| G4VRR |
Rating:  |
2022-11-03 | |
| Good Enough Dual Bander |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Three stars to avoid depressing the tally unreasonably. I have a couple of Icom dual banders and I prefer them to this radio. It's a decent enough solid feeling dual bander but it sports a noisy fan. Then again- so many do these days. Manufacturers don't seem to hear the din, they certainly don't listen to customer feedback about it. The microphone seems OK and the few reports I've had have been complimentary. Easy enough to program which is not a given nowadays, but- no programming software from the manufacturer, of mediocre standard or otherwise, so it is at best only half the job it should be. This radio popped up in new condition for well under half the new price so I bought it just to have C4FM capability, but I have enough on my plate with D-Star to warrant any more head scratching with Yaesu's proprietry and partly dumbed down take on digital. YMMV of course and that's fine. It just sits on the shelf here so I certainly wouldn't buy it again. On the positive side, it's the only Yaesu I've ever owned (half a dozen) that hasn't broken down repeatedly, but I reckon a modicum of exercise might well alter that statistic. I'm just waiting for the microphone lead to disintegrate ... |
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| VE3PTC |
Rating: |
2022-10-11 | |
| works well |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
decided to get back into digital radio, after a 6 year hiatus.
this radio came up locally at a great price, so i snapped it up. very easy to program, its very similiar to my ft 7800, in that respect. after reading the manual, i made a couple c4fm qso thru the local repeater. very nice.
what did surprise me, was doing a test on 2m analog fm between the 7250, and my ts 2000.
wkg 2 stations to the south of me, at approx 60 miles, the weakest station was s7 with noise on the 2k, but on the 7250, same s7 but little to no noise. for the low cost and features, this radio has a great receive, and i have had unsolicited reports of great audio on tx.
im glad i went with this one. easy to program, no major menu's to wade thru. simple and efficient !
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| N8AUC |
Rating: |
2022-01-31 | |
| Three year update |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Well, it's been 3 years now. And this radio is like the old Timex watches...it takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'.
Still glad I bought it. It does exactly what I purchased it to do.
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Original Review from 2020:
It's been a year since I purchased my FTM-7250DR at Hamvention. It's been rock solid reliable, and works great. It's easy to program from the front panel. Although I think I'm going to explore programming software options. Just to see what it will do.
Overall, I've been very happy with the radio. No regrets on the purchase. I'd do it all over again.
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| N7HO |
Rating: |
2022-01-30 | |
| Pretty good |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I've always had pretty good luck with Yaesu VHF/UHF equipment, and this is on par with that experience. I bought two of these, 1 for a base, and the other for mobile. No squelch knob is of only minor annoyance, and isn't my first rodeo with that as I own 2 FT-1500s. My only real beef is that 1 of the two has the dim display issue, and oddly enough, it was my base radio that developed the problem. I could have sent it in on warranty, but didn't, so that's on me, but it's annoying that anything with LED backlighting would have an issue like that. But I can still see the display, and the radio otherwise works fine, so I still use it. They are pretty good radios otherwise. I'm not a fan of the looks of any of Yaesu's current higher end dual-banders, so will likely keep using these for some time to come. |
|
| W9MT |
Rating: |
2021-08-23 | |
| Think "FT-70DR", only with a mobile wrapper and more power. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I own 2 FT-70DR's, an FT-3DR, an FTM-400XDR, an FTM-100DR driving an HRI-200 to run my WiresX node, and this FTM-7250DR.
I must say that I really do like this radio the best for use in my vehicles. It has the power one needs for reaching distant repeaters, unlike carrying around a handheld and being tied to a hotspot and my cellphone all the time.
It works great on both analog FM and C4FM. Yet it can still be used with my MMDVM hotspot and cellphone when I am in cellphone data range, but not near regular or C4FM repeaters. I use the 5W low power transmit level in this case. The only thing it cannot do that my FTM-400, FTM-100, or FT-3DR all can do is host a WiresX gateway or room, or operate PDN mode direct to the Internet.
I think Yaesu obsoleted this radio because it was too inexpensive a way into dual band FUSION mobile, and focused on more upscale (read: more profitable and more expensive) C4FM mobile offerings.
It's design is reliable and bulletproof. It's looks harken back to the equally rugged FT-2600M 2m FM mobile.
I'd buy another one...for my other vehicle or even for use at home...even though I really don't need another FUSION radio with all that I already have (and if I could find a good deal on another one). It's really THAT GOOD.
By far, this has been my favorite Yaesu radio in my 50+ years of hamming. |
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| SQ7SCD |
Rating: |
2021-02-22 | |
| You should get one. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
If you're not into APRS, sending pictures, or any of that stuff, and you just need a solid TX/RX audio and high power plus C4FM, this is it!
My friend bought one for base use and I did the same thing just two months later. Here are the pros and cons:
Pros:
- high build quality, very good button feel, clear display
- exceptionally good audio from the built-in speaker
- 5/25/50W on both 2m and 70cm bands, does not overheat thanks to the fan
- wide receive (I can listen to firefighters, police, civil and military aircraft traffic)
- quite fast scanning
- menu layout similar to some other Yaesu models, like my FT-4X
- fairly easy to program from the menu and the mic - 100 channels, including 70 repeaters, took me 90 minutes to program
- unlike FTM-100, information of the selected mode (AM/FM/DN/VW) is saved to the memory channel
- also runs cooler than FTM-100 (especially after longer conversations in C4FM, the fan stays on for a shorter period of time)
Cons:
- only two out of four 'P' buttons on the microphone are programmable - other two are reserved for Group Monitor / DG-ID settings; it's a real shame because there's a lot of features you can enable only with these buttons, for example: wires-x, rev, open squelch, CTCSS tone scan, 1750 Hz tone TX, dual watch...
- unlike FTM-100, selecting memory channels for preferential scan is not achieved with one button press; you need to find and alter a corresponding menu item for each channel to set 'select' or 'skip'
- bundled USB cable cannot be used for programming
- also programming cable from RT Systems is quite expensive when you think of it, and chinese cables can potentially brick this radio (that's what I heard)
- there's one mic gain setting for both analog and digital modes, and it's hard to find the optimal gain level which would work for both
- for Wires-x operation, you need to know the ID of the room you want to connect to. Searching and browsing the room list is not an option
Overall I think it's a great radio for base use or mobile if you have enough space in the cab. Having said that, I'm not going to replace my FTM-100 in my car because I like the larger, detachable screen and GPS. However, FTM-7250 is going to stay on my desk for good.
You really should get one. Yaesu recently announced they stopped production of this model, so it will be more difficult to get over time. |
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| K3DMM |
Rating: |
2021-02-19 | |
| Very Pleased |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I use this radio as a base station. I'm extremely pleased with this unit. It is so simple to program. I have over twenty three frequencies in memory and I entered each one by hand. It is a very small radio which would be perfect for a mobile installation. It is everything I wanted in a dual band radio. Fusion capability is also a plus. |
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| W8GTX |
Rating: |
2021-02-08 | |
| Excellent radio for it's price range |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I had it for a few years now, and no complaints! I knew what I was buying before I bought it, no, it isn't an active dual-band radio (meaning listening to 2 separate freqs at once). No, it doesn’t have a large colorful screen. No, it does have a manual squelch and other controls I see so much mention about. But, I purchased this radio knowing that. I use mine for the mobile and that small front facing speaker sounds very good for what it is, I personally have no need for an external speaker. Transmitted audio quality is excellent, I consistently get excellent audio reports, and 2 friends have the same radio and the same experience as myself. The receiver works well, no complaints. Programmed her up, and haven’t touched a thing since. It does require good air flow around the radio being the entire main body is also the heat-sink, so consider that or if you tuck it away, stay off high power and/or long rag-chews. It has “cons”, but again, I purchased this radio knowing that, so no complaints. I also own a 400XDR and various other mobiles, but this one is my main in the car |
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| N3TU |
Rating: |
2021-01-10 | |
| Very Nice |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I bought this radio last year and never had a problem. I had it custom built into my dash by taking out the stereo and replacing it with a single din stereo. The radio fits nicely in the hole and looks like part of the stereo. It is very simple to operate when driving. The speaker is plenty loud in my car and I didn't have to wire it to the stereo speakers. It's a very rugged radio. |
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| WB9VKM |
Rating: |
2021-01-04 | |
| Mixed feelings |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I bought this since I have Fusion repeaters and c4fm is used( I also have a FT70dr) . It replaced a FT1900 in the mobile.
First off ,the receiver picks up a lot more noise from the car. I also run a FT1907 with the same antenna i the roof 2 foot forward and that is much more quit . Second ,it does not seem to be 3 watts of audio ,more like 1 .5 when compared to the Ft 1907.
It does program like every other Yaesu - It does scam very fast but when a frequency is used ,it does not remain ,it continues to scan like a Baofeng. I am impressed the C4FM . Time will tell as I am used to higher powered 2 meter FM rigs and gain antennas to cover more distance. |
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