[aprssig] Kenwood D710 & Yaesu FTM-350AR Compatible Frrequency Objects

[Ron Stordahl, AE5E]

Experimentally I have determined that this frequency object will be correctly acted upon by both the Kenwood D710 and the Yaesu FTM-350AR:

;146.75XYZ*111111z4904.29N/09706.79Wr146.750MHz TOFF -060

The Kenwood D710 will correctly interpret this shorter format:


;146.75XYZ*111111z4904.29N/09706.79WrTOFF -060

The Yaesu actually gets the frequency from the comment portion, i.e. the part following, in the above example, ...06.79Wr, as it cannot actually correctly interpret a frequency object.

Note that the Yaesu requires fff.fffMHz, i.e. 3 digits before and after the decimal point.

The net effect is that the beacon is increased in length by 11 bytes in order to provide Kenwood & Yaesu compatibility.


The XYZ in the leading part of the string, which would be just XY if a frequency such as 146.755 were specified, is very handy as in the D710 display list those characters help you recognize the repeater location based upon the choice of these letters.  For example Thief River Falls, MN would be shown as 146.75TRF in the displayed list.


In my travels I find that very few digipeaters are actually transmitting these useful beacons.  All of mine are, and I wish this would become standard practice, minimizing  the need for a repeater directory in the car!

The Yaesu web page indicates that the FTM-350AR is out of production!  It's replacement, it seems, is a FTM-400DR.  However, reading the documents for the FTM-400DR, it does not appear to include a QSY function based upon a frequency object beacon!  I have been transmitting the D710 version noted above for several years, covering all of NW Minnesota, and only in the last few weeks have been asked why this did not work for the FTM-350AR.  I would guess few FTM-350AR's were sold vs the D710.

Ron, AE5E
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