current model handheld now lacks that feature.
All said, the only handheld that I now use for railfanning is an Icom IC-F3161 IDAS (NXDN) commercial model. It's a workhorse. Date: 06/07/15 15:11 Re: Yaesu FT252 opinions please Author: kgmontreal Thanks for the info, WW.
KG Date: 06/07/15 15:22 Re: Yaesu FT252 opinions please Author: GN_X838 I personally have a FT 270 and have good luck with it. Its only downfall is it is not 400 MHC
capable.The Baofong UV5 I bought, and am still not in love with, is hard to program, impossible to feel comfortable with but is great for listing to the local FM stations. Icom makes good radios for hams and I put the railroad freqs in as much as I can. So far the best for a railfan is a Radio Shack. I have Macs so I can not use the programming software, but everyone I have talked to like it....Enjoy the railfaning and put you radio secont......Swede......NA7SL........Albany,Or. Date: 06/07/15 18:32 Re: Yaesu FT252 opinions please Author: TCnR Another vote for the FT270, also the FT60r.
They really need the after market software package to program them though. Date: 06/11/15 21:25 Re: Yaesu FT252 opinions please Author: DocJohn I have had the FT250 for a coupile of years and earlier this year purchased the FT270 to supplemnt my VX-170. Both newer models have the Vertex antennas. Both are programmed using the repective software and cables. The FT270 does not like the fluorescent lights in my garage, even with a more than trivial amount of squelch. Also, I find it difficult to set the squelch so I use it mainly in my 1984 VX Vanagon which does not have modern automobile eletronics and RF interference. I use the FT250 with my 2002 Lincoln Continental and rental cars. Recently, it started picking up 3-second bursts of interference when I was out driving. On some stretches of road on some days, it is fine, on other days, it I get major interference. I suspect I am getting interferences from other RF sources. I just reprogrammed the radio to skip 160.47. Will try again tomorrow.. If the radio gurus have a technical explanation for the interference I was getting, I would like to learn about it. I know from working in labs many years ago, that RF signals can do strange things.
John Date: 06/12/15 20:23 Re: Yaesu FT252 opinions please Author: WW As more and more devices use electronic computer-type components, the amount of RF interference out there is increasing exponentially. Though such RFinterference generated by electronic devices is nominally prohibited by the FCC, enforcement appears nearly non-existent. RF interference plagues all types of two-way radios, but commercial models are designed to reject more of it, while maintaining adequate sensititivity to weak, but "friendly" radio transmissions--and their higher cost reflects that sophistication. Scanners are the worst at rejecting unwanted signals because they have to be "opened up" enough to receive a wide range of frequencies. A pretty simple rule is that the wider the frequency range that a radio will receive, the more likely it is to also receive unwanted RF interference. Before RF interference was such a big problem, the benchmark of a good radio was high sensitivity to receive weak signals. Today, intermod and RF interference rejection are as important or more important than sensitivity.
|