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

[Dennis Smith]

If Yaesu staff are telling people that their rigs wear out easily from
programming them using the protocols as laid out in their manuals, I
think I might NOT buy a Yaesu again. Shame, I am rather fond of Yaesu
rigs and I have the job of nominating what HT's we get when the local
security group replace all there Motorola's for the next generation
handies. That's about 130 radio's.

Dennis Smith
M1DLG

On 17 October 2013 23:42, 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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-- 

Dennis Smith
M1DLG