Yaesu FT-5DR 5W C4FM/144/430MHz Dual Band Digital Handheld Transceiver
SKU:
ZYS-FT-5DR
Availability:
In stock
$384.95
$384.95
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Regular Price: $484.95
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Customer Reviews
Overall
4
Mostly good; lotta bugs.
Review by
NSD
The first thing you really need to know about this radio when you first take it out of the box is that the US version gives you absolutely no visible indication of its charging state. The manual will tell you that it's supposed to display a bar graph when the included wall wart is plugged in, and it does, but it doesn't turn the backlight on so you can actually see that bar graph. This will likely lead you to believe that either the radio or the power supply is defective, but this is the way Yaesu apparently believed it should be.
Why they believe that likely has something to do with the fact that they chose to ship a 10.5 volt power supply for a circuit that wants 12-16 volts and there simply isn't enough power coming in to the unit to charge the battery and drive the backlight at the same time. Knowing this, you might be tempted to spend the extra money for the CD-41 "rapid" charger, but there is nothing "rapid" about it as it doesn't come with a less anemic power supply. If you stumble upon one of the clones of the CD-41 you might find on another site whose name begins with the letter 'A' you'll get the exact same circuit plus a 12 volt wall wart that actually charges the battery in a reasonable amount of time for about half the price of the Yaesu. You also won't fry the MOSFET if you simply touch the middle terminal on a windy day to boot.
Functionally, it's a pretty darn good radio with a tremendous amount of flexibility but there are so many state-management related UX bugs in the touch interface that I can't call it "great." Also the Bluetooth feature is basically non-functional with any device made within the last ten years and really just should not have been included at all. I got what I wanted for my money and am happy but I still think Yaesu needs to put a lot more effort into their firmware. Especially the process by which the firmware is updated. Why I have to fiddle with hidden dip switches and arcane Windows-exclusive sorcery instead of just putting a simple file on a simple SD card in 2022 is beyond me.
Why they believe that likely has something to do with the fact that they chose to ship a 10.5 volt power supply for a circuit that wants 12-16 volts and there simply isn't enough power coming in to the unit to charge the battery and drive the backlight at the same time. Knowing this, you might be tempted to spend the extra money for the CD-41 "rapid" charger, but there is nothing "rapid" about it as it doesn't come with a less anemic power supply. If you stumble upon one of the clones of the CD-41 you might find on another site whose name begins with the letter 'A' you'll get the exact same circuit plus a 12 volt wall wart that actually charges the battery in a reasonable amount of time for about half the price of the Yaesu. You also won't fry the MOSFET if you simply touch the middle terminal on a windy day to boot.
Functionally, it's a pretty darn good radio with a tremendous amount of flexibility but there are so many state-management related UX bugs in the touch interface that I can't call it "great." Also the Bluetooth feature is basically non-functional with any device made within the last ten years and really just should not have been included at all. I got what I wanted for my money and am happy but I still think Yaesu needs to put a lot more effort into their firmware. Especially the process by which the firmware is updated. Why I have to fiddle with hidden dip switches and arcane Windows-exclusive sorcery instead of just putting a simple file on a simple SD card in 2022 is beyond me.
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