Yaesu FT-7800R Programming

Today I found out the hard way not to use CHIRP* to program my Yaesu FT-7800R radio. IIRC, this worked OK for me in the past but not on my current M4 MacBook Air, with a Cable Matters USB-C to RS-232 adapter. I was able to download the pre-existing memory channels fine but when I made some changes and uploaded them to the rig, only the first two memory channels worked.

I wound up doing a factory reset on the radio and trying again with the same result.

So, I bit the bullet and ordered the RT Systems ADMS-2K software plus their USB-29 programming cable. 

The cable will be shipped to me but RT Systems provided me with a download link for the Mac software. I grabbed that and tried it with the aforementioned Cable Matters adapter and the Yaesu RS-232 programming cable, and it worked fine. Once I receive the RT Systems cable I use that, since it'll be a more elegant setup.

My radio is at least 20 years old and while futzing with it I noticed that the microphone cable is fraying on both ends, although it still worked for me to get into a local 2M net this morning. I checked for replacement mics and found a replacement cable only at Amazon, which I should get tomorrow.

*In contrast to the Yaesu rig, CHIRP has never given me a lick of trouble with my Baofeng UV-5Rs or UV-25PRO.

RT Systems Programming Software for the Icom 7200

With my getting back into ham radio I wanted to update the memory settings on my Icom 7200. You can do so via the front panel, and it's good to know how, but it's tedious.

The popular open source program CHIRP will talk to the IC7200. However, functionality is pretty minimal with this radio. For example, it works with the rig in live mode with changes you make in the application immediately written to the radio. It also misconfigured some fields in the memories, as I discovered later.

Years ago, shortly after buying the rig, I'd purchased  RT Systems' WCS-7200 programming software on CD from the New Castle, DE Ham Radio Outlet store. That CD disappeared, along with the product registration info. So, I decided to drop $25 for a new digital download of the program. (What the heck, it's good to support small businesses anyway.)

Unlike CHIRP, it runs only on Windows, but it can use the same USB A-B cable used for digital mode operations.

The WCS-7200 software is more mature and full-featured than CHIRP. For example, I entered in a bunch of frequencies into the spreadsheet-like UI, and it then allowed me to select a group of them and move them up or down for organization. It also has a Comment field, which I used to identify which frequency is for, for example "20M PSK31" or "WWV."

Unlike CHIRP, it doesn't operate in live mode, so I could tinker with memory organization, save the file locally, and then upload it to the rig.

Before closing the app I exported the memory to a .csv file in the Ham Radio folder I keep on Dropbox, opened it in Numbers on my Mac, and printed out a copy for reference.

I still like CHIRP for programming my Baofengs and it seems to work fine with my Yaesu FT-7800R, but in this case, it was worth $25 for the commercial software.

Incidentally, a good source of frequencies to input into your radio for making contacts or just monitoring is Bandplans.com. Also check out Repeaterbook.com and RadioReference.com.