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Reviews For: Yaesu FT-3000M

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

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FT-3000M
Reviews: 31MSRP: 399.95
Description:
High Powered VHF FM Transceiver
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.yaesu.com/amateur/ft3000m.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00314.5
VK2TLC Rating: 2002-05-25
Good radio - Easy to use Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I like the wide receiver coverage. I do find that not having 70cm TX is annoying sometimes. The display is easy to read while mobile. The menu system is not a problem if you set it up before you go driving.
TX coverage can be opened to 140 - 174 by cutting the wire under the speaker.
GI0ZGB Rating: 2002-05-11
Flawed Diamond Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought the FT-3000M mainly for the 70w capability, and it proved useful on more than one occasion. The rig was fully loaded and all options worked superbly well, it had great immunity to pagers and above average intermod performance. The menu system took a little while to become familiar with and once mastered was a breeze to operate. Frequency coverage was 108Mhz to 999Mhz with gaps, cellular frequencies were wisely permanently disabled. Audio quality with the DTMF mic was described as being between good and excellent, RX audio was adequate for mobile use being very clear. I never had reports of noise on the transmitted signal when the dual cooling fans were whirring away as some reviewers have reported. The Smart Search was very useful when passing through cities capturing signals both weak and strong. The weak signal handling was excellent and the 70cm band, RX only, exhibited good sensitivity matching dedicated rigs. I always thought it a terrible mistake that Yaesu didn't include 70cm TX, with the FT-7100M they have done exactly that but foolishly moved away from dual fan cooling and 70w out on 2 Metres. Why can't these engineers give us what we want instead of falling short one way or the other, but I suppose the chief design engineer is Mr. Economics.
KC2IFR Rating: 2002-01-06
Nice Radio Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Radio works very. Have had it in 2 different cars with no problems. Receiver is great with little intermod problems. High power is fun when Im in bad areas, I can be heard when other radios cant. The menu options are a little hard to access when driving but I usually dont have to access them unless Im out of my usual area. The only reason Im giving the radio a "4" is because when the 2 little cooling fans come on, they introduce a noise in my transmit signal. The noise is electrical and people can always tell when they come on. Other than that Iv had no problems. The radio has a bunch of options I havent tried yet such as cross-band duplex and cross-band repeat functions.

Bill KC2IFR
N9LBW Rating: 2002-01-06
Good high power 2 meter mobile Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had excellent reports on transmit audio and the receive audio is good. Works very well for crossband repeat. The price is a little high, but I really like the radio.
UA1DW Rating: 2001-07-30
Fairly good radio for that money nowadays Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I own this radio for about 11 months now and I am basically satisfied with it pretty much. It showed no problems under different circumstances but I would greatly appreciate an advise: how to get full 70 watts of power from it. Mine never indicated more than 50 watts as I measured it with my SWR/POWER meter even in last [high] position. What kind of adjustment should I do? Any comments?
And one moment to mention. An audio that comes out of this nice rig is far from that of crisp and crystal clear audio of my previous Icom's IC28-H that I had for about 10 years.

If possible mail info to UA1DW@mail.ru 73! Anatoly UA1DW
KG8TT Rating: 2001-03-25
nice rig Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've owned a number of vhf rigs over the years and
this one rates right up there. I really like the
direct freq entry from the mike.On all mobiles it seems to be a pain to have to spin the vfo to get
were you want to go outside the memories. I agree with the
guy that said the rig runs cool at 50 w. Mine
does anyways. Shes just fine at 70 w though,the
quiet fan keeps her cool.
You ic-2100 owners will like the fact that the
mounting brackets are the same size, also the power
connectors are the same which makes it a
snap to swap the radios out. I know, my 2100
reciever went out after only two years. In fact,
I've had good experience with the Yaesu vhf rigs.
I've owned or own a ft-470 ft-2400 ft-736r and
never had a problem with them. On the other hand
my 2100 lasted only 2 years and the tm-742a
would completely shut down on transmit. I'm not
loyal to any of the "big three" I own a ts-870
and love it along with a ic-275 which I'll never
give up. Yeasu has had their problems too, look
at the ft-2600 which has undisputable problems.I
saw 4 of them for sale at a swap last weekend.
Overall I love this rig. I've seen reviews about
the "tricky" menu but I haven't found it to be an
issue. The rig will even remember what power level
you set when you program your favorite freqs. You
can set the repeater memories for low power and
beef up the output for simplex. The tx audio is
super, comparable to the 2500.Just work the mike
at about 1". The mike is solid and shaped good for
the hand. Yaesu even furred out the mounting holes
so that the bracket doesn't scratch the case.
So that I don't sound like a commercial for
Yaesu, I was trying to find something I didn't like. Probably the only thing is the fact that I
had to wait 3 weeks for the rigs. I bought two of
them from Texas Towers. They didn't stock them
but nobody did so that really wasen't a Texas
Towers problem. I've bought a number of things
from TT and never had a bad experience but after
seeing the reviews and the fact that I had words
with the salesman about shipping to a different
address than the billing address, I'll not order
from them again.
Finally,I think the rig is a 5 no question.It
does everything nicely and is solidly built.

Enjoy
VK2HDH Rating: 2001-02-08
reliable strong and sensitive Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I bought this radio on a run-out sale, and it has performed flawlessly. It seems to have an excellent receiver, and that includes its general coverage, it makes a great scanner for air band etc. Receive audio is excellent, especially using an external speaker. Transmit - well I can usually get through when the others are struggling and thats only with a vertical. Some may not like the menu operation, however it just requires a little discipline to sit down and learn it, after that you appreciate not having a panel full of knobs. It is my first transceiver and it hasn't let me down ever. The display is much better than a lot of other 2m rigs I've seen. A minor complaint is a bit of a wobbly feel in the inner tune knob. Overall a pleasure to operate this rig.
W7NEW Rating: 2000-10-20
Great Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have owned so many radios and when I saw the price of this radio and with the fact that you cant find anyone that has owned one to tell you anything about it,it is real hard to buy one of these radios. I am so glad that I took a chance and bought one. I am really picky about radios "maybe too picky" and this radios really comes through. The manual is good and covers most areas well except the X band repeat feature. The radios receiver is equal to none. It's fedelity is basy and smooth. The rejection couldnt be better. The sensitivity is excellent. I love to test radios and I have a test that I do with every radio that is unfair and no radio I have ever had has passed. I have a large beam at 50' and I turn it towards a repeater site that is about 5 miles away to see if a radio can keep from getting any intermod. No radio has ever rejected the signals when I do this untill the 3000m I was even able to talk to a guy across town on an ht while pointed right at this mountain. I was so amazed. I still dont beleive it. I then loaded this radio up and took it mobil for a day and walla it wokes great in the mobil too. The extra power really helps and this radio runs cool as jello at 50 watts. If you are a simplex fan you will love this thing. The squelch sensitivity is better than anything I have ever seen. I cant even hear the squelch open and once its set its set no need to ajust it every time you pass next to a strong signal. Only two bad notes: the radio when I got it did not do 70 watts it did 55 watts but a simple ajustment fixed that. The transmitt audio was way to loud and high pitched so I ajusted the deveation and added a .1 capacitor from the audio line to ground and that fixed that. This radio is trully a good radio built well too.
WB6MYL Rating: 2000-08-31
Not a keeper!! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Love to collect and use my radios;3000M was one of very few radios I did not like and sold; menu is confusing; quality of construction was very poor as indicated by "flimsy" menu knobs which caused errors in programming; my comments similar to those of crew at HRO/Anaheim; 70 watts great for 2 meter simplex, receiver reflected good sensitivity (including extended receive) but intuitive, this radio is not; prefer my Kenwood 251 or my great big (old) Icom 970H; both very intuitive radios; This is not a slap on Yaesu (I have a FT-1000 and love it); But they should be embarrassed about the 3000m and I don't see a lot of jobbers pushing it. Regards, Phillip W. Harris, PhD. P.C.
ND4MR Rating: 2000-04-26
Super Premium Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The FT-3000 is a top notch 2 meter rig. Aside from the 70 watts output, the receiver is the radio's best feature. Its bullet-proof immunity to intermod is legendary, but for a rig that costs roughly twice the price of "ordinary" 2 meter rigs it BETTER be better. By the way, to access most of the FT-3000's features you have to go through the Menu system, which is not easy to do while mobile. My '3000 is my home/base radio, and it's connected to a tall colinear.