Yaesu FTM-300DR 50W C4FM/VHF/UHF Dual Band FM Digital Mobile Transceiver

I have D-STAR and DMR radios, and wanted to add a Fusion radio to the mix (kinda wish someone would build a true multi-mode DV mobile, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards).

I wanted true dual-band, so the 200 was out. I didn't think I needed all the features of the 500, and the 300 was $200 cheaper (and still a current production radio).

The 300 turns out to be pretty great.

The display is easily the brightest, easiest to read in daylight of all the radios in my mobile 'stack'. Radio performance is top notch (as are ICOM and Kenwood). Operation is mostly well planned and straightforward, which puts it well ahead of the Chinese competition (and for Fusion, of course, there is no competition, so I'm just comparing the basic operation - how to get it to do stuff).

Yes, there is complexity. Digging through the menus to get things set up isn't too hard after a little study and experience.

My one wish, one big gripe? Where are the Memory Banks (or call'em whatever you want... where are they)? There is one Group Memory feature - essentially one Memory Bank that you can put any of the general memory channels in to 'limit' the scope of the radio (it limits what you dial through, and limits what gets scanned when you're in that mode and start a scan).

One is better than none, but a radio with 1000 memories needs a better way to organize them. My local repeaters. Repeaters for a few towns I travel to a few times a year. Special events/ARES activities. Lots of uses, and I make use of them extensively in my ICOM 5100. If the 500 had them, I might have sprung for the upgrade, but it doesn't have them, either.

I use RT Systems for programming, because I have so many radios (lucky me) that I need to keep 'in sync'. That can write to the micro-SD card that the radio can then suck in. But what's the deal with just one file on the SD card? Yaesu could have *almost* compensated for no Memory Banks by allowing multiple files and configs on the SD card - easy to call up a new config or save one. But no - it just wastes those Gigabytes of space with a little file and one config.

Fusion/Wires X operation is fairly straightforward operating through repeaters. I haven't tried any hotspot stuff, and probably won't. Turns out that there are a lot of Fusion repeaters around here (Charlotte NC area), that nobody uses for Fusion. There are a few that have full-time Wires X connection, and a few that the connection seems to come and go (because it can be connected from a home station through a transceiver?).

The concept of pulling a list of ALL the Fusion 'rooms' over the air is interesting, but execution is dog-slow - like pulling bulletins over a packet network. It pulls about 20 and builds a list on the display... you dial thru, it freezes and pulls another 20 or so (and you lose the previous 20). Each 'pull' takes 10 seconds or so. There are hundreds (thousands?) of 'rooms', so I've never made it out of the E's (alphabetical list). If you know what you're looking for, even a partial name, you can make a more limited search, and you can store often-used rooms in a list (I keep forgetting how, though). But the radio won't just show you that list - you have to interrogate the repeater to see what's really out there and available air now. That's a plus and a minus.

As a DV mode, Fusion is fine. There may be some minor differences in audio quality (I haven't played with the Wide mode - nobody uses that around here). It's hard to do an apples-to-apples comparison between the DV modes - no repeaters on the same towers in similar enough configurations. Like DMR and D-STAR, the DV audio hangs in there solid until the S-Meter flatlines, then can burble a bit... and also like the others, it can break up and burble more when there's mobile fading and multipath. D-STAR has bigger, louder yelps when it doesn't know what it's trying to decode.

If you want to get into Fusion with full dual-band, but can't hit the $600+ of the 500, I think you'll be happy with the 300. Even if you just want a solid FM rig and might not use Fusion (you will), the 300 is a good choice. It's replacing my old Yaesu 8900 (another solid radio, but outdated display).

Oh, hey - I also miss the 8900's six Hyper Memory buttons. That radio didn't have Memory Banks, either, but it did have those six 'full-radio snapshot' buttons that were really handy for loading special configurations and speeding me on my way to those setups. I'm not sure where the 300 would put those on the sparse panel, but it is a step back in capability. -K4AAQ

I own 3 Yaesu FT's and FT818 and then I bought this radio. Glad I did this is my favorite radio. Delivery was about as fast as it could be. Ordered it on Wed and got it that Fri afternoon. Extremely pleased with GigaParts and Yaesu!!

Very good radio, easy to program, like the c4fm fusion. This is in my shack as a base radio.
This is my first Yaesu radio. very happy with unit.

Best value I've purchased in a long time. Excellent radio, very user friendly. Great audio and very good receivers (yes 2). I have had very good reports on tx audio and signal. So much fun!!!

This has been great so far. Audio is loud and clear. Very easy to program. The menu is very intuitive and haven't had any issues with it. Definitely reccomend

Very nice radio. Really compact and the radio head is just great, not too big or small. Can be detached and mounted remotely or just stay on the body of the radio. Very nice screen with great detail, easy to navigate menus. Good audio from the speaker.