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Reviews For: Yaesu Ftm-3100R

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

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Review Summary For : Yaesu Ftm-3100R
Reviews: 15MSRP: $ 140.00
Description:
144 MHz 65 watt Fm rugged and compact mobile transceiver.
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00153.9
DL7AT Rating: 2017-04-29
Fan noise Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Nice rugged 2m radio, buuut the reason I would not give a recommendation to buy this radio is the fan.
It´s not noisier than other fans, but in stand-by mode the fan turns on and off all times ! I hope YAESU will offer a solution for this problem by a new software up-date soon ! Just 2/5 points, sorry!
K4TXI Rating: 2016-10-29
Great Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have had very Good Results & compliments on my Audio sounds very good . Just had some band enhancement worked Simplex 150 plus miles away on high power 60 Watts is what mine Shows on my meters . Very good Radio & if familiar with the menu of the 2900r,1900r , 2800r Then This is the Radio for You & wont break the piggy Bank . I give it a True & Honest 5 all the way & would buy another one . Great Job Yaesu . 73's Todd
WD1W Rating: 2016-08-31
Did The Job ... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Bought 2 of these for a trip from Vermont to Colorado. One went in a 12 year old Toyota Camry and the other in a U-Haul. We used them to communicate on simplex over the entire 2000 mile trip. Audio was excellent on both ... clear natural sounding voices. They stayed cool to the touch on low power. Only complaint is what seems as poor transmission distance. Couldn't copy each other if the distance of separation was over a mile. Not sure what's up with that. That's why the 4 as a rating. Otherwise, pleased with how they functioned. For the price ($119.95), what's there to complain about? Remember the days (mid 1990s) when a single band 2-meter radio cost $450? I do.
KN0JI Rating: 2016-08-21
Great radio, but acts like a BTech Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The FTM-3100R seems to be a terrific transceiver, in that it has a great sound on receive and people report a clean, strong-sounding signal when I transmit. Its body shape and size reminds me of the FT-8800R.

There are three seeming drawbacks I'd like to mention, but I hope somebody can tell me why my point of view might be incorrect on these. First, it seems to have the same over-current issue that the BTech UV-5001 (and Icom IC-2720H, BTW) is notorious for, in that, on medium or high power, the transmitter attempts to draw so much current that the current-starved radio will turn off as soon as you press the PTT when the transceiver is powered by a less-than-perfect power source (12 Ah battery presenting 11.9 volts comes to mind.) I have a computer PSU that I've homebrewed into a ham PSU, and did a rather poor job (because I forgot to load the 5 volts with a power resistor.) When I transmit at 75 watts using my FT-2900R on that PSU, it runs normally, even when I try and over-deviate. When I attempt to transmit at medium (30 watts) or high (65 watts) power using my FTM-3100R on that same PSU, the transceiver powers off. This is exactly how my BTech UV-5001 and Icom IC-2720H behave on this same PSU and on an 11.9 volt, 12 Ah battery.

Second, the FTM-3100R has no squelch knob, so you need to get into the menu to adjust the setting incrementally, just like the BTech UV-5001 (and most Chinese transceivers, for that matter.) Most hams seem to not need this feature available on the front panel, but in my noisy environment, it's nice to have it handy.

Third, even though many of the menu selections look like those of the FT-2900R, the screen itself is smaller, and resembles the size, shape, and feel of the BTech UV-2501 and UV-5001 displays.

To be fair, I'll have to say that three advantages of the FTM-3100R over the FT-2900R are a cooling fan, its slightly lighter weight, and the front-mounted speaker, which I thought was a definite improvement. Strangely enough, the fan appears to be the same as that of the Icom IC-2720H. BTW, it uses the same microphone as the FT-2900R (MH-48).

So, does it work well as a transceiver? Yes, so far. But it's not the familiar FT-2900R I'm so used to.
W5GSR Rating: 2016-07-14
Great mobile radio so far Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just got this radio to put in my truck, so far works great. I checked the transmit output power and on my meter showed Low = about 8 watts, med = was almost 40 watts and on hi = was about 65 watts. Not bad for a mobile radio.