[chirp_users] Tim at Yaesu Tech Support warns against Chirp, recommends RT Systems products

[Charles Stillman]

Thanks for the reassurances!

And I did vote twice with my wallet {grin}. I not only bought 2 Icom handhelds a few years back, but I also sent a contribution to Chirp earlier today! Thanks for making our radio lives better!!

Charlie Stillman
KC1S


On Oct 17, 2013, at 3:42 PM, Dan Smith <dsmith at danplanet.com> wrote:

>> Tim at Yaesu tech support says that Chirp "burns out" EEPROMS on 
>> Yaesu radios.
> 
> Heh, interesting. As Tom says, CHIRP sends exactly the same content to
> the radio as does a clone or programing operation from RTSystems. The
> way almost all Yaesu radios are designed, you write the whole image
> every time (can't get away with doing anything less, actually). So, the
> exact same number of bytes are written to the radio, in the same order,
> as using either other tool.
> 
> The radios themselves write to the eeprom every single time you turn the
> VFO knob a single click in either direction. Think about how many writes
> that turns into for a trip up and down the band looking for a contact.
> 
> IMHO, before CHIRP, keeping all my radios up to date was a lot harder
> and a lot less fun. I definitely program my radios more now, but I'm
> still a few orders of magnitude away from doing it often enough to be
> wearing out the eeprom doing it :)
> 
>> I see that there are several steps involved in programming the Yaesu
>> radios with Chirp. Does failure to follow the steps precisely create
>> a risk to the usability of the radio?
> 
> No. If the radio was at risk for permanent failure due to a failure to
> follow the instructions for programming that would be -- a pretty sorry
> design for a radio :)
> 
>> Tim assures me that he makes no money by recommending RT Systems 
>> stuff.
> 
> That seems kinda silly. Unlike the other manufacturers that actually
> provide software for their radios, Yaesu relies on RTSystems to provide
> a product that lets people program their radios. If RTSystems went out
> of business tomorrow, Yaesu owners would have no commercial way to
> program their radio(s) from their computer. So, call me crazy, but
> there's definitely a dependent relationship there :)
> 
>> I sure appreciate the universality of Chirp....
> 
> Be sure to tell them! If Yaesu wanted to engage and tell me how sending
> the same data over the same cable to the radio is "burning out eeproms"
> I'd be happy to address it. Further, if users all let know Yaesu that
> they would buy more radios if Yaesu would contribute hardware for
> development work, we could certainly improve the level of support we
> have for those radios.
> 
> Vote with your wallet! :)
> 
> -- 
> Dan Smith
> www.danplanet.com
> KK7DS
> 
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