Configuring Yaesu APRS-Capable Radios

Yaesu has manufactured several radios, including the FTM-400XDR, that are capable of standalone operation as an APRS terminal. However, their screens are somewhat small, displaying limited information. YAAC can read the data feed from the Yaesu radio and display it with YAAC's map and tabular analysis capabilities. Unfortunately, Yaesu's firmware does not allow transmitting APRS messages from an external computer, so YAAC's Yaesu mode is receive-only.

This port driver also can support Kantronics brand TNCs in Command Mode, as their packets are presented in a format similar (but not identical) to the Yaesu format.

To add a Yaesu radio, click the Add button on the Configure Ports tab. The port editing dialog will appear. Set the port type to Yaesu.

The other parameters you will need to specify for the Yaesu radio/TNC are:

• the name of the port to which the TNC is connected. On Microsoft Windows, this will be a COM port (COM1, COM2, etc.). On Linux, this will be a /dev/ttyS port (ex. /dev/ttyS0) or a USB serial port (ex., /dev/ttyUSB0), although the console port on a Raspberry Pi appears as /dev/ttyAMA0. Similar device names will be used on other Unix derivatives. Note that on Linux and Unix systems, you will need the access right to access serial ports. Typically, this will be membership in a group owning the serial ports, such as dialout, tty, or uucp.
• The baud rate the Yaesu radio will be communicating at (typically, 9600 baud). Ensure that the radio's serial port is set to the same speed as you configure this port to. Note this is independent of the baud rate transmitted over the radio (1200 baud on 2 meters, or 9600 baud on UHF).
• What date format you have configured the Yaesu radio to use. The radio's date display format can be specified through the setup menus on the radio, but this menu setting also affects the APRS output format sent to YAAC, so you must set YAAC to match whatever setting the radio is using.
• Whether or not you want a debug log recorded of the raw packets coming over the serial connection. If this is checked, in the configured YAAC logfile directory will be an additional series of logfiles name Yaesu-yyyyMMdd-HH.txt, updated every 5 minutes with the collected raw packet text from the Yaesu radio.

Once you have the settings the way you want them, click OK. Ensure that the radio is connected to the port before you click OK.