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Reviews For: Yaesu FTM-3200DR

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Base/Mobile (non hand-held)

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FTM-3200DR
Reviews: 33MSRP: 180
Description:
The FTM-3200DR is a ruggedly built yet compact C4FM/FM VHF mobile transceiver, providing high output power of up to 65 Watts to ensure stable long-distance communications. One of the distinguishing features of this exciting new mobile transceiver is the Front Panel Speaker delivering 3 Watts of loud and crystal clear audio; designed for stress-free and enjoyable communications - even in noisy environments.

While the new FTM-3200DR is a solid and durable transceiver in keeping with Yaesu’s legendary mechanical toughness, it also incorporates new technology such as Automatic Mode Select (AMS), one of the most advanced features of System Fusion. The AMS mode instantly recognizes whether a transmission is digital or analog, and appropriately switches the operating mode to allow flawless co-existence of both digital and analog users. The versatile FTM-3200DR transceiver also utilizes the ever-popular Digital Group Monitor (GM) function; a terrific asset allowing users to see at a glance if registered members of a group are within communication range.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCatID=249&encProdID=1C299659CDFD4B56DDBBA4BA23026510&DivisionID=65&isArchived=0
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00333.6
AF5IU Rating: 2017-01-24
Excellent 2 meter radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My 3200 came in yesterday. I hit a Fusion repeater in Brenham which is 57 miles from me. Other than a couple of drop outs the digital audio quality was superb. I have to say that I am very impressed with this radio. I also had an analog conversation that was also great quality. For the price I paid I have to say that I want another one. My FT-2900 is also a great radio but it was made in China. The 3200 was made in Japan. The radio is high quality and very impressive. I do not know what others are talking about when they mention the fan. This radio is so quiet that you can hardly even hear the fan.
KK9H Rating: 2017-01-17
Good intro to System Fusion Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My local club recently installed a System Fusion repeater in place of a 2M analog FM only unit. One of the club's members is providing network connectivity through his node station and everything appears to be working very well. As the club's repeater trustee I wanted to get a radio to be able give this new digital mode a try as well as be able to monitor the activity as I should. I bought a 3200DR to accomplish these goals and it performs that job as a base station just fine. As a basic dual mode 2M radio it works well. I especially like the AMS feature which follows the repeater as it goes back and forth between analog and digital modes perfectly. There are a couple things that would improve this radio a bit without adding to its cost. One would be to reduce the default mic gain slightly. The mid-range setting of 5 appears to be too high for everyone in our club that has one of these radios. Each of us have had to reduce this menu setting to 2 or 3. Second, since both the FTM-100 and FTM-400 series radios can give distance and headings on their displays, it would be nice to be able to enter your coordinates on as a menu item if you are going to use the 3200DR as a base station. Lastly, the fan has been mentioned previously, and I agree that it is pretty odd to have iit cycle on and off constantly the way that it does with minimal use. All in all, this is a nice, inexpensive rig to get your feet wet in the use of System Fusion digital operation.
KD8UXB Rating: 2017-01-16
Decent radio - terrible fan Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I got this to use as a base radio but am switching it to my mobile and bringing my Icom in instead. The radio was not an issue to set up, programming was no more difficult than any other radio. I especially like the extended receive as I appreciate having the local sheriff frequency set but wasn't interested in getting a dedicated scanner. But the fan, oh the fan. First, it is noisy. No problem I figured, I threw a resistor in and that quieted it down slightly. The real problem with it is the programming. It is set to turn on at 80 degrees and off below it. There is zero extra programming such as a minimum on time, rather in a room that is 68 degrees it turns on and off every few seconds when just scanning the channels. I tried to solve this by taping over one of the vents which helped slightly to keep it on longer at a time, but the problem persisted. A droning noise is easy to ignore and if this fan had been designed to run constantly it would have been fine, but to constantly hear it speed up and down is unacceptable for a relatively quiet room. That said it should be fine mobile and I plan to keep it and move it to there.
W7NUK Rating: 2016-12-11
Fantastic! Love it! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a great radio. With the loud front firing speaker which was one of the main decisions on this for me is awesome. You crank it up and it will hurt your ears before distortion. It boasts a beefy 65 watts when needed but 5 watts when high power isn't needed. The radio isn't too hard to manually program. Once you go through a few times you get the hang of it. The manual is not very good for explaining things. They really could have improved it.

On the audio quality I got lucky. My install didn't have any alternator whine and reception is great. I love being able to get the noaa weather alerts and weather which is a single key press. And on digital it's awesome! It sounds like they are there with you. It's a touch robotic but I'm guessing it's like that on most digital modes. This is my only radio outside a couple baofeng handhelds. I like how you can flip between analog and digital with one key press so those without digital aren't left in the dark.

Conclusion: This radio is fantastic. I highly recommend it as it's cheap yet very capable. I don't like it's a mono band but as 2m is mostly used around Laramie and the hills it's not much of a loss. I haven't even used 70cm here yet. Nor heard anyone. It's a tough radio and so far I'm believing it will hold up to my dirt roads and rough treatment. I would buy another as a base station! And I believe you will love it too. I don't regret anything about it! I'm glad I went for this over a cheap Chinese rig.
KF7NN Rating: 2016-11-29
not good Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
got this for a decent price, i should have known. the squelch system in a mobile makes it impossible to operate when the signal flutters a little. the squelch chops off the audio every time the signal drops just a little like when your moving. i think i am going to return it its useless to me in my car unless you set the squelch at 0 which allows white noise continuously .
K2MOB Rating: 2016-11-27
Good radio but... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I join the crew complaining about the squelch level at the lowest setting of 1. Simplex and weaker repeater signals don't break squelch and I sure don't like driving around with the squelch off. Otherwise this is a solid transceiver and easy to program.
KD4AIQ Rating: 2016-11-18
great with one issue Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
We have two of them mobile. My only issue is that a squelch setting of 1 prevents the reception of many strong simplex signals. So I have to turn the squelch completely off when on simplex. Seems like 1 is about 5-7 on other radios. Otherwise a great radio at a great value with digital extending the range.
KJ3P Rating: 2016-11-13
Solid 2-Meter w/Digital Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
A solid, basic 2-meter radio, with C4FM digital, and all works just fine. Full power output as promised. The front-firing speaker is perfect for my particular tight mobile installation, as is the cooling design, which draws cool air from the bottom front and exhausts it out the back, i.e., it doesn't use side or top intakes.

As reported by others, the fan does have an audible repeating on/off cycle after warm-up. For me, this happens during receive only, at 68F room ambient temp. Easy to hear in the shack, can't hear it in the car. Of course, the fan comes on as expected during transmit. And yes, the radio has small clicks with the volume all the way down when activity comes/goes on-channel, but again, not really audible in the car. I still gave it a five, hoping that these two small items can be addressed with a firmware update.

Easy to program manually, but I chose to use G4HFQ's excellent software ( www.g4hfq.co.uk ). Makes programming the channels easier of course, but especially great to see all of the radio's menu settings in one place.
WB5LFV Rating: 2016-11-11
nice radio i like it! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
excellent radio the fan is quiet on mine, plus the digital is super easy to use and can be turned off very easy!! I have mine in the truck and I am gonna get one more for the other truck as I own a yeasu ft-991 and wife and I use digital only mode now! much much better way to communicate! this is a very easy to use radio puts out 65 watts and is fan cooled and mine I cant hear the fan at all! the size of this radio is small and dosent take up much space! get one you'll like it!!
VE3EPA Rating: 2016-11-10
Works for me Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I purchased mine in the summer and have it in my shack. I agree with those who have said it is easy to program without the software, but I purchased the RT CD anyway. It's a basic unit that gets the job done without any fanfare, or for me anyway, without any fan noise.

I like the radio because it is simple. Like its cousin the FT-1900, it delivers 'no fuss' operation which is what I want when driving. Ditto as a fixed stn. I have it feeding a Diamond X-50. I have not measured the output power, but audio reports are good. Full quieting out to repeaters approx. 40 mi away. I will hook up my meter one day, but like we used to say, people can hear me, so it must be okay.

The little radio performs exactly as I want. It is easy to use, quiet, easily programmed and delivers solid comms at a good price. I haven't used the digital feature much, but that's because most repeaters around here are analog.

I only thing I would have liked is a larger screen for when I had it running in the truck. That's why it went into the house and the 1900 got reinstalled in the pickup. But that's personal preference.