How to Program an FTM-510DR — Step by Step

Yaesu's current C4FM mobile, with a small color touch screen and one knob that does nearly everything. Press the FUNC knob for the dozen things you change while driving; hold it for the 127-item Setup Menu where everything else lives.

This page covers: Yaesu FTM-510DR, Yaesu FTM-510DE. 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

• Save a repeater to a memory channel
• Set the transmit tone (CTCSS / PL)
• Set the receive tone
• Set the offset direction and amount
• Set the squelch
• Change the transmit power
• Listen on the repeater's input
• Name a memory channel
• Delete a memory channel
• Turn off the roger beep
• Turn off the voice announcements
• Turn off dual watch
• Lock the keypad
• Factory reset
• Turn on the built-in GPS
• Set up APRS with your callsign
• Put APRS on the right band and speed
• Send your position automatically
• Send and receive APRS messages
• Register your callsign for C4FM
• Switch the radio into C4FM digital
• Set the DG-ID so you only hear your group

Save a repeater to a memory channel on an FTM-510DR

Build the whole thing on the VFO first — frequency, offset, tone — and write it to a channel last. One save takes the lot, including the transmit power and the communication mode.

1. Press V/M until VFO shows, then turn the DIAL knob to the repeater's output.V/M›dial → the repeater's output frequencyThe screen should show: VFO, with the mode LED beside the knob showing blue.To type it instead, hold the DIAL knob for the keypad, or just key the digits straight into the microphone — 145.520 is 1, 4, 5, 5, 2. For a frequency with trailing zeros, press and hold the last digit.
2. Check Automatic Repeater Shift is on before you set anything by hand.hold FUNC›25 RPT ARS›dial → AUTOThe screen should show: RPT ARS, OFF or AUTO.With it on the radio reads the frequency and picks the offset direction itself, and on ordinary repeater segments that is the end of the job. ARS is also on the Function List, so you can reach it with one press of FUNC.
3. The direction, if you need it by hand, is item 26.hold FUNC›26 RPT SHIFT›dial → AUTO, − or +The screen should show: RPT SHIFT, with AUTO, − or +.Watch out. Note that the choices here are AUTO, minus and plus — there is no OFF. To work simplex you leave ARS on and sit on a simplex frequency, rather than switching the shift off. The offset amount is the next item along, 27 RPT SHIFT FREQ, anywhere from 0.00 to 99.95 MHz.
4. Now the tone. Press FUNC, choose SQL, and set it to T-ENC.FUNC›touch SQL›dial → T-ENCThe screen should show: SQL T-ENC on the Function List.Watch out. T-ENC sends a CTCSS tone and leaves your receiver wide open, which is exactly what a repeater wants. The next one along, T-SQL, also silences your radio unless a matching tone comes back — and that is the single most common reason one of these sits quiet on a repeater that works for everybody else. The same setting is item 45 SQL TYPE if you would rather go the long way.
5. Then TONE on the same screen for the frequency.FUNC›touch TONE›dial → your tone frequencyThe screen should show: TONE, with the frequency. It leaves the factory on 100.0 Hz.Fifty tones from 67.0 to 254.1 Hz. This is item 46 in the Setup Menu, and it is shared by every squelch type that uses a tone — change it here and you have changed it for tone squelch and reverse tone as well.
6. Hold V/M for the memory list, pick a channel, then hold V/M again to write it.hold V/M›dial → the channel number›hold V/MThe screen should show: MEMORY CH LIST with the lowest free channel already chosen; then your channel.Watch out. If the channel already has something in it you get OVERWRITE? — turn FUNC to OK and press to go ahead. There are 999 channels, so there is rarely a reason to write over one. The microphone number keys jump straight to a channel: 1 then hold gives you channel 100.

Everything goes in on that one save — frequency, communication mode, frequency step, transmit power, repeater shift, tone and DCS information, and the memory tag if you add one. That is why it is worth getting the VFO exactly right before you write. Two shortcuts once the first one is in: press FUNC, touch KEYPAD and then MEM LIST, or hold the FUNC knob and choose 20 MEMORY LIST. Both land on the same screen.

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

Set the transmit tone (CTCSS / PL) on an FTM-510DR

Two settings, and on this radio they are two separate items — one holds the kind of tone, the other holds the number. Both are one press of FUNC away.

1. Press FUNC, select SQL, and turn to T-ENC.FUNC›touch SQL›dial → T-ENCThe screen should show: SQL T-ENC.Watch out. T-ENC is TONE ENC — it encodes a tone onto your transmission and leaves the receiver alone. Stop there. T-SQL, one further on, adds tone squelch to your receiver as well, and that is the one that makes the radio go quiet.
2. Then TONE, and turn to the frequency your repeater wants.FUNC›touch TONE›dial → your tone frequencyThe screen should show: The tone frequency. Factory setting is 100.0 Hz.Fifty frequencies between 67.0 and 254.1 Hz. Both of these are Setup Menu items too — 45 SQL TYPE and 46 TONE SQL FREQ — but the Function List is quicker and it is what the Function List is for.
3. If you do not know the repeater's tone, the radio will find it. Set T-SQL, open TONE, then hold the microphone UP or DWN key.FUNC›touch SQL›dial → T-SQL›hold UPThe screen should show: The radio steps through tone frequencies and stops when it hears a match.It listens to an incoming signal and identifies the tone on it. Press PTT to keep what it found. Not many radios at any price will do this, and it saves a trip to a repeater directory.

Two things that catch people out. CTCSS does not work in C4FM digital at all — if the radio is in DN, press the MODE key until it shows FM or the AMS bar. And the squelch type is stored per frequency band, so setting it on 2 meters does nothing for 70 centimeters.

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

Set the receive tone on an FTM-510DR

A receive tone keeps the speaker shut unless the signal carries the tone you nominated. On this radio it is one position further round the same setting that sets the transmit tone.

1. Press FUNC, select SQL, and turn to T-SQL.FUNC›touch SQL›dial → T-SQLThe screen should show: SQL T-SQL.Watch out. T-SQL is TONE SQL and it does both jobs at once — sends your tone AND mutes the receiver unless a matching one comes back. If all you wanted was into a repeater, stop at T-ENC instead.
2. Set the frequency at TONE, the same item as for transmit.FUNC›touch TONE›dial → the tone to listen forThe screen should show: The tone frequency.There is one tone number per band, shared by every tone-using squelch type. That is what almost every repeater expects anyway, so it is rarely a limitation.
3. If you need tone one way and DCS the other, item 47 unlocks three more types.hold FUNC›47 SQL EXPANSION›dial → ONThe screen should show: SQL EXPANSION, ON or OFF.Watch out. D-ENC, T-DCS and D-TSQ do not appear in the squelch type list at all until this is on. That is why people conclude the radio cannot do it — the options are hidden rather than absent.
4. To hear everything again, set SQL back to OFF.FUNC›touch SQL›dial → OFFThe screen should show: SQL OFF, and the channel opens up.Worth knowing before you need it. You can also put SQL OFF on a microphone program key at item 29, which lets you listen past a tone squelch for as long as you hold it — the quickest way to find out whether a frequency is really quiet.

If the radio has gone deaf on a channel that used to work, this is the first place to look. Press FUNC and read what SQL says — nine times in ten it is on T-SQL when it should be on T-ENC, and one turn of the knob brings the audio back.

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

Set the offset direction and amount on an FTM-510DR

Three consecutive menu items — 25, 26 and 27 — and in most of the country the first one means you never touch the other two.

1. Item 25 is Automatic Repeater Shift.hold FUNC›25 RPT ARS›dial → AUTOThe screen should show: RPT ARS, OFF or AUTO.It sets the direction from the frequency you are sitting on. ARS is also on the Function List, one press of FUNC away, which is where you will actually reach for it.
2. Item 26 sets the direction by hand.hold FUNC›26 RPT SHIFT›dial → AUTO, − or +The screen should show: RPT SHIFT, with AUTO, − or +.Watch out. There is no OFF here, only AUTO, minus and plus — which surprises people coming from an FTM-400, where the same setting does have an OFF. On this radio simplex is what you get by leaving it on AUTO on a simplex frequency.
3. Item 27 is the amount, from 0.00 to 99.95 MHz.hold FUNC›27 RPT SHIFT FREQ›dial → the offset in MHzThe screen should show: RPT SHIFT FREQ, in MHz.The factory values match the band you are on and suit nearly every repeater. Change this only for an unusual machine, and remember it is what ARS applies when it picks a direction for you.
4. Check your work with RPT-R on the Function List.FUNC›touch RPT-RThe screen should show: The frequency swaps and the − or + starts blinking.Reverse shows you the frequency you will actually transmit on. If it is not where the repeater listens, one of the settings above is wrong — better to find that out here than on the air.

The blinking − or + is the thing to watch for: a steady sign means normal, a blinking one means you are still in reverse. Item 28 RPT REVERSE is the same setting in the Setup Menu if you would rather not go through the Function List.

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

Set the squelch on an FTM-510DR

Two knobs are involved and neither of them is a squelch knob. You press one to say what you mean, then turn the other.

1. Press the VOL/SQL knob for the band you want — upper for main, lower for sub.VOL/SQLThe screen should show: A yellow SQL bar replaces the volume bar.That press is what tells the radio you mean squelch rather than volume. Each band has its own knob and its own level.
2. Now turn the FUNC knob until the background noise just disappears.dial → up until the hiss stopsThe screen should show: The SQL bar moves and the hiss stops.Watch out. The knob you press and the knob you turn are different ones, which is the part that trips people up: press VOL/SQL, turn FUNC. Just past where the noise dies is the right place — further round costs you weak signals, which are the ones you most want.
3. Press VOL/SQL again to finish, or just leave it alone.VOL/SQLThe screen should show: The SQL bar reverts to the volume meter.It gives up after about three seconds either way, so there is no way to leave the radio stuck in squelch-setting mode. Yaesu's own advice is to use the factory setting unless the noise is genuinely harsh.

Where the noise disappears drifts with temperature and with whatever is being noisy nearby, so a level that was perfect on a cold morning can be slightly deaf on a hot afternoon. Worth a re-check now and then rather than assuming the radio has gone off.

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

Change the transmit power on an FTM-510DR

Three levels, reachable two ways, and stored more finely than on most radios — per band and per memory channel.

1. Press FUNC, select TXPWR, and turn to the level you want.FUNC›touch TXPWR›dial → HIGH, LOW or MIDThe screen should show: TXPWR HIGH, LOW or MID.Watch out. The order is HIGH, then LOW, then MID — low before medium, which is not the order anyone expects and is easy to overshoot. HIGH is 55 watts on 144 MHz and 50 on 430, MID is 25 and LOW is 5. It leaves the factory on HIGH.
2. Put TX POWER on a microphone key and it becomes one press.hold FUNC›29 MIC PROGRAM KEY›dial → TX POWERThe screen should show: P1 to P4 with their assigned functions.Watch out. Worth doing, and worth checking rather than assuming. Yaesu's manuals disagree about this one: the Transmit Power section says P4 changes the power with the factory settings, while all three printings of item 29 — the microphone diagram, the Operating Manual table and the Advance Manual table — give P4 as WX, or T-CALL on a European set. Look at what item 29 says on your own radio.
3. The Setup Menu route is item 8, if the Function List has been rearranged.hold FUNC›8 TX POWER›dial → LOW, MID or HIGHThe screen should show: TX POWER, with LOW, MID and HIGH.Same setting, longer road. Worth knowing because the Function List is customizable and TXPWR may not be on it on a radio somebody else has set up.

The level is stored separately for each frequency band and for each memory channel in both main and sub band, which is more granular than most radios and occasionally surprising — a channel written at 55 watts comes back at 55 watts whatever the VFO was doing. Worth turning down more often than most people do: the contact sounds identical at 5 watts and your alternator will thank you.

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

Listen on the repeater's input on an FTM-510DR

Reverse swaps your transmit and receive frequencies, so you hear the repeater's input instead of its output. One question, one answer: can I hear this station without the repeater's help?

1. Press FUNC and select RPT-R.FUNC›touch RPT-RThe screen should show: The frequency changes, and the − or + above it starts blinking.You are now listening where the repeater listens. If the other station is clear, the two of you are in simplex range and could move off and leave the machine free for someone else.
2. Repeat the same steps to release it.FUNC›touch RPT-RThe screen should show: The blinking stops and the frequency returns.Watch out. The blink is your only warning. Leave reverse on and you are transmitting on the repeater's output frequency, which is useless to you and unhelpful to everyone listening — so it is worth training your eye on that little sign.

Item 28 RPT REVERSE in the Setup Menu is the same function, and REVERSE is one of the things you can put on a microphone program key at item 29 — worth doing if you check simplex often, because it turns this into one button you can find without looking.

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

Name a memory channel on an FTM-510DR

Sixteen characters, which is generous — twice what the FTM-400 allows. Worth using for anything you will hunt for later.

1. Hold V/M for the memory list, then turn FUNC to the channel.hold V/M›dial → the channel to nameThe screen should show: MEMORY CH LIST.The SUB DIAL, or the microphone UP and DWN keys, jump ten channels at a time — which matters once you have a few hundred.
2. Press FUNC for the popup, choose EDIT, then TAG.FUNC›touch EDIT›touch TAGThe screen should show: MEMORY INFORMATION, with RX FREQ, TX FREQ, TAG and SCAN.That popup — MR, WRITE, EDIT, M-GRP ON, DELETE — is the hub for everything you do to a stored channel. Worth learning where it is.
3. Turn FUNC to a character and press to enter it. Hold FUNC when the name is complete.dial → each character›FUNC›hold FUNCThe screen should show: The keyboard, then back to MEMORY INFORMATION with your tag.Watch out. Touching the screen is faster than turning the knob for this, and the keyboard has its own buttons for capitals, lower case, numbers and symbols. Up to 16 characters, upper and lower case, numbers and symbols.
4. Touch OK, then OK again on the confirmation.touch OK›touch OKThe screen should show: The list, with your name beside the frequency.Watch out. Two confirmations, and the tag is not saved until the second one. The memory tag only shows on the operating band — the top half of the screen — so a channel on the sub band shows its frequency instead. That is not a failed save.

Sixteen characters is enough for a real name rather than an abbreviation, which makes the memory list genuinely browsable. The tag is stored with the channel, so it survives everything except a memory channel reset.

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

Delete a memory channel on an FTM-510DR

The same popup that writes and edits a channel also deletes it. Three moves and a confirmation.

1. Hold V/M for the memory list and turn FUNC to the channel.hold V/M›dial → the channel to clearThe screen should show: MEMORY CH LIST with your channel highlighted.Read the frequency and the tag before you go on. The confirmation asks whether you are sure, not what you are about to lose.
2. Press FUNC and choose DELETE from the popup.FUNC›touch DELETEThe screen should show: DELETE? on the display.MR, WRITE, EDIT, M-GRP ON and DELETE are all on that one popup, so the delete is right next to the write. Read the screen rather than counting positions.
3. Turn FUNC to OK and press it.dial → OK›FUNCThe screen should show: The channel becomes an empty line in the list.Watch out. No undo. And note that memory channel one and the home channel cannot be cleared at all — you can only write over them, which is a deliberate safeguard rather than a fault.

For a wholesale clear-out, item 122 MEMORY CH RESET erases every channel in one go and leaves your Setup Menu settings alone. Back the radio up to a microSD card first at item 107 BACKUP, because there is no way back from either route.

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

Turn off the roger beep on an FTM-510DR

This radio does not have this feature. What follows is what it does have, and why the thing you were looking for is not here.

Short answer: there is not one. All 127 Setup Menu items are documented and none of them is a courtesy tone at the end of your transmission. If a beep is bothering you, it is one of the two below.

1. Item 23 is the key beep — the click every button press makes.hold FUNC›23 BEEP›dial → OFFThe screen should show: BEEP, with OFF, LOW or HIGH.This is the one people usually mean. It is the sound the radio makes at you, not anything that goes over the air, so switching it off changes nothing anybody else hears. LOW is a reasonable compromise on a radio with a touch screen, where the beep is the only proof a touch registered.
2. Item 59 is the digital standby beep, and it is a different thing.hold FUNC›59 STANDBY BEEP›dial → OFFThe screen should show: STANDBY BEEP, ON or OFF.Watch out. This one only sounds in C4FM, at the end of a received digital transmission. Digital audio stops dead rather than fading into noise, so the beep tells you the other station has finished — genuinely useful when you are new to digital, and irritating once you are not.

If you are hearing a real courtesy beep after somebody else stops talking, that is the repeater doing it and there is nothing at your end to switch off. Every beep this radio makes is inbound: nothing it does adds a sound to your own transmitted audio.

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

Turn off the voice announcements on an FTM-510DR

This radio does not have this feature. What follows is what it does have, and why the thing you were looking for is not here.

This radio has no voice out of the box. Announcements need the optional FVS-2 unit fitted inside the main body, and until it is there the menu item exists but has nothing to speak through.

1. The announcements need the FVS-2 board installed in the main body.fit the optional FVS-2 voice guide unitThe screen should show: Nothing changes until it is fitted.It is a small board sold separately, and it also brings the voice recorder with it — items 112 to 117. Without it the radio is silent, which is the usual reason people think the feature is broken rather than absent.
2. With the unit in, item 118 announces the operating band's frequency.hold FUNC›118 VOICE GUIDEThe screen should show: VOICE GUIDE.Watch out. This is not the running commentary some radios give. It reads out the frequency of the operating band when you ask it to — useful in a car, where taking your eyes off the road to read a small screen is the actual hazard, but it is not going to narrate the menus for you.
3. Put VOICE on a microphone key at item 29 so you can trigger it without looking.hold FUNC›29 MIC PROGRAM KEY›dial → VOICEThe screen should show: The list of functions for P1 to P4.That is the setting that makes the FVS-2 worth having in a vehicle — one thumb on a microphone key and the radio tells you where you are, with no screen involved at all.

Worth knowing if you are choosing between the two Yaesu mobiles on this basis: the FTM-400XDR is the same story, voice is the FVS-2 there too and neither radio ships with it. What the FTM-510 does have as standard is a large, bright screen and a color LED beside the DIAL knob that tells you which kind of memory you are in without reading anything.

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

Turn off dual watch on an FTM-510DR

This radio receives two frequencies at once as a matter of course, so there is no dual watch to switch off in the sense a cheap handheld means it. What Yaesu calls dual receive here is a priority check on the home channel.

1. Item 53 turns it on.hold FUNC›53 DUAL RCV MODE›dial → PRIORITY SCANThe screen should show: DUAL RCV MODE, OFF or PRIORITY SCAN.Watch out. The number matters here. Yaesu's own Operating Manual prints this procedure with item 52, and 52 is SCAN — a different thing entirely. Both of the setup-menu tables, in that same manual and in the Advance Manual, say 53. Go by what the screen says rather than by the number in the book.
2. Item 54 sets how often it looks.hold FUNC›54 DUAL RX INTRVAL›dial → 0.5 to 10 secThe screen should show: DUAL RX INTRVAL, from 0.5 seconds to 10.It looks at the home channel every five seconds by default. When it finds a signal it stays there for as long as the signal lasts, and goes back to checking about five seconds after it stops — so a long conversation on the home channel keeps you there rather than chopping you back and forth. Shorter intervals catch more and interrupt more; this is the knob for that trade.
3. Item 55 decides where you transmit while it is running.hold FUNC›55 PRIORITY REVERT›dial → ONThe screen should show: PRIORITY REVERT, OFF or ON.Watch out. With this ON, pressing PTT during dual receive always transmits on the home channel — not on whatever you were listening to. That is either exactly what you want or exactly what you do not, so it is worth deciding deliberately rather than finding out on the air.

If what you actually want is to monitor two frequencies properly, none of this is needed — put one on the main band and one on the sub band and turn both VOL knobs up. That is what the second receiver is for, and it is why the radio has two volume controls. Item 17 SUB BAND is worth a look if you want the sub band quieter without turning it off.

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

Lock the keypad on an FTM-510DR

One brief press, on the same switch that powers the radio. The whole trick is the difference between a press and a hold.

1. With the radio on, press the POWER (LOCK) switch briefly.POWER (LOCK)The screen should show: LOCK appears for about a second, then a small padlock stays in the corner.Watch out. Briefly. Hold that same switch and you switch the radio off instead, which is a memorable way to learn the difference. Press it briefly again and UNLOCK appears as the padlock goes.
2. The padlock is the only indication, so learn where it sits.check the padlock icon before you put the microphone downThe screen should show: A small padlock in the icon row.The keys and the DIAL knob are locked. The PTT and the VOL/SQL knobs are not, and cannot be — so the lock stops the radio being retuned but does nothing about it being keyed.
3. For the microphone, item 29 sets what its four program keys can do.hold FUNC›29 MIC PROGRAM KEYThe screen should show: P1 to P4 with their assigned functions.There is no separate microphone lock. What you can do is make sure the program keys cannot retune you — from the factory P1 transmits on the sub band and P2 recalls the home channel, neither of which changes frequency.

Because the PTT is never locked, a microphone jammed against a seat will still key up whatever you have set here — the failure that gets you called on the air rather than the one that merely annoys you. The real fix in a vehicle is a microphone hanger somewhere the button cannot be pressed.

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

Factory reset on an FTM-510DR

Three separate resets at the end of the Setup Menu, and choosing correctly the first time is the whole job. Item 122 is the one most people actually mean.

1. First, if there is a card in the radio, write your settings out at item 107.hold FUNC›107 BACKUP›touch Write to SDThe screen should show: Backup to the microSD card.The same item reads it back. Five minutes here saves an evening of rebuilding several hundred channels, and it is the only route back from a factory reset.
2. Item 127 puts everything back as shipped.hold FUNC›127 FACTORY RESETThe screen should show: FACTORY RESET on the LCD.Watch out. Everything means everything: all settings and all memory content. Item 122 MEMORY CH RESET erases only the memory channels and leaves your Setup Menu alone, and 123 APRS RESET touches only the APRS block. Factory reset is not the thorough version of those two, it is the destructive one.
3. Touch OK, or turn FUNC to OK and press it.touch OKThe screen should show: The radio resets and restarts.CANCEL is beside it. Afterwards the radio asks for your callsign again before it will do anything else — that is confirmation it worked, not a fault.

If the radio is misbehaving rather than misconfigured, try 122 MEMORY CH RESET first. A corrupt memory channel causes far more odd behavior than a corrupt settings block, and it costs you much less to rule out.

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

Turn on the built-in GPS on an FTM-510DR

The GPS is inside the radio and starts looking the moment you power up. There is no on-off switch, so most of this page is about knowing when to trust it.

1. Give it a few minutes and watch the GPS icon.watch the GPS icon after switching onThe screen should show: The icon changes when it has a position.Watch out. It can take several minutes from cold, and considerably longer the first time after purchase or after the radio has sat unused. If the icon never settles, move somewhere with a clearer view of the sky before you start suspecting the radio.
2. Item 38 chooses between the built-in receiver and an external one.hold FUNC›38 GPS DEVICE›dial → INTERNALThe screen should show: GPS DEVICE, INTERNAL or EXTERNAL.If somebody has set this to EXTERNAL with nothing connected, the radio will never find a position and the internal unit is not at fault. It is worth checking first on a second-hand radio.
3. Item 39 records where you have been, to the memory card.hold FUNC›39 GPS LOG›dial → 1 sec to 60 secThe screen should show: GPS LOG, OFF or an interval from 1 to 60 seconds.It ships OFF. The log lands on the microSD card and opens on a computer afterwards — good for a mountaintop trip, or for working out later exactly where the coverage ran out.
4. While you are here, set the units at item 35.hold FUNC›35 UNIT›dial → METRIC or INCHThe screen should show: UNIT, METRIC or INCH.This governs altitude, distance and speed wherever they appear. Setting it now saves squinting at a compass screen later wondering whether that reads meters or feet.

Leave item 37 GPS DATUM on WGS-84. The alternative is a Japanese survey system, and choosing it will place you in the wrong spot on an APRS map by a few hundred meters — a confusing fault to chase because everything else looks right. Note too that the position also feeds C4FM: in DN mode your location goes out with your voice unless you turn that off.

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

Set up APRS with your callsign on an FTM-510DR

Four settings identify you on the map, and on this radio they are scattered through the APRS block rather than grouped at the front. Get them right before you transmit a single packet.

1. Item 93 is your APRS callsign, and it is not the same field as your C4FM one.hold FUNC›93 CALLSIGN (APRS)›dial → your callsignThe screen should show: A keyboard, then your callsign with its SSID.Watch out. Two callsign fields on this radio. Item 93 is APRS and takes an SSID; item 121 is the C4FM callsign and does not. Filling in one does nothing for the other, and that is the usual reason a new FTM-510 beacons happily while its digital transmissions go out wrong.
2. Item 98 picks the icon everybody sees you as.hold FUNC›98 MY SYMBOL›dial → Car, REC. Vehicle, House QTH or Yaesu RadiosThe screen should show: Four icon slots, with Car on the first from the factory.Pick the one that is true. A car icon on a station that never moves makes the map harder to read for everyone, and for most people the icon is the only thing they ever look at.
3. Item 99 is the status that rides along with your position.hold FUNC›99 POSITION COMMENT›dial → Off Duty, En Route and the restThe screen should show: Off Duty, En Route, In Service, Returning, Committed, Special, Priority, seven custom slots and EMERGENCY!Watch out. EMERGENCY! is on that same list, a turn of the knob past the ordinary choices. Selecting it flags your position as an emergency to everyone receiving you. Know it is there so you do not land on it by accident, and never choose it as a test.
4. Item 96 chooses between the live GPS fix and a position you type in at item 97.hold FUNC›96 MY POSITION SET›dial → GPS or MANUALThe screen should show: MY POSITION SET, GPS or MANUAL.GPS in a vehicle. MANUAL at home or a regular operating site, where a typed position is exact, does not wander, and does not need a view of the sky.

One more before you go on air: item 76 APRS MODEM is the master switch and nothing happens until it is ON. Yaesu publishes a separate APRS Edition manual covering the station list, the message screens and the map — this page is the settings behind them rather than that.

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

Put APRS on the right band and speed on an FTM-510DR

The radio has two receivers and APRS uses exactly one of them. Telling it which is the setting people miss — everything else is right and nothing happens, because the packet side is listening to the band you are talking on.

1. Item 76 is the master switch.hold FUNC›76 APRS MODEM›dial → ONThe screen should show: APRS MODEM, OFF or ON.Nothing about APRS works until this is on. First thing to check, easiest thing to forget. APRS is also on the Function List, which is the quick way to see at a glance whether it is running.
2. Item 70 puts the internal modem on a band.hold FUNC›70 DATA BAND›dial → SUB BANDThe screen should show: DATA BAND, with APRS and DATA set separately: MAIN BAND, SUB BAND, THIS BAND or OTHER BAND.Watch out. Note that APRS and DATA are two separate settings inside this one item — set the APRS line, not the DATA one. SUB BAND keeps packet on the lower half of the screen and leaves the main band free for talking. Then tune the sub band to your national APRS frequency, 144.390 MHz across most of North America, and turn its volume right down; the receiver keeps working with the audio at zero.
3. Item 71 sets the packet speed. APRS is 1200 almost everywhere.hold FUNC›71 DATA SPEED›dial → 1200 bpsThe screen should show: DATA SPEED, with APRS and DATA lines, each 1200 bps or 9600 bps.Watch out. 9600 exists for the handful of places that use it and will make you completely inaudible to a 1200 bps network. Your packets go out perfectly and mean nothing to anybody, which is very hard to spot from your end.
4. Item 72 decides which band's squelch the modem watches before transmitting.hold FUNC›72 DATA SQL›dial → RX BANDThe screen should show: DATA SQL, with RX BAND or TX/RX BAND, plus a TX on/off line.It is how the radio judges whether the channel is busy. Leave it on RX BAND unless you have a reason — TX/RX BAND makes the modem wait for both bands to be clear, which on a busy day means you barely beacon at all.
5. Item 81 is the pause between keying up and sending data.hold FUNC›81 APRS TX DELAY›dial → 100 to 1000 msThe screen should show: APRS TX DELAY, from 100 ms to 1000 ms.It gives the receiving end time to lock on before the packet starts. If your beacons are only sometimes decoded and your signal is strong, lengthen this before you blame anything else.

Work down this page in order rather than around it if nothing is decoding. The master switch accounts for most of it and the wrong data band for most of the rest, and between them they explain nearly every FTM-510 that beacons into silence. Item 77 APRS MUTE will silence the APRS band's audio for you, which is tidier than turning the volume down and forgetting.

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

Send your position automatically on an FTM-510DR

How often you transmit your position and how far your packets are relayed. These two are where a well-meaning new station turns into the one everybody filters out, so they are worth understanding rather than just setting.

1. Item 85 holds the whole beacon timer, starting with whether it beacons at all.hold FUNC›85 BEACON TX SET›dial → AUTO ONThe screen should show: AUTO: OFF, ON or SmartBeaconing, with INTERVAL, PROPORTIONAL, DECAY, LOW SPEED and RATE LIMIT beneath it.With AUTO off you beacon only when you ask. Everything else on this page lives inside this one item, which is worth knowing before you go hunting for it elsewhere.
2. INTERVAL is the timer. The factory setting is 5 minutes.touch INTERVAL›dial → 30 sec to 60 minThe screen should show: 30 sec through 60 min.Watch out. Thirty seconds on a shared national channel is antisocial, and with a digipeater repeating you as well you are using several times the air time you think. Five minutes suits a car; a station that does not move can sit at half an hour and nobody will miss it.
3. DECAY and PROPORTIONAL, in the same item, are the good-citizen settings.touch DECAY›dial → ON›touch PROPORTIONAL›dial → ONThe screen should show: DECAY: ON or OFF. PROPORTIONAL: ON or OFF.Decay stretches the interval the longer you sit still and snaps it back when you move off. Proportional pathing sends the far-reaching beacons less often than the local ones. Between them they are the easiest way to be seen without flooding the channel.
4. Item 86 sets how far your packets get relayed.hold FUNC›86 DIGI PATH›dial → WIDE1-1, WIDE2-1The screen should show: OFF, WIDE1-1, WIDE1-1 WIDE2-1, PATH 1 to 4, FULL 1 or FULL 2.Watch out. This is the important one. More hops does not get you heard further — it gets your packet duplicated across a whole region by every digipeater that hears it. One or two hops is the courteous setting almost everywhere.
5. Item 100 replaces the fixed timer with one that reads how you are driving.hold FUNC›100 SmartBeaconing›dial → TYPE 1The screen should show: OFF, TYPE 1, TYPE 2 or TYPE 3, with speeds, rates and turn angles beneath.It beacons more often when you are moving fast and on corners, and much less when crawling or parked. In a vehicle it is strictly better than a fixed interval. Note it only becomes selectable at item 85 once a type is chosen here and item 96 MY POSITION SET is on GPS.

If you take one thing from this page, take the digipeater path. Interval governs how often you use the channel; hops multiply every one of those transmissions by the number of digipeaters within earshot. A two-hop path at a sensible interval gets you seen further than a long path that everybody has learned to filter out.

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

Send and receive APRS messages on an FTM-510DR

APRS carries short text between callsigns, not just positions. The radio holds canned phrases so you are not typing at the wheel, and it will answer for you when you cannot.

1. Item 75 stores eight standard messages you can send with a couple of moves.hold FUNC›75 APRS MSG TXT›dial → your phraseThe screen should show: Eight channels of text.This is the setting that makes messaging practical in a vehicle. Write the ones you actually send — on my way, at the site, call me on the repeater — while you are parked, and you never have to spell anything out while moving.
2. Item 95 answers a message for you.hold FUNC›95 MESSAGE REPLY›dial → REPLY ONThe screen should show: REPLY: OFF or ON, with a CALLSIGN and REPLY TEXT beneath.It ships OFF. With it on, anybody who messages you gets an answer without you touching the radio, and the CALLSIGN field narrows it to one station if you only want to answer a particular person.
3. Item 79 decides what makes a noise when it arrives.hold FUNC›79 APRS RINGER›dial → RX BEACON OFFThe screen should show: A list of switches — TX BEACON, TX MESSAGE, RX BEACON, RX MESSAGE, MY PACKET, CALL RINGER, RANGE RINGER, MSG VOICE.Watch out. RX BEACON is on from the factory, and on a busy channel that is a bell every few seconds. Turning it off while leaving RX MESSAGE on is what most people actually want: quiet for the position reports, a noise for text addressed to you.
4. Item 78 controls how long an arriving packet covers your display.hold FUNC›78 APRS POPUP›dial → MESSAGE 10 secThe screen should show: BEACON and MESSAGE, each OFF, 3, 5 or 10 seconds, or HOLD.Watch out. HOLD means it stays until you clear it, which is a poor idea while driving — the frequency display is the thing you need to be able to glance at. MYPACKET on the same item decides whether your own beacons pop up as well, which is useful for a day and irritating after that.

Item 94 MESSAGE GROUP is worth a look on a busy channel: it filters which group and bulletin messages reach you, and it arrives set to ALL, CQ, QST and YAESU. MSG VOICE, on that same item 79, will speak an arriving message rather than only flashing it up — which pairs well with turning the visual interruption down.

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

Register your callsign for C4FM on an FTM-510DR

The radio asks for this the first time it is switched on and will not go any further until it has it. That is deliberate: on C4FM your callsign goes out with every digital transmission, so a radio carrying somebody else's is a real problem rather than a cosmetic one.

1. On a new or freshly reset radio, press the FUNC knob at the callsign prompt.FUNCThe screen should show: Please enter Your CALLSIGN (Max 10 letters), then a keyboard.This screen only appears on a new radio or after a factory reset. If you never saw it, somebody has already entered a callsign — worth checking what.
2. Turn the FUNC knob to a character and press it to enter that character.dial → each character›FUNCThe screen should show: Your callsign building up in the box.Watch out. Touching the screen is much faster than turning the knob. The keyboard has its own arrows for moving the cursor, a 123 button for numbers and symbols, and a backspace that deletes the character to the left.
3. Hold the FUNC knob when the callsign is complete.hold FUNCThe screen should show: The normal VFO screen.Holding is what commits it — the same pattern as everywhere else on this radio. Ten characters, letters, numbers and a hyphen only.
4. To change it later, item 121 opens the same keyboard.hold FUNC›121 CALLSIGNThe screen should show: The callsign input screen.Watch out. Worth doing the moment a used radio arrives. A second-hand FTM-510 that has never been reset is still sending the previous owner's callsign on every digital over, and nothing on the display makes that obvious.

This is the C4FM callsign. APRS keeps its own separately at item 93 CALLSIGN (APRS), and that one takes an SSID — the -9 or -5 that says which of your stations it is. Filling in one does not fill in the other, and a radio that beacons perfectly on APRS while its digital transmissions go out wrong is almost always this.

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

Switch the radio into C4FM digital on an FTM-510DR

One key and four modes, with a mode that picks for you. Leave it on AMS and it will usually be right — but knowing what the letters mean is what lets you work out why a contact is not happening.

1. Press the MODE key to step through the modes.MODEThe screen should show: The AMS bar above the mode icon, then DN, then FM.Watch out. The bar above the icon is the thing to look at. Bar showing means AMS is running and the radio will match whatever arrives; bar gone means you have fixed the mode and it will not adapt.
2. Learn what the icons mean so you can read the screen at a glance.read the mode iconThe screen should show: DN, VW, FM or AM.DN is normal digital, voice and data together, and the mode that carries your position. VW is full-rate voice — better audio, no position data. FM is plain analog. AM is receive only, and the radio picks it automatically in the air band.
3. VW does not appear in the list at all until item 14 is switched on.hold FUNC›14 DIGITAL VW›dial → ONThe screen should show: DIGITAL VW, ON or OFF. It ships OFF.Watch out. This is why people conclude their radio does not have Voice FR mode. It is not missing, it is hidden — one menu item away, and off from the factory.
4. Item 9 decides what AMS actually transmits.hold FUNC›9 AMS TX MODE›dial → AUTO, TX FM FIXED or TX DN FIXEDThe screen should show: AMS TX MODE, with AUTO, TX FM FIXED and TX DN FIXED.AMS always receives whatever arrives; this only governs the reply. AUTO answers in the mode you were sent, which is the sensible default. The FIXED options are for when you know the other end and want the radio to stop second-guessing — and when one is set, the bar above the mode icon flashes to remind you.

One point worth repeating from Yaesu's own manual: in DN mode your position goes out with your voice, and in VW mode it does not. If you would rather not broadcast where you are while talking on digital, that is the difference — and item 58 LOCATION SERVICE switches it off in DN as well.

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

Set the DG-ID so you only hear your group on an FTM-510DR

Two numbers, one for transmit and one for receive, from 00 to 99. They decide who can hear you and which repeaters let you in — and they are the commonest reason a working C4FM radio suddenly hears nothing.

1. Hold the GM key to open the DG-ID number setting screen.hold GMThe screen should show: DG-ID TX and DG-ID RX, side by side.Watch out. While you are on this screen, holding the FUNC knob sets both numbers straight back to 00. That is the escape hatch, and it is worth knowing before you need it rather than after.
2. Turn FUNC to DG-ID TX, press to go in, turn to the number, press to accept.dial → DG-ID TX›FUNC›dial → 00 to 99›FUNCThe screen should show: The transmit number.This is the number you send. To get into a club's DR-2X repeater it has to match the uplink number the club has set, which is exactly why a repeater that works for everyone else can ignore you completely.
3. Now do the same for DG-ID RX.dial → DG-ID RX›FUNC›dial → 00 to 99›FUNCThe screen should show: The receive number.Watch out. This is the half that catches people. Receive set to anything other than 00 means you hear only stations sending that same number, and everybody else goes silent — the radio looks broken and nothing on the main screen explains it. Set it to 00 and you hear every C4FM station regardless.

The sane default is both at 00, which is how the radio ships: talk to everyone, hear everyone. Set a matching pair only when you are working with a specific group, and set the transmit number alone when a repeater asks for it. If the radio has gone quiet on digital, come here before you touch the squelch or the antenna. Note that WIRES-X keeps its own DG-ID at item 68, separately from these two.

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