I purchased this radio a couple weeks ago with the intentions of using this on my motorcycle. This unit has met or surpassed my expectations. FYI my ride is a 2008 Kawasaki Nomad 1600.
To begin with, I'll outline my configuration:
I have the MMB-M11 handlebar mounting bracket supporting the control panel on the left side, next to the mirror/clutch clamp. I threaded the cable through some nylon webbing to help protect it from abrasion, and to dress the look of the cable somewhat. This webbing extends down past the triple clamp through the frame bracketry, protecting the control panel cabling thoroughly.
I have two of the Yaesu MLS-200-M10 waterproof speakers mounted to two of the fairing support bolts. The whole control panel and speaker mounting configuration was seamless, and did not cause me to have to modify anything in the bracketry of the motorcycle, or the radio and speakers.
The RF deck is mounted securely into the right hard saddlebag. I had to slightly elongate the holes on the RF deck mounting bracket in order to use some existing hardware that fastens the top saddlebag hook to the saddlebag. This allowed for minimal modification of the motorcycle.
I did have to drill 4 holes into the saddlebag to route the cables from the RF deck. The holes were made in the top inside facing wall of the saddlebag, allowing for the cabling to exit near the top of the right rear shock. This was one hole for the power leads, one hole for the control panel, rear passenger connection, and the stereo speaker leads, one hole for the antenna feedline, and one hole for the iPod cable. I sealed all these with black RTV once the wiring was installed. I also put most of this external wiring through some black nylon webbing tubing for abrasion protection.
I programmed most of my frequencies I'll be using before hand, off the motorcycle, where I could sit in a recliner and punch and twist to my comfort. My fingers got numb several times, and I had to take short breaks from programming to do something else. I think all in all it took about 2-3 hours to program around 150 memories with alpha numeric tags on 99% of them. Programming software would be nice, but this is not something I fault Yaesu for. They never suggested or said that this radio would be software programmable, so I would be a moron to deduct points from it due to this reason. I did not find the method of programming difficult once learned. I can only assume that the operators who had trouble programming the radio will usually have trouble following directions for other things as well. The directions are clear and consice, as well as accurate. No, it is not as easy to program as my Kenwood equipment, but once the procedure is learned, it is only about a 3 on the 1-10 cumbersome scale. Remember that not long ago we had dip switches and maybe 10 memories, and you'll be thankful that the programming of this radio is as good as it is.
The radio has some wonderful features for motorcycle operation. First is the ability to act as an intercom. The wife has been wanting an intercom while on the bike since we got it last year. To use this, I purchased a MEK-M10 microphone jack that mounts to the control panel, and two CT-M11 cables. I also purchased two of the Chatterbox CB50OFHS hard wired microphones with stereo earphones for our open face helmets (CB50FFHS for a full-face helmet), and two Chatterbox CB50HSEX extension curly cords. I cut off the male end of the CB50HSEX extension cords, and wired these to the CT-M11 cables, using a male and female Neutrik XLR connector pair for the wife, and just shortening the cord and soldering direct for my front adaptor to the control panel of the FTM-10R. This is due to the fact that the wife's cable terminates on the RF deck itself, in an inaccessible location in the saddlebag, while I have easy access where mine connects to the control panel up front. I also purchased a small on/off button with adhesive mounting from Pep Boys. This switch comes as a push on / push off model, but I disassembled the switch and modified it for momentary PTT operation. I discovered while wiring this mic system that indeeed the FTM10-R does NOT supply mic bias on the mic input line for use with a condenser microphone (such as what the Chatterbox units utilize). I had to use the +5V line available on the CT-M11 to supply bias for the microphones, and as such I had to use two resistors and a capacitor in circuit to bias the mic. This is a basic circuit, using a 1K current limiting resistor connected between the +5V line and the mic, a 2.2uF capacitor between the mic + and one leg of another 1K resistor, then the other leg of this resistor to the mic input line to the radio. Of course the mic - went to the ground connection on the CT-M11. The PTT also has to be "special" in that there are two "switch" leads on the CT-M11, both of which have to go through separate 390KOhm resistors to ground in order to key the radio. This is worrisome, in that any high impedance path to ground might key the radio as well, such as water intrusion to my PTT switch. I'll have to keep a close eye on this when I get caught in rain storms.
Once I had the headset and microphone situation ironed out, I discovered that the intercom works extremely well. The rider can hear me while I'm talking on the radio, the rider can hear the radio when I unkey, and the rider can hear the music after the amateur radio traffic is over (using the "AF WATCH" feature, which allows one to monitor amateur radio traffic, and revert to FM broadcast radio, AM broadcast radio, or line input upon loss of amateur radio signal). The rider is not broadcast over the air if I have the PTT engaged on my wired in microphone. I can only speculate that if I had a PTT switch wired into the rear (RF unit) CT-M11 connection, it would allow the passenger audio to be heard when engaged. As a side note, as soon as the intercom feature is enabled, the front external speakers are muted, and the audio signal heard in the earphones is summed to 2-channel mono instead of being full stereo as when the intercom is off. I can understand the need for muted speakers, but as for the mono summing, I don't know if this is a limitation or an oversight, but it is a bit of a bummer to know that I can't listen in stereo while the intercom is on. Also, one cannot simply wire only mic audio to the front or rear CT-M11 connection and use the built-in PTT button on the top of the control panel. If one attempts this, even with a microphone connected to the control panel's MEK-M10 microphone jack, the built-in microphone in the control panel will be used instead of the mic that's right next to your mouth on your helmet! I do know for a fact that when using the bluetooth adaptor and a bluetooth headset, this is not an issue. When the unit is paired to a bluetooth headset, the PTT key on the control panel activates the mic audio from the bluetooth mic. If the bluetooth mic becomes un-paired for whatever reason, after 30 seconds or so the front panel mic is again routed to the transmitter. A friend who has had the FTM-10R for a year and uses bluetooth discovered this the hard way.
I would like to point out that the Chatterbox mics that I use are extremely wonderful at cancelling noise. I can go 70 MPH and talk in a normal voice. The Nomad does have a windshield, but at 70 there is still lots of wind noise blowing around as well as motorcycle noise. Even so, I can speak in such a soft voice that I can barely hear myself talking, and that is with an open face half-helmet that doesn't cover my ears. The Chatterbox mics are just that phenomenal! Overall audio quality aside from their noise cancelling capabilities on these mics are superb as well. I run the mic gain menu option in the radio at it's lowest setting, and this works great.
Audio quality for the amateur receiver is also wonderful. It is a sensitive radio, and has good tone, using either the headphones in the helmet or the two external speakers. At highway speeds it's easy to hear speech from the speakers, and does not require full volume. Using helmet headphones requires even less volume, and the radio has the capability to drive helmet headphones to such a high level it would hurt! The radio also has the ability to tailor the frequency response in 5 different levels, with normal being pretty flat, low having much less high frequency, and high having much less bass, and the two "in betweens". I usually keep it on mid, because either side of mid sounds either too tinny or two muffled. Audio quality of music is adequate using the Yaesu speakers, as well as the Chatterbox helmet headphones. The speakers lack bass response (typical of such a small driver), and have an annoying peak around 1.5-2.5KHz. This is great for amateur radio use, but not so much for audio, tending to make electric guitars and some vocals more of a piercing screech than what it is supposed to sound. Bass response is also lacking in the chatterbox helmet headset, so I am not sure if the problem lies with the radio or the speakers and headphones, or both. I will have to hook up to some higher quality speakers to determine the answer. Regardless, the audio is much better than nothing, but not as good as a decent pair of earbuds. I wouldn't recommend earbuds though for a motorcyclist... Hearing the idiot in the car next to you might save you from being run over one day.
I have not yet purchased the bluetooth interfaces for the radio, so I cannot testify to the usefullness of that, except for the good results my friend has had with one bluetooth adaptor and a Noland built-in bluetooth unit. His audio is slightly over driven, even with the mic gain turned all the way down in the radio setting. This sometimes plays havoc with the Communication Speacialists TSU-32 CTCSS decoder on my repeater, as the low-frequency rumbling ends up interfering with it's decoder, causing him to drop out intermittently. Only disabling the CTCSS decoder fixes this. When he uses the hand mic, he does not suffer from this problem.
The radio does have the ability to store several DTMF strings in memory, and transmit these DTMF strings without having a DTMF microphone. This is handy for me since I can store a few repeater control strings in memory and recall them with only 4-5 easy button strokes. All can be done with one hand.
Having the PTT latch feature is also a good thing to use motorcycle mobile. This frees the hands and fingers for more important operations while driving and talking. I do have to watch out though, as I tend to be a very vocal person while riding if someone does a typical "I didn't see the motorcycle" maneuver while I'm talking. I don't need no pink slips from any OOs! This brings me to another point, and that is that using the VOX is a pretty useless thing while motorcycling, regardless of how well the VOX circuit works. I cannot for the life of me imagine how people would be upset that the VOX doesnt work too well on a noisy motorcycle. Add this to the fact that the VOX circuit waits until the channel is clear before engaging the transmitter, and it makes a pretty useless "feature" for this radio. I guess it's nice to have in case one is working simplex in a quiet environment, but I don't think that it would be too good on the motorcycle.
AM reception is weak, just like others have noticed. Do make sure the squelch is turned all the way off for AM reception though. I noticed while programming that it was not hearing any AM radio, and that there was not even any static. I opened the squelch all the way and to my suprise I could just hear the 50KW station about 25 miles from my QTH.
Overall, this radio is the near perfect solution for use on a motorcycle. It kills three birds with one stone; intercom, AM/FM stereo (with line in), and a 2M/70cm amateur radio. I guess one could even modify it and use it on GMRS (I don't know that it's type accepted for this, but I guess it's possible to do regardless). I've never been a big fan of Yaesu, but they seemed to have hit the nail on the head with this one. If I could have only one wish list to add to this radio, it would be full simultaneous APRS functionality. I could work 440MHz while beaconing on APRS from my motorcycle. That would be cool! Thanks, Yaesu! |