WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - THE FT8900R
WYNTN-05 – by: Albert VK3BQO
INTRODUCTION
The Yaesu FT8900 is a Quad Band HF - UHF FM transceiver. It is the companion to the FT8800
although in some ways it appears they were designed by two different people. It is a "TRUE"
dual band radio and covers 10m, 6m, 2m and 70cm
basically
FM with 10m being FM narrow as
per the band plan.
The radio is capable of 50w on 10, 6 and 2m plus 35w on 70cm and has front panel selection of
lower power settings. It has 800 memory channels each of which is capable of saving the TX,
RX, CTCSS, power setting and shift or split requirements.
The radio operates basically as Left hand and Right hand side of the radio. There are 2 separate
transceivers built inside and each will operate on its own except that the Left side will handle all
4 bands and the Right hand side will not handle 10m or 6m. With this exception, all memory
channels are selectable from either side of the radio.
The alphanumeric display allows easy viewing of frequency in VFO mode or memory channel
number or label in memory mode.
1. POWERING ON AND OFF
Press the bottom right volume knob for about 1/2 second to turn the radio On or Off. A user
settable power off timer (1 - 12 hrs) can be set in program mode also.
2. BAND SELECTION
Switching from one side of the radio to the other is easily done by briefly pressing the dial knob
for the side to be selected.
Changing bands when in VFO mode is performed by pressing the dial knob for about 1 second
while in the VFO mode. Each time the dial knob is long pressed, the band is changed.
For the Left side - 144 MHz _ 350 MHz _ 430 MHz _ 850 MHz _ 29 MHz _ 50 MHz _ 144 MHz.
For the Right side - 144 MHz _ 430 MHz _ 144 MHz.
This may vary depending on the country that the radio is sold into.
Note:
One thing that every person who owns or operates one of these radios finds out is that
sometimes you press the volume knob instead of the dial knob to change sides. If you press the
bottom left volume knob by mistake, you may notice the word "INET" appear on the display. This
will switch on a DTMF tone that transmits annoyingly each time you press the PTT. Each
operator takes a while to figure out what has caused the tone to suddenly start transmitting but
once found is never forgotten.
