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Reviews For: Yaesu FT-311RM

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

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FT-311RM
Reviews: 1MSRP:
Description:
25W 222MHz (1.25m) mobile transceiver
Product is not in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0015
K7VO Rating: 2005-05-31
I liked it well enough to buy a second one Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
The Yaesu FT-311RM is a 25 watt mobile FM transceiver from the late '80s and early '90s. It competed with the Icom IC-38A and the Kenwood TM-321A and TM-331A, albeit not terribly successfully. I'll never understand why as I have owned both the Icom and Kenwood models and I much prefer the Yaesu. The FT-311RM is part of a series of radios that included models for 2m, 70cm, and 23cm.

This rig has big, dual function controls, a backlit display that is readable in almost any light, and is intuitive to use. You don't need the manual to figure out this radio. Output power on both of mine is right at the rated 25W in the high power setting. Frequency coverage is 220-225 MHz, which was the 220 band when this radio was released. I don't know if frequency coverage can be expanded to cover 219-220 as I have no need for that part of the band, which is mainly used for linking and control. The 222-225 MHz segment is where most hams will want this rig to operate.

The rig has just 10 memories. While that might be an issue on 2m or 70cm in most areas that will cover all the 222 repeaters plus a couple of simplex channels. It can do memory scanning or band scanning but it cannot do a programmed (limited) band scan. Again, this is more of an issue on other bands. Scanning and tuning can be initiated from the mic.

The angled display comes tilted up from the factory but can be reversed. I have an FT-311RM on one side of the console in my car and a matching 2m FT-211RH on the other side. It was no problem to reverse the display on the 2m version so that both radios were angled towards me. This was a very nice touch Yaesu only had on this series of radios and probably is one of the reasons the displays are so easy to see in all lighting.

The main thing to watch for if you buy one of these is to make sure that the FTS-12 CTCSS (PL) tone encoder/decoder is installed. If not they are almost impossible to find. I learned this the hard way and still need one for one of my rigs. With the PL board installed you just dial up the frequency you want which can be stored into memory. No funky codes like the Icom IC-38A or IC-37A.

When I switched to this rig in the car I immediately got unsolicited complimentary audio reports. People just seem to love the way the FT-311RM sounds on the air. Received audio is equally nice.

All in all I haven't found a nicer dedicated 222MHz FM mobile rig. These work well and are clearly reliable. I liked my first one well enough to buy a second at Dayton. That pretty much says it all right there.