Somebody hands you a handheld radio. You have the frequency of the local repeater written on a scrap of paper, and forty minutes later you still cannot get into it. The manual assumes you already know the words. The video is twenty minutes long and the part you need is thirty seconds of it.
These guides are the other thing. One page per radio family, every step written out in ordinary English, and — the part manuals leave out — what the screen should show when you have done it right, so you can tell whether you are in the right place before you carry on. Handhelds first, and HF rigs below them, where the same forty minutes gets spent on a menu three times the size.
Pick your radio
Handhelds
The radio in your pocket. 2 meters and 70 centimeters, repeaters and simplex.
Baofeng UV-5R familyThe radio most people own first. A flat numbered menu: you press MENU, type a number, and change one setting.14 tasks · 8 modelsWouxun KG-UV8D familyA numbered menu like the Baofeng, but the numbers are different — this is exactly where people get caught out.9 tasks · 3 modelsYaesu FT-60RNo menu numbers to count through for the common jobs. You hold a function key, then press the number key printed with the setting you want.3 tasks · 2 modelsYaesu FT-65RA single alphabetical Set Mode list you scroll through, plus four shortcut keys for the things you change most.5 tasks · 2 modelsYaesu FT-4XRThe same idea as the FT-65R — one long numbered Set Mode list — but with its own numbering and its own abbreviations.6 tasks · 4 modelsIcom ID-52AA colour screen driven by a D-pad. The common settings live in a QUICK menu that changes depending on what you are doing, and the rest sit in a named MENU tree.5 tasks · 4 modelsYaesu FT3DNo menu numbers to memorise. You hold a button, a named menu appears on the touchscreen, and you turn the dial to pick a value.4 tasks · 4 modelsAnyTone D878UV familyA DMR radio that is also a perfectly good analog handheld. What follows is the analog half, done from the keypad — the digital half is a different job, and it is explained here rather than pretended at.14 tasks · 4 modelsKenwood TH-D75Kenwood's flagship handheld, with APRS and D-STAR both built in. The menu looks like a tree of icons, but every item also has a three-digit number you can type straight in — which turns a long walk into three keypresses.14 tasks · 2 models
HF radios
Base and portable rigs for the HF bands, where the menus get deep and the settings start interacting with each other.
Yaesu FT-891A small radio with a small screen and a lot behind it. Almost everything runs through one knob — the MULTI knob — and which thing it adjusts depends on which screen you opened first.12 tasks · 1 modelYaesu FT-991AHF through 70 centimeters in one box, with a colour touchscreen in front of it. Most of what you reach for mid-QSO is one button and one touch away; the deep settings are a flat list of 154 numbered menu items.12 tasks · 2 modelsYaesu FTX-1A portable rig built around one knob and a touchscreen. The menu is a named tree rather than a list of numbers, so you read your way to a setting instead of counting to it.12 tasks · 3 modelsIcom IC-7300The one you see in most shacks. Nearly everything you touch while operating has its own key or knob on the front, and only the settings you change once are buried in a menu tree.12 tasks · 1 modelXiegu G90Twenty watts, a spectrum display and a proper antenna tuner, in something you can carry. Almost every button does two jobs — the second one lives behind the FUNC key.12 tasks · 1 modelIcom IC-705HF through 70 centimeters, ten watts, on a battery, with the IC-7300's touchscreen shrunk into something you can carry up a hill. Fewer physical keys than its big brother, so more of the radio lives on the screen.12 tasks · 1 model
The steps people actually get wrong
A manual will tell you what the buttons do. It will not tell you which step catches everybody out, because the person who wrote it has never watched somebody fail at it. These are the ones that come up again and again, collected from every radio covered here.
- UV-5R — Save a repeater to a memory channel
The decimal point puts itself in after three digits. Do not go looking for a decimal key — there isn't one. - UV-5R — Save a repeater to a memory channel
Five digits, with the leading zeros. Typing 6 does not mean 600 kHz — it means 6 MHz, and it will put you on entirely the wrong frequency with no warning. - UV-5R — Save a repeater to a memory channel
This is the step everyone misses. The UV-5R stores receive and transmit as two separate saves into the same channel. Skip the second one and the radio will hear the repeater perfectly and never key it up — which looks exactly like nobody wanting to talk to you. - UV-5R — Set the offset direction and amount
Leading zeros matter. 6 is not 600 kHz, it is 6 MHz. - UV-5R — Factory reset
Forty, not thirty-seven. A great many cheat sheets and forum posts put reset at 37 — on this radio 37 is RPT-RL, the repeater tail revert setting, and changing it does nothing you would notice. If you have been told 37, you have been told wrong. - UV-5R — Factory reset
ALL is the full wipe: every menu setting AND every saved channel, back to a blank out-of-the-box radio. Your repeaters are gone. If you did not program them from CHIRP and keep the file, they are gone for good and you are typing them all in again by hand. - KG-UV8D — Save a repeater to a memory channel
On the Baofeng this is menu 13. Here it is 16. - KG-UV8D — Set the offset direction and amount
On the Baofeng this is menu 26. Carrying the number across from a Baofeng cheat sheet lands you in the shift-direction menu instead. - KG-UV8D — Name a memory channel
It is a short field, so a repeater callsign fits and a description usually does not. Use the callsign. - FT-60R — Save a repeater to a memory channel
It wants six digits. Typing 147.08 and stopping leaves the radio waiting for one more, and it will look as though nothing happened. - FT-60R — Save a repeater to a memory channel
There is a time limit once the number starts flashing — around ten seconds. If it stops flashing before you press F/W, nothing was saved. Start the hold again rather than assuming it worked. - FT-65R — Save a repeater to a memory channel
The tone kind and the tone frequency are two separate settings in two different places. Setting only the first is why the repeater ignores you. - FT-65R — Save a repeater to a memory channel
It is the same key held twice, not pressed twice. The first hold opens the write, the second commits it. Let go too early on the second and nothing is saved. - FT-65R — Set the offset direction and amount
One menu item holding three different settings. Arrowing to 24 REPEATER only gets you to the door — you still have to pick which of ARS, MODE or SHIFT you meant. - FT-4XR — Save a repeater to a memory channel
On the FT-65R this same setting is number 29 and spelled SQL TYPE. The two radios are sold alongside each other and share nothing useful about their menus. - FT-4XR — Save a repeater to a memory channel
The same key, held twice. The first hold opens the write and the second commits it. - FT-4XR — Set the offset direction and amount
The direction is 31 and the amount is 30 — the list is alphabetical, so they are the other way round from the order you actually use them in. - ID-52A — Save a repeater to a memory channel
Do this before anything else. The TONE item does not appear in the QUICK menu at all unless the radio is in FM or FM-N, and on a radio bought for D-STAR it is easy to be sitting in DV without having noticed. - ID-52A — Save a repeater to a memory channel
Two different places for one job. QUICK sets whether a tone is sent; MENU sets which tone. Setting only the first is the usual reason a repeater ignores you. - FT3D — Save a repeater to a memory channel
If the channel already has something in it the radio asks before overwriting. Read that prompt rather than tapping through it. - D878UV — Save a repeater to a memory channel
Zones are not optional on this radio the way memory groups are on a Baofeng. A channel has to live in one, and a channel in a zone you never select is a channel you will never find again. - D878UV — Save a repeater to a memory channel
Do this before anything else. The rest of the menu changes shape when you do — the tone settings simply are not there while the channel is still digital, which is why people conclude this radio cannot do CTCSS. - D878UV — Set the squelch
Five steps, not the ten a Baofeng gives you, and it is under Radio Set rather than Chan Set because it applies to the whole radio rather than one channel. - D878UV — Listen on the repeater's input
Talk Around makes the radio transmit on the repeater's OUTPUT frequency, so two of you can talk directly on the frequency you were both already listening to. It does not let you hear the repeater's input. Reverse is for finding out whether you can work someone direct; Talk Around is for actually doing it once you know you can. - D878UV — Name a memory channel
The manual notes this only works in channel mode, not VFO. If Name will not accept anything, check you are not sitting in VFO. - D878UV — Delete a memory channel
It deletes the channel you are CURRENTLY ON. There is no channel picker — so make sure the radio is sitting on the one you mean before you go into the menu. - D878UV — Turn off the roger beep
This is the closest thing to a roger beep on the radio, but it fires at the START of a call rather than the end, and only you hear it. Nobody on the far end is hearing a beep from you. - D878UV — Turn off dual watch
Bold means it transmits. There is also a dedicated key on the radio that swaps which side is main, which is easy to press by accident in a pocket — so if the radio has started using the wrong channel and you changed nothing in the menu, that key is the likely culprit. - D878UV — Lock the keypad
Locking the keypad does not lock the knobs, and the channel knob turning in your pocket is the more common problem of the two. If a locked radio still changes channel, Knob Lock is the one you missed. - D878UV — Factory reset
This is the whole game. A reset takes your zones, your talkgroups, your contact list and every channel with it. With a saved codeplug that is twenty minutes; without one it is your whole setup, and if it came from somebody in your club you are asking them for it again. - D878UV — Factory reset
Set the time zone properly rather than clicking through it. The manual warns that skipping it gives you wrong timestamps afterwards, which matters if you are logging or using APRS. - TH-D75 — Save a repeater to a memory channel
On most repeater segments you will not need to touch this at all. Automatic Repeater Offset sets the direction from the frequency — the manual prints the whole US table, and 146.940 gets a minus by itself. Set it by hand only when the repeater is unusual. - TH-D75 — Save a repeater to a memory channel
This is the Kenwood trap. TONE sends a tone and lets you hear everything. CTCSS sends a tone and also silences your radio unless a matching one comes back. For getting into a repeater you want Tone. Choosing CTCSS here is the single most common reason a TH-D75 sits silent on a repeater that everybody else can hear. - TH-D75 — Set the transmit tone (CTCSS / PL)
Each press moves you on: Tone, then CTCSS, then DCS, then Cross Tone, then off. Tone is the first one and the factory default. Go one press too far and you are on CTCSS, which does something quite different. - TH-D75 — Set the offset direction and amount
It is not a menu item. People look for it in the menu, do not find it, and conclude the radio cannot do it. - TH-D75 — Change the transmit power
F then MENU, not MENU on its own — MENU alone opens the menu mode. It is an odd pairing to remember, and it is the fastest thing on the radio once you have. - TH-D75 — Name a memory channel
A/B is the delete key while you are typing, not a confirm — it removes the character at the cursor. ENT is what saves. Get those two the wrong way round and you will wipe what you just typed. - TH-D75 — Delete a memory channel
MENU here, not MODE. MODE opens the edit menu for renaming and grouping; MENU is the one with Clear Memory on it. - TH-D75 — Turn off dual watch
Squelch, tone and offset are all set per band on this radio. So a setting that appears not to have worked has very often been applied to the other side. - TH-D75 — Lock the keypad
The volume control is not covered by the key lock. If your radio keeps ending up silent or deafening in a bag, this is the setting you actually wanted. - TH-D75 — Factory reset
Memory channels included. The date and time survive, and nothing else does. If you programmed this radio by hand rather than from software, that is your whole evening. - FT-891 — Set the radio up for FT8 and other digital modes
The manual lists the two choices without saying which suits FT8, so here is the reasoning. PSK applies a fixed tone offset set in 08-02 — 1000, 1500 or 2000 Hz. OTHERS applies whatever you put in 08-03 OTHER DISP and 08-04 OTHER SHIFT, and both of those default to 0 Hz. FT8 wants no offset at all, so OTHERS with the defaults left alone is what makes the dial reading and the published FT8 frequency the same number. - FT-891 — Set the radio up for FT8 and other digital modes
The factory default here is LSB. FT8 and the rest of the WSJT-X modes run upper sideband, so this one has to be changed — it is not already right out of the box. Leave it on LSB and your signal comes out inverted and nobody decodes you. - FT-891 — Connect the radio to a computer
The factory default is 4800 bps — the slowest of the four. Most logging and digital software defaults to something faster, and when the two disagree the radio simply does not answer. This is the single most common reason a Yaesu will not connect. Whatever you set here has to be typed identically into the software. - FT-891 — Connect the radio to a computer
Default is ENABLE. If your interface does not drive RTS, the radio can sit there waiting for a signal that never comes — and it looks exactly like a dead cable. If the speed is right and it still will not talk, this is the next thing to try. - FT-891 — Set the drive level for digital modes
There is one of these per mode — 16-11 for SSB, 16-12 AM, 16-13 FM, 16-14 DATA. Changing the wrong one is why nothing appears to happen. - FT-891 — Narrow the filter to shut out the station next door
Counter-clockwise narrows. Go too far and the station you actually want starts sounding muffled and thin — narrow only until the interference goes, not as far as it will travel. - FT-891 — Notch out a whistle or a carrier
Default is WIDE, which is easier to aim but takes more of the wanted audio with it. NARROW is worth setting if you find the notch is muffling the voice you are trying to save. - FT-891 — Work a DX station that is running split
Press A/B once and you have swapped which VFO you are hearing. It is very easy to tune what you think is the transmit VFO while actually dragging your receive frequency off the DX station. Check you are back on VFO-A before you call. - FT-891 — Run the antenna tuner
Both halves are needed. Menu 16-15 says what is out there; TNR on FUNCTION-1 turns it on. Setting one without the other is the usual reason a newly fitted FC-40 appears to do nothing. - FT-891 — Reset the menu to factory settings
On the US version this cannot erase channel 01, or channels 501 through 510. - FT-891 — Reset the menu to factory settings
This is the destructive one. Everything goes — memories, menu settings, key assignments. Try FUNC first; it fixes most of what sends people looking for a reset, and it costs you nothing. - FT-991A — Set the radio up for FT8 and other digital modes
Yaesu's own data-mode page says PSK here, and for PSK31-era software that is right — the radio generates the tone and item 063 sets it. FT8 is different: WSJT-X makes its own tones and expects the dial to read the base frequency for the band. PSK shifts the carrier point by the PSK tone, so the dial and the software stop agreeing. OTHERS with items 064 and 065 left at 0 Hz is what keeps them lined up. - FT-991A — Set the radio up for FT8 and other digital modes
This is the contradiction. The setup page at the back of the manual says MIC. The description of item 070 says REAR is what selects the USB jack, and the description of item 072 says 072 only does anything when 070 is REAR. Set this to MIC and the radio listens to the front microphone jack, so nothing your computer sends ever reaches the transmitter. REAR is the setting that agrees with both item definitions. - FT-991A — Connect the radio to a computer
The factory setting is 4800 bps, and almost nothing defaults to that any more. When the radio and the software disagree on speed the radio simply does not reply, which looks exactly like a broken cable or a wrong COM port. Change it here and set the identical number in the software. - FT-991A — Connect the radio to a computer
Default is ENABLE. Note that RTS is also what item 071 uses to key the transmitter for digital modes — if you have one program holding RTS for PTT and another expecting it for flow control, they will fight. If CAT is unreliable and the speed is right, this is the setting to look at. - FT-991A — Set the drive level for digital modes
The manual points out that reducing power this way makes the ALC meter read higher, and says plainly that this is normal and not a fault. Do not chase that reading — it is not telling you the signal is dirty. - FT-991A — Narrow the filter to shut out the station next door
Clockwise makes it WIDER, and the manual is clear that you can open it past the default deliberately — worth knowing on a quiet band, and worth knowing so you can tell which way you have gone wrong when a signal suddenly sounds thin. - FT-991A — Notch out a whistle or a carrier
Factory setting is WIDE, which is easier to aim but takes more of the voice with it. If the notch is killing the whistle and muffling the station at the same time, this is why. - FT-991A — Work a DX station that is running split
It is easy to lose track of which VFO you are on and tune the DX station right off your receive frequency. The LEDs are the check: you want green on A before you go any further. - FT-991A — Save a frequency to a memory channel
That is A▶M, the VFO-to-memory button — not the AM mode. The manual's own figures abbreviate it in a way that makes the two easy to confuse. - FT-991A — Run the antenna tuner
The manual asks you to listen first and make sure you are not about to transmit on top of somebody. Tuning keys the transmitter. - FT-991A — Reset the menu to factory settings
On the US version this cannot erase channel 01, or 5-01 through 5-10. - FT-991A — Reset the menu to factory settings
This is the destructive one. Menu, memories, call sign, position, CW messages — all of it. Try the MENU(SETUP) reset first; it fixes most of what sends people looking, and it costs you nothing. - FTX-1 — Set the radio up for FT8 and other digital modes
MIC is the factory setting, and it means the radio listens to the front microphone jack. Leave it there and the computer's audio never reaches the transmitter, however correct everything else looks. USB is what tells the radio to take audio and data from the USB jack. - FTX-1 — Set the radio up for FT8 and other digital modes
This one leaves the factory switched OFF, and OFF means the serial lines cannot key the transmitter at all. If the software says it is transmitting and the radio sits there receiving, this is almost always why. - FTX-1 — Connect the radio to a computer
Note 115200 is available here, which the FT-891 and FT-991A do not offer. Faster is not automatically better — set whatever the software is set to, and nothing else. - FTX-1 — Set the drive level for digital modes
Turn this and the computer's output slider in the same direction, not against each other. Cranking one to compensate for the other is exactly how a signal ends up wide. - FTX-1 — Narrow the filter to shut out the station next door
Defaults differ by mode: about 3000 Hz on SSB, 500 Hz on CW and RTTY. If a CW signal sounds oddly wide, check what mode the radio thinks it is in before you blame the filter. - FTX-1 — Turn on the noise blanker
Note these are words rather than the numbers the FT-891 and FT-991A use for the same two settings. Same idea, different scale — do not go looking for a dB figure. - FTX-1 — Notch out a whistle or a carrier
WIDE is easier to aim and takes more of the voice with it. If the notch is killing the whistle and muffling the station at the same time, this is the setting. - FTX-1 — Save a frequency to a memory channel
Held, not tapped. A quick press of V/M just switches between VFO and memory — it does not open the list. - FTX-1 — Run the antenna tuner
The manual asks you to listen before tuning, because tuning keys the transmitter onto whatever frequency you are sitting on. - FTX-1 — Run the antenna tuner
The built-in tuner cannot be used with an external tuner connected to the antenna jack. It is one or the other, not both. - IC-7300 — Set the radio up for FT8 and other digital modes
This is the one. It leaves the factory on ACC, meaning the radio expects your audio to arrive on pin 11 of the round accessory socket on the back — not over the USB cable you just plugged in. Leave it on ACC and WSJT-X will key the radio and transmit silence. Everything looks perfectly configured and nobody hears you. - IC-7300 — Connect the radio to a computer
Leave it at 94h unless you have two Icoms on the same bus. Change it and every piece of software you own has to be told the new number. - IC-7300 — Connect the radio to a computer
This is a real source of trouble with some logging and digital software — the unsolicited traffic arrives in the middle of a conversation and gets read as a reply. If your software keeps losing track of the frequency or throwing timeouts, try OFF here before you touch anything else. - IC-7300 — Set the drive level for digital modes
The target is ALC barely moving. Any real ALC action on a digital mode means the audio is overdriving the transmitter and you are splattering across the band — which you cannot hear and other people can. - IC-7300 — Narrow the filter to shut out the station next door
Opposite directions narrows the passband. Turn both the same way and you shift the whole passband sideways instead — which is a different and also useful thing, but not what you want when you are trying to shut somebody out. - IC-7300 — Narrow the filter to shut out the station next door
That little dot is the tell that PBT is doing something. If a signal sounds oddly thin or muffled and you cannot think why, look for the dot — PBT left set from an hour ago is a very common cause. - IC-7300 — Turn on noise reduction
A tap only toggles it on and off. The level control is behind the one-second hold, and a lot of people never find it — so they run noise reduction at whatever it was last left at and conclude it makes everything sound underwater. - IC-7300 — Turn on the noise blanker
There is a dedicated NB key on the front panel too, so once you know you want it you do not need the FUNCTION screen at all. - IC-7300 — Work a DX station that is running split
This is the good part: XFC lets you listen on your transmit frequency while you set it. So you find out whether the frequency you picked is clear before you call, rather than after everyone tells you. - IC-7300 — Save a frequency to a memory channel
If BLANK is not showing, that channel already has something in it and saving will overwrite it without asking. - IC-7300 — Save a frequency to a memory channel
Held, not tapped. A tap does nothing, which reads as the radio ignoring you. - IC-7300 — Run the antenna tuner
Tuning keys the transmitter. Do not do it on top of a QSO already in progress. - IC-7300 — Run the antenna tuner
If it cannot find a match, TUNE disappears altogether and the tuner bypasses itself. That is the radio telling you the antenna is outside its range — not a fault. - IC-7300 — Reset the menu to factory settings
Memory channels, filter settings, the lot. The manual's own words are that you will need to rewrite your operating settings. There is no undo, so this is the one to be certain about. - G90 — Set the radio up for FT8 and other digital modes
The manual is blunt about this: when you are feeding audio in through the ACC port, make sure the line input volume is high enough. Too low and the radio simply will not respond to the audio at all, which reads as a dead cable. - G90 — Set the radio up for FT8 and other digital modes
Leave this on the microphone and the radio will transmit the room instead of your computer. It is the equivalent of the Yaesu MOD SOURCE trap and it costs people the same evening. - G90 — Connect the radio to a computer
The manual states plainly that the G90 uses the standard CI-V instruction set. That is Icom's protocol. There is often no Xiegu entry in older software at all, and people conclude the radio is unsupported when it is simply an Icom as far as the computer is concerned. - G90 — Narrow the filter to shut out the station next door
The high cut is the SECOND function of the noise blanker button, so you must press FUNC first and see the F indicator light. Press NB on its own and you have switched the noise blanker instead — which is a reasonable thing to do, but not what you were trying to do. - G90 — Turn on noise reduction
Different job. The blanker is for pulses — ignition, power line, an electric fence. Against steady hiss it does nothing at all, which is why people try it, hear no difference, and assume it is broken. - G90 — Turn on the noise blanker
Without FUNC. With FUNC pressed first, this same button sets the filter's high cut instead — check the F indicator is dark before you press it. - G90 — Notch out a whistle or a carrier
If the tone is sitting in the middle of a voice you want, neither edge will help without taking the voice with it. That is the honest limit of the radio. - G90 — Work a DX station that is running split
This is the second function of the AGC button. Press AGC without FUNC and you have cycled the AGC setting instead — check the F indicator is lit first. - G90 — Work a DX station that is running split
Easy to leave yourself listening on VFO-B and wonder why the DX station has gone quiet. If you have lost them, this is the first thing to check. - G90 — Save a frequency to a memory channel
Storing to a channel that already has something in it overwrites it without asking. There is no BLANK indicator to warn you the way there is on the Icom. - G90 — Run the antenna tuner
THIS HAS NOT TUNED ANYTHING. The manual says so in as many words: just opened, the tuning has not been started. This is the single most common G90 mistake — the icon is showing, so people assume the job is done, and then wonder why the SWR is still terrible. - G90 — Run the antenna tuner
The manual specifically asks you to do this. A tuner left in circuit on an antenna that does not need it is loss you are adding for nothing. - G90 — Reset the menu to factory settings
There is no one-press way to put these back to default, which is exactly why they are worth checking early and worth writing down once you find settings you like. - IC-705 — Set the radio up for FT8 and other digital modes
Note the extra level: MOD Input. On the IC-7300 these items sit directly under Connectors, so somebody moving between the two radios will look for this in the wrong place. The default here is already USB, which is the opposite of the 7300 — its DATA MOD ships on ACC and has to be changed. - IC-705 — Connect the radio to a computer
A4 is the IC-705's address. The IC-7300 is 94h. If you have set software up for a 7300 before and copied the settings across, this is why it will not connect. Software that has no IC-705 entry can often be made to work by telling it a different Icom and matching the address here — Icom says as much in its own manual. - IC-705 — Connect the radio to a computer
Some logging and digital software reads that unsolicited traffic as a reply and loses its place. If the software keeps timing out or losing frequency sync, try OFF here before anything else. - IC-705 — Set the drive level for digital modes
You want ALC barely moving. Real ALC action on a digital mode means the audio is overdriving the transmitter, and the resulting splatter is something everybody else hears and you do not. - IC-705 — Narrow the filter to shut out the station next door
A dot appears on the IF filter indicator once you have moved PBT. That dot is your reminder — a passband left shifted from last night is the usual reason a signal sounds thin the next morning. - IC-705 — Turn on noise reduction
The tap only toggles it. If you have been running noise reduction at whatever it was last set to and concluding that it makes everything sound underwater, this hold is the control you never found. - IC-705 — Turn on the noise blanker
Icom says this outright: with very strong signals, or noise that is not really pulse-type, the blanker distorts what you are listening to. Their own fix is to turn it off or shallow the DEPTH. So a blanker left on out of habit genuinely costs you. - IC-705 — Notch out a whistle or a carrier
Auto Notch works in SSB, AM and FM. Manual Notch works in SSB, CW, RTTY and AM. So on CW there is no automatic notch at all, and on FM there is no manual one — if the option you want is missing, check what mode you are in before assuming the radio is faulty. - IC-705 — Run the antenna tuner
The AH-705 is for a long wire, and the wire has to be long enough: more than about 30 metres — 98 feet — on 160 metres, and more than about 7 metres — 23 feet — on 80 metres and up. A short wire is not a tuning problem, it is outside what the tuner can do. - IC-705 — Run the antenna tuner
If it cannot get under 2:1 within fifteen seconds the indicator goes out and the tuner bypasses itself — the wire is then connected straight through. That is the radio telling you the antenna is out of range, not that the tuner is broken. - IC-705 — Reset the menu to factory settings
This deletes the memory channels and, on this radio, the D-STAR repeater list with them. Icom recommends backing up to a microSD card or saving with the CS-705 software first — the repeater list is preloaded at the factory and you will not get it back from the radio itself.
None of these are exotic. Every one of them produces a radio that looks like it is working, which is exactly what makes them expensive — you find out when nobody answers, and by then you have no idea which setting to suspect.
What “checked” means here
A wrong keystroke is far worse than a missing model. Somebody who follows bad instructions and puts their radio on the wrong transmit frequency has no way of knowing it went wrong — the radio looks fine and nobody answers. So nothing appears on these pages until either two independent sources agree on it, or somebody has walked it on the physical radio with the manual shut.
Of the 146 procedures here, 27 were walked on the radio itself, 3 were confirmed by two independent sources and 116 came from the manufacturer's own operating manual. Where something has not been checked, the page says so and leaves it out rather than guessing. That is why the coverage is 42 radios across 15 families rather than a longer list that would be partly invented.
Find yours the quick way
The app does the same thing interactively — type what is printed on your radio, pick the job, and it walks you through it one step at a time.
If your radio is not here
There are far more radios than any one site can cover by hand. CHIRP is free software that programs 739 models from a computer, and for anything more than a handful of channels it is faster than the keypad anyway. The app has a link to its supported-radio list, and a one-tap way to ask for yours — what gets added next is decided by what people ask for.