How to Program an FTDX101 — Step by Step

Yaesu's contest flagship — two genuinely independent receivers with their own circuits, their own DSP knobs and their own half of a seven-inch screen, a motor-driven tuned circuit in the front end, and a ring around the main dial that is a second VFO when you want one.

This page covers: Yaesu FTDX101MP, Yaesu FTDX101D. They share the same firmware, so the steps below are identical on all of them whatever name is printed on the front.

What you can do on this radio

• Set the radio up for FT8 and other digital modes
• Connect the radio to a computer
• Set the drive level for digital modes
• Narrow the filter to shut out the station next door
• Turn on noise reduction
• Turn on the noise blanker
• Notch out a whistle or a carrier
• Work a DX station that is running split
• Save a frequency to a memory channel
• Run the antenna tuner
• Set the CW keyer speed and weight
• Reset the menu to factory settings

Set the radio up for FT8 and other digital modes on an FTDX101

There is effectively an FT8 button on this radio. It is called PRESET and it sits in the corner of the mode grid, and it is reversible with a second touch — which makes it one of the few settings on this radio you can safely just try.

1. Hold the MODE key.hold MODEThe screen should show: Sixteen tiles. LSB, USB, CW-L, CW-U across the top; AM, AM-N, FM, FM-N; DATA-L, DATA-U, DATA-FM, D-FM-N; RTTY-L, RTTY-U, PSK, and PRESET in the corner.Watch out. It has to be a hold. A brief press of MODE just puts you back into the mode you were in before.
2. Touch PRESET. The settings go in and the screen returns to normal by itself.touch PRESETThe screen should show: PRESET turns blue. Blue means the preset is live, gray means it is not.Fourteen settings in one touch — the transmit passband, the audio cut frequencies and their slopes, the three AGC delays, which rear socket the audio comes in on, the drive level, how the computer keys the radio, and the CAT port settings.
3. Touch PRESET again to undo it and put your previous settings back.touch PRESETThe screen should show: PRESET goes gray.
4. To see or change what it actually does, touch and hold PRESET.touch PRESET›hold itThe screen should show: The fourteen items with their values.Watch out. The commit here is different from everywhere else on the radio — it is a press of the MULTI knob, not the FUNC key. Touch BACK to get back to the mode screen, then press MODE to get out.

Two things about PRESET you should know before you use it. It changes your CAT settings — the baud rate goes to 38400 and the RTS flow control line is switched off, because it needs RTS for keying instead. That is deliberate and it is the right combination for FT8, but if your logging software was happily talking at 4800 it will stop. And it flips the rear audio input from the DATA DIN socket to the USB socket, which is the opposite of the standing default. Both of those go back when you touch PRESET a second time. One honest gap: Yaesu never says which mode FT8 wants. The FT8 page tells you to touch PRESET and stops there. The only place the manual ties a mode name to a digital application is the PSK page, where it tells you to set your PC software to DATA-U — and that is an instruction about the software, for PSK. Touch PRESET, then look at what the mode field on your own radio says, and match your software to that.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Connect the radio to a computer on an FTDX101

Two real ports, each with its own speed setting, and a default speed that is slower than almost any software expects.

1. For USB, install Yaesu's virtual COM port driver from their website first.install the virtual COM port driverThe nine-pin RS-232C socket needs none of this — a plain serial cable straight to a computer, with no level converter in between.
2. Press FUNC and walk down to CAT RATE. Touch each step, or turn MULTI and press it.FUNC›touch OPERATION SETTING›touch GENERAL›touch CAT RATEThe screen should show: 4800, 9600, 19200 or 38400 bps.Watch out. The default is 4800 bps, the slowest of the four. Most logging and digital software expects faster, and when the two disagree the radio simply does not answer — no error, no light. Whatever you set has to be typed identically into the software. The serial socket has its own separate item, 232C RATE, with the same default.
3. Turn MULTI to change it. Stay in the menu — there is one more item in this same group.dial → MULTIWatch out. FUNC is the save. There is no discard anywhere in this menu, so if you were only looking, note the value first.
4. CAT RTS decides whether the radio watches the RTS line for flow control. It ships ON. Press FUNC to save and leave the menu, then FUNC again for normal operation.touch CAT RTS›FUNCThe screen should show: OFF or ON.This is worth understanding because RTS has two possible jobs on this radio. As flow control it is CAT RTS. As a keying line it is RPTT SELECT set to RTS. Yaesu's own FT8 preset sets CAT RTS off and the keying to RTS together, which tells you which way round they intend it.
5. RPTT SELECT is how the computer keys the transmitter, and there is a separate one under each mode.FUNC›touch RADIO SETTING›touch MODE PSK/DATA›touch RPTT SELECTThe screen should show: DAKY, RTS or DTR. Default DAKY.DAKY is a hardware line on the RTTY and DATA socket. RTS and DTR are control lines on the USB cable. Set the one in the mode you actually operate in — the one under MODE SSB does nothing for data work.

Three things not to be caught by. Yaesu's manual does not state the stop bit, the parity or the data bits anywhere, so if your software asks, we are not going to guess at a value from this book. The DAKY pin number is printed two different ways: the menu pages say pin 3 and the RTTY and PSK setup charts say pin 4, and the rear panel pinout has pin 3 as data PTT and pin 4 as the FSK shift line. Both are in the same manual. And this one will genuinely stump you — the RS-232C socket cannot be used at all while an external antenna tuner is selected. Yaesu prints that note in the tuner section rather than the CAT section, which is exactly where nobody looks for it.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set the drive level for digital modes on an FTDX101

Three items decide whether your audio gets anywhere — which input, which socket, and how loud — and the FT8 preset sets all three to something different from the standing defaults.

1. Start with DATA MOD SOURCE. It ships on REAR, which is what you want.FUNC›touch RADIO SETTING›touch MODE PSK/DATA›touch DATA MOD SOURCEThe screen should show: MIC or REAR.Watch out. On REAR the front panel microphone is switched off entirely in data mode. Yaesu says so in the item description. That is correct behavior and it is also why the microphone appears dead when you come back to it.
2. REAR SELECT picks which rear socket. It ships on DATA — the six-pin DIN. For a USB cable it needs to say USB.touch REAR SELECT›dial → USBThe screen should show: DATA or USB.Watch out. This is the one the FT8 preset changes for you. If you have touched PRESET, this already says USB, and touching PRESET again puts it back to DATA.
3. RPORT GAIN is the drive level from whichever rear socket you chose. 0 to 100, and it ships at 50. Press FUNC to save.touch RPORT GAIN›dial → MULTI›FUNCThe screen should show: A number.Worth knowing what Yaesu themselves think: the FT8 preset sets this to 10, not 50. That is a very large difference. Yaesu does not explain it, but if their own FT8 preset uses 10, starting nearer 10 than 50 is the sensible move when you are setting it by hand.
4. That FUNC press has already put you back on the function screen. Touch RF POWER there and turn MULTI. It is live.touch RF POWER›dial → MULTIThe screen should show: The wattage.
5. If you would rather set a ceiling, that is HF MAX POWER under TX GENERAL.FUNC›touch OPERATION SETTING›touch TX GENERAL›touch HF MAX POWERThe screen should show: 5 to 200 watts on an MP, 5 to 100 on a D.This is one ceiling for the whole of HF, not a figure per band — set it to 50 and every HF band is capped at 50. Three separate items sit beside it for the cases HF does not cover: 50M MAX POWER, 70M MAX POWER, which tops out at 50 watts, and AM MAX POWER, which is 50 watts of carrier on an MP and 25 on a D. Yaesu prints a caution about the AM figure on the power page.

One setting that is easy to miss and that lives somewhere else entirely: VOX SELECT, under TX GENERAL, decides whether the VOX listens to your microphone or to the data input, and it ships on MIC. If you want the radio to key itself on the arrival of audio from the computer rather than on a control line, that has to be moved to DATA. And an MP-only trap worth repeating: plug an FC-40 external tuner into an antenna socket and the radio silently caps that socket at 100 watts, regardless of what you have set.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Narrow the filter to shut out the station next door on an FTDX101

This radio has two layers of filtering and it shows you both. Real crystal roofing filters in the first intermediate frequency, drawn as a blue line, and the DSP passband drawn nested inside it.

1. Touch R. FIL on the screen, then touch the width you want.touch R. FILThe screen should show: 300 Hz, 600 Hz, 1.2 kHz, 3 kHz and 12 kHz — with the optional ones absent if they are not fitted.600 Hz, 3 kHz and 12 kHz are standard. The 300 Hz and 1.2 kHz filters are options, and the 300 Hz one is fitted on the main side of an MP from the factory. Normally the radio picks one for you according to the mode, and this is how you override it. The roofing filter is chosen separately for each of the two receivers.
2. Turn the outer WIDTH knob. Counter-clockwise narrows, clockwise widens.dial → WIDTHThe screen should show: The bandwidth appears on the display, and the passband shape changes on the filter strip.SSB runs 300 to 4000 Hz and ships at 3000. CW, RTTY, PSK and the data modes run 50 to 3000 and ship at 500. AM and FM are fixed. Yaesu's own point is worth repeating — the bandwidth can be opened wider than the default as well as narrowed, which is worth doing on a quiet band for the sake of how a voice sounds.
3. Turn the inner SHIFT knob to move the whole passband without changing the pitch of what you are hearing. The range is plus or minus 1.2 kHz.dial → SHIFTThe screen should show: The shift offset in hertz, and the direction on the filter strip.
4. Holding the SHIFT knob is the escape hatch. Yaesu documents it twice — under SHIFT it re-centers the passband, under WIDTH it puts the bandwidth back to its initial value — and never says whether that is one gesture doing both or two descriptions of the same reset. Treat it as though it clears both, and do not reach for it casually.hold SHIFTWatch out. The practical cost: if you have spent a while getting the width right, a hold of SHIFT to re-center the passband may take the width with it.

Yaesu's own method for using the two together is the best thing in that chapter and worth following literally. Narrow with WIDTH until the interference on one side is gone. Then use SHIFT to move the passband so the interference on the other side falls outside it — because you are moving rather than widening, what you already removed stays removed. Then, and only then, reach for the contour control and the notch. Their words: the width and shift features are the primary tools. One absence to note if you are coming from a smaller Yaesu: there is no NAR key on this radio. Narrow is a mode in its own right on the mode screen, as AM-N or FM-N, and everything else is the width knob. And everything on this page is per receiver — a filter you set on the main band does nothing to the sub.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Turn on noise reduction on an FTDX101

Fifteen settings, and they are not fifteen degrees of the same thing — Yaesu calls them fifteen different algorithms, each written for a different noise profile.

1. Press DNR. Press it again to switch it off.DNRWatch out. There is a DNR key for each receiver. The one you press applies to that band only.
2. Hold DNR and turn MULTI to move between the fifteen.hold DNR›dial → MULTIThe screen should show: The algorithm number.It ships on 1. Higher is not stronger — it is different. Yaesu's instruction is to experiment to find the one that suits the noise you have now, which is a real instruction rather than a formality: the setting that kills power line buzz is not the one that kills band hiss.

The same value is reachable two other ways if you would rather not hold a key: it is an item in the menu under RX DSP as DNR LEVEL, and it is one of the functions you can assign to the MULTI knob or to the ring around the main dial. On a contest weekend, putting it on the ring and leaving it there is a reasonable thing to do.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Turn on the noise blanker on an FTDX101

An IF blanker with a level on the key and two menu items behind it that most people never find — and the second of those two is the one that makes the difference on modern noise.

1. Press NB. Press it again to switch it off.NBWatch out. One NB key per receiver, and the setting applies to that band alone.
2. Hold NB and turn MULTI for the level.hold NB›dial → MULTIYou can also press FUNC and touch NB LEVEL, which parks the MULTI knob on it. Yaesu never prints the range or the default for this one, so we are not going to publish a number — set it by ear and use the least that works.
3. NB REJECTION is how hard it cuts — 10, 30 or 40 dB. It ships at 30.FUNC›touch OPERATION SETTING›touch GENERAL›touch NB REJECTIONThe screen should show: The three values.
4. NB WIDTH is how long a pulse it blanks — 1, 3 or 10 milliseconds. It ships at 3. Press FUNC to save.touch NB WIDTH›dial → 1, 3 or 10 ms›FUNCThis is the useful one. A blanker set for the short sharp pulses of car ignition does very little against the long ragged ones from a switching supply or a plasma television, and widening this is what makes those go away. It is two levels down in a menu nobody opens.

Yaesu's only caution here is a mild one — the blanker may be less effective on some other types of interference. The general truth about IF blankers applies as well: turned up hard on a crowded band, one will cost you the ability to hear a weak signal next to a strong one, so if something sounds wrong on a busy evening that did not an hour ago, switching it off is a five-second test.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Notch out a whistle or a carrier on an FTDX101

Two notches, and Yaesu tells you which to reach for first, which is unusually helpful of them.

1. Press the NOTCH key, then turn the inner NOTCH knob until the tone drops into the null.NOTCH›dial → NOTCHThe screen should show: The notch center frequency shows for half a second as you turn, and the notch appears in the filter strip.You can watch the notch and the interference on the same picture, which makes this far easier than doing it by ear.
2. A second press of the NOTCH key cancels it.NOTCH
3. DNF is the automatic one — press it and it finds the beat notes itself. Press again to switch it off.DNFYaesu says it can null out a number of interfering beat notes at once, and that because it is automatic there is no adjustment knob for it. But they also say which to use first: against a very strong interfering carrier, reach for the manual IF notch, because it is the most effective notching tool in the receiver.
4. How wide the manual notch cuts is a menu item — narrow or wide, and it ships on wide.FUNC›touch OPERATION SETTING›touch RX DSP›touch IF NOTCH WIDTHNarrow takes out a single clean carrier with less damage to the signal around it.

One thing to be careful of, because the manual describes it three separate times as if it did three separate things. Holding the NOTCH knob resets the notch, the contour and the audio peak filter — all three at once, for that band. The notch section says it resets the notch, the contour section says it resets the contour, and the audio peak filter section says it resets that, and the summary page makes clear it is one gesture doing all three. So if you have carefully set up a contour and then reach for the knob to clear a notch, you will lose both.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Work a DX station that is running split on an FTDX101

This is the radio that makes split make sense. The two receivers are genuinely separate, so you are not choosing between hearing the DX and hearing the pile-up — you can have both, on two halves of the screen, at once.

1. Set the main band to the frequency you want to receive on.dial → MAIN DIALThe screen should show: The left half of the display.
2. Hold SPLIT. That is quick split — the sub band goes 5 kHz above the main band and split comes on.hold SPLITThe screen should show: The sub band frequency turns red, because it is now the transmit frequency.Hold it again and it adds another 5 kHz. The step is a menu item, QUICK SPLIT FREQ, which runs from minus 20 to plus 20 kHz in 1 kHz steps and ships at 5.
3. To do it by hand instead: press SUB, set the transmit frequency, press MAIN to come back, then press SPLIT.SUB›dial → MAIN DIAL›MAIN›SPLITWatch out. Pressing MAIN before SPLIT is not decoration. The dials and knobs act on whichever band is selected, so if you leave the radio on SUB you will be tuning your transmit frequency when you think you are tuning your receive.
4. A plain press of SPLIT cancels it.SPLITThe screen should show: The red goes away.
5. MAIN with the double arrow SUB swaps the two while split is running, and swaps them back.MAIN SUBThe receive and transmit sides can be on different bands and in different modes, which is more freedom than most radios give you.

Two conveniences worth setting up. If you would rather type the offset than nudge it, turn QUICK SPLIT INPUT on in the general menu — after that, holding SPLIT gives you an on-screen keypad instead, and you can enter anything from minus 20 to plus 20 kHz. And the SYNC key moves both frequencies together in the same steps, which is how you follow a DX station drifting up the band without losing your offset; holding SYNC sets the sub band to the main band's frequency outright. One last thing that is specific to this radio: because the sub receiver is real, you can mute it with its own RX key while leaving it on screen, and each band has its own TX key deciding which one actually transmits.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Save a frequency to a memory channel on an FTDX101

Three memory keys, and the one you want is V with an arrow to M. A short press opens the list and a hold writes to it — same key, two jobs.

1. Set the frequency, the mode and anything else you want kept. The mode is a held press of MODE and then a touch on the mode you want, which also closes the grid.dial → MAIN DIAL›hold MODE›touch the modeWatch out. Do not leave the mode grid sitting open. Holding MODE opens it; touching a mode is what confirms the choice and returns you to the operating screen.
2. Press the V-to-M key. The memory channel list opens.V MThe screen should show: A list of channels with their frequencies and modes, and soft keys down the right.Nothing is written yet. This is also how you look at what is already in a channel without any risk of overwriting it.
3. Touch the channel you want, or turn MULTI to it.touch the channel›dial → MULTI
4. Hold the same key to write.hold V MWatch out. This is also how you deliberately overwrite a channel that already has something in it, with no prompt. If you are browsing rather than storing, keep off that key.
5. Press it once more and the screen goes back to normal.V M

Erasing works the same way with one extra touch — open the list, pick the channel, touch ERASE, then press the V-to-M key to carry it out. That last press is the same keystroke that commits a write in the other flow, which is worth being deliberate about. There is an undo: if you erase the wrong thing, touch RESTORE. Some channels cannot be erased at all — M-01, and the 60 meter channels on US and UK radios. The quick memory bank is separate and simpler: hold QMB and the current frequency goes into the next of five slots with a beep, and once all five are full the oldest falls off the end. You can make it ten in the menu. And Yaesu attaches an unusually direct warning to this whole section — memory contents can be lost to static, to electrical noise, to a repair or to a mistake, and you should keep a copy. On this radio that means an SD card: MEM LIST SAVE writes your channels and MENU SAVE writes your entire menu, and both have matching load functions.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Run the antenna tuner on an FTDX101

Built into every FTDX101, on one key, and the difference between a short press and a one-second hold is the difference between a switch and a transmission.

1. A short press puts the tuner in the transmit path. Nothing is tuned yet.TUNEThe screen should show: The lamp inside the TUNE key glows orange.It also picks the stored solution closest to your frequency, which is why a band you have worked before often needs nothing more.
2. Listen before the next step, and make sure an antenna or a dummy load is connected.listen on the frequency firstWatch out. Both are Yaesu's own instructions. The next step transmits.
3. Hold TUNE for about a second to tune.hold TUNEThe screen should show: The lamp blinks while it works and goes steady when it has found a match. If it cannot, HI-SWR appears on the screen.Watch out. The transmitter is engaged for this, immediately, with no prompt.
4. A short press again takes the tuner back out of the path.TUNE

What it will match is 16.5 to 150 ohms on HF, an SWR of 3 to 1 or better, and a narrower 25 to 100 ohms on 6 meters, which is 2 to 1. Yaesu is frank about what falls outside that — simple non-resonant whips, random wires, and a G5RV on most bands. And it matches what the radio sees at its own end of the coax, not what is happening up at the antenna. One figure to flag rather than fix: the tuner section says the range starts at 16.5 ohms and the specifications page says 16.7. Both are printed in the same book. The tuner remembers a solution for every 10 kHz window you have tuned in. If you are using an FC-40 instead, TUNER SELECT in the general menu is where you tell the radio which antenna socket it is on — and note two things that go with that choice: the internal tuner then cannot be used on that socket at all, and the RS-232C port stops working entirely while an external tuner is selected.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set the CW keyer speed and weight on an FTDX101

One knob, and no menu involved at all — which is unusual on this radio and very welcome when you are actually sending.

1. Get into CW first — hold MODE to open the mode grid and touch CW-U. The knob does something else in every other mode.hold MODE›touch CW-U
2. Press the inner MIC and SPEED knob to switch the electronic keyer on.MIC/SPEEDThe screen should show: The indicator to the right of the knob glows orange.
3. Turn the same knob to set the speed — 4 to 60 words a minute.dial → MIC/SPEEDThe screen should show: The speed shows for half a second as you turn.Watch out. In SSB and AM that knob is the microphone gain instead. The press is documented for SSB only, where it switches the AMC or the speech processor on and off — which of the two depends on what PROC LEVEL in the menu has the outer knob assigned to. The manual says nothing about what the press does in AM. One knob, several meanings, decided by the mode.

There is no menu item for keyer speed at all — the knob is the only route, which is worth knowing before you go hunting. What is in the menu, under CW SETTING and KEYER, is everything else: the weight, which is the dot to dash ratio and runs 2.5 to 4.5 with 3.0 as the default; the paddle polarity; and the keyer type, set separately for the front key jack and the rear one. That last is genuinely useful — you can have an iambic keyer on the front paddle and a straight key or a computer keying line on the rear jack at the same time. The sidetone level is a hold of the MONI key with the MULTI knob, the pitch is the outer knob of the microphone pair and runs 300 to 1050 Hz, and break-in ships on semi with full break-in available under CW BK-IN TYPE.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Reset the menu to factory settings on an FTDX101

Three resets, all in one place, all with a cancel you can take. There is no power-on key combination on this radio.

1. Put a card in and save first. MEM LIST SAVE writes your memories, MENU SAVE writes your whole menu.FUNC›touch EXTENSION SETTING›touch SD CARDBoth have matching load functions, which turns a reset from something to be frightened of into something you can simply undo. The card is not supplied with the radio.
2. Then go to EXTENSION SETTING and RESET.FUNC›touch EXTENSION SETTING›touch RESETThe screen should show: Three rows, each with a DONE button: MEMORY CLEAR, MENU CLEAR, ALL RESET.
3. Touch DONE against the one you want.touch DONEThe screen should show: A confirmation screen.Watch out. MENU CLEAR is the gentle one — it puts the setting menu back to factory. Yaesu heads that procedure with the words "without affecting the Programmed Frequency Memories", so your channels are safe. MEMORY CLEAR erases the channels, though M-01 comes back as 7.000.000 MHz on LSB and cannot be deleted. ALL RESET takes the memories, the menu and everything else.
4. Touch OK to go ahead, or CANCEL to back out. The radio switches itself off and on again, and that is it.touch OKThe cancel is real, which makes this one of the few destructive operations on the radio you can safely start and change your mind about.

One level up from RESET, and not a reset at all, is CALIBRATION — the touchscreen alignment. It is a sibling of RESET under EXTENSION SETTING, not an entry inside it, so you have to back out of the reset list to reach it. If a touch keeps landing on the wrong thing, that is the fix: select it, press MULTI, and touch each cross as it appears, finishing with the one in the center. The S.MENU key cancels it partway through. Worth knowing before you conclude the screen has failed.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.