How to Program an FTM-6000R — Step by Step

Yaesu's plain analog dual bander with a big knob and a small screen. One key opens two different lists depending on how long you hold it, and understanding that is most of learning the radio.

This page covers: Yaesu FTM-6000R, Yaesu FTM-6000E. 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

Save a repeater to a memory channel on an FTM-6000R

Set everything up on the frequency first, then write it into a channel. The radio stores the frequency, the step, the power level, the name, the shift and the tone all together, so anything you have not set yet is not going in.

1. Press V/M mw until you are in VFO mode, then turn DIAL to the repeater's output frequency.V/M mw›dial → the output frequencyThe screen should show: Your frequency, with no memory number.V/M mw toggles between VFO and memory. A short press of DIAL steps in 1 MHz jumps and holding it steps in 5 MHz, which saves a lot of turning.
2. Tap F menu, pick F-20 RPT.SET and set the direction.F menu›F-20 RPT.SET›DIAL›dial → -SFT or +SFT›DIALThe screen should show: SIMP, -SFT or +SFT.Watch out. This one is on the Function list from the factory, so tap the key rather than holding it. If you hold it and go looking in the Menu list, item 20 will be showing a row of dashes — that is not a fault, it just means the item lives on the other list.
3. For the amount, hold F menu, go into 21 RPT.OTR, choose RPT.FRQ, then turn DIAL to the figure you want and press DIAL to save it.hold F menu›21 RPT.OTR›DIAL›dial → RPT.FRQ›DIAL›dial → the offset in MHz›DIALThe screen should show: A figure in megahertz, 0.00 to 99.95.Most people never come here. The radio arrives with the standard shift for your version already set, and Automatic Repeater Shift is on, so it usually picks the direction for you too.Watch out. 21 is a container, so there is an extra turn and press of DIAL on the way in to get from RPT.OTR to RPT.FRQ. The press of DIAL at the end saves and drops you straight back to normal operation, the same as any other item.
4. Hold F menu, open 24 SQL.TYP and choose TON.ENC.hold F menu›24 SQL.TYP›DIAL›dial → TON.ENC›DIALThe screen should show: SQL.TYP, with TON.ENC.Watch out. TON.ENC sends the tone and leaves your receiver normal, which is what a repeater wants. TON.SQL sends it and also refuses to open your speaker unless the tone comes back — pick that one by accident and the repeater will hear you fine while you hear nothing.
5. Then 25 SQL.COD for the frequency itself.hold F menu›25 SQL.COD›DIAL›dial → your repeater's tone›DIALThe screen should show: A tone in hertz. It starts at 100.0.Fifty frequencies, 67.0 to 254.1 Hz. There is only one tone setting in this radio and both directions use it, so this is the number whatever you chose at 24.
6. Hold V/M mw, turn DIAL to the channel you want, and hold V/M mw again to save.hold V/M mw›dial → a channel number›hold V/M mwThe screen should show: A blinking memory number. The radio offers the lowest empty one first.Watch out. If the channel is already in use the screen shows OVWRT?. Press V/M mw again to overwrite it, or walk away if that was not what you meant.

There are 999 memory channels plus a home channel and 50 pairs of programmable scan limits. If the repeater does not come back to you, 24 SQL.TYP is the first place to look, and OFF is the setting that causes it — no tone goes out at all. Its other neighbor, TON.SQL, is the opposite problem: the tone still goes out and the repeater hears you fine, but your own speaker stays shut unless the machine sends a tone back. Two different symptoms, one item apart.

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

Set the transmit tone (CTCSS / PL) on an FTM-6000R

Two menu items do this job between them. The first says which direction the tone applies to; the second says what the tone is.

1. Hold F menu, open 24 SQL.TYP and turn to TON.ENC. Do not press DIAL yet.hold F menu›24 SQL.TYP›DIAL›dial → TON.ENCThe screen should show: SQL.TYP, showing TON.ENC.Yaesu's own description of TON.ENC is that your transmissions contain the tone and your receiver behaves normally. That is transmit-only, which is what a repeater needs.Watch out. Stop at the value — do not press DIAL here. On this radio a press of DIAL at a value screen saves the setting AND drops you straight back to normal operation, and the next step needs you still inside the menu. SQL back is what moves you along.
2. Press SQL back once to step out to the item list, then turn to 25 SQL.COD and press DIAL.SQL back›dial → 25 SQL.COD›DIALThe screen should show: SQL.COD, with a frequency.Watch out. SQL back is how you move from one menu item to the next without leaving the menu. Pressing DIAL at a value screen saves and drops you all the way back to normal operation, so use SQL back here or you will be opening the menu again.
3. Turn to the tone and press DIAL to save.dial → your repeater's tone›DIALThe screen should show: TN appears on the display.TN is the confirmation that a transmit tone is going out. If you had chosen TON.SQL instead you would see TSQ.

Two scope notes Yaesu makes and it is easy to miss. The squelch type is set PER BAND, so setting TON.ENC on 2 meters leaves 70 centimeters untouched. And the tone rides into a memory channel when you write one, so a channel saved before you set this carries the old setting. Beyond that, this radio has exactly one CTCSS frequency and one DCS code, shared between transmitting and receiving. Item 26 SQL.EXP sounds like it splits them and does not — it unlocks three more squelch types, two of which mix CTCSS one way with DCS the other and one of which simply sends a DCS code and receives normally. All of them still use that single value at 25. There is no way to send 100.0 Hz and listen for 156.7 Hz on this radio.

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

Set the receive tone on an FTM-6000R

Tone squelch keeps the speaker shut until the matching tone arrives. On this radio the setting that does it also keeps sending your tone, which is usually what you want and is worth knowing either way.

1. Hold F menu, open 24 SQL.TYP and turn to TON.SQL. Leave DIAL alone for now.hold F menu›24 SQL.TYP›DIAL›dial → TON.SQLThe screen should show: SQL.TYP, showing TON.SQL.TON.SQL is tone squelch: it sends the tone and it also listens for it. TON.ENC only sends. Either way the setting applies to the band you are on and not the other one.Watch out. Do not press DIAL at this screen. It would save the setting and return you to normal operation, and the next step needs you still in the menu — SQL back is the key that moves you on.
2. Step out with SQL back, open 25 SQL.COD, pick the tone and press DIAL.SQL back›dial → 25 SQL.COD›DIAL›dial → the tone to listen for›DIALThe screen should show: TSQ appears on the display.Watch out. TSQ where you expected TN means you are on tone squelch, not transmit tone. If the repeater does not send a tone back to you, TSQ will make it sound dead.

There is an inverted version of this too, REV.TON at the same item 24: it stays quiet while the tone is present and opens when it stops. Useful for hearing when a tone-protected channel goes clear, never something a repeater wants, and easy to leave on by mistake — so it is mentioned here rather than walked through. If you cannot remember what tone somebody else is using, the radio will find it: get as far as 25 SQL.COD, then hold the microphone's UP or DWN switch and it searches the tone list until it locks on. Press PTT or UP or DWN to stop it, then press DIAL to keep what it found.

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

Set the offset direction and amount on an FTM-6000R

Direction and amount live in two different lists, which is the only awkward thing about this. In most of the country you will not touch either, because the radio arrives set up to work the direction out for itself.

1. Start by looking at 21 RPT.OTR, then RPT.ARS — Automatic Repeater Shift.hold F menu›21 RPT.OTR›DIAL›dial → RPT.ARS›DIAL›dial → ON or OFF›DIALThe screen should show: RPT.ARS, OFF or ON. It comes on from the factory.Decide this first, because it decides whether the next step matters. With ARS on, the radio sets the direction itself from the frequency you tune to, and the minus or plus icon appearing is how you know it has. Leave it on and most people never touch item 20 at all. Turn it off if you want the direction to stay exactly where you put it.
2. Tap F menu and pick F-20 RPT.SET for the direction.F menu›F-20 RPT.SET›DIAL›dial → SIMP, -SFT or +SFT›DIALThe screen should show: SIMP for simplex, -SFT for down, +SFT for up. It starts on SIMP.Watch out. Tap, do not hold — this item lives on the Function list from the factory, so the Menu list shows dashes where item 20 should be. And if you left ARS on in the step above, expect it to recompute the direction the next time you tune; the two settings fight, and ARS wins.
3. In the same container, RPT.FRQ is the amount — choose it, turn DIAL to the figure and press DIAL.hold F menu›21 RPT.OTR›DIAL›dial → RPT.FRQ›DIAL›dial → the offset in MHz›DIALThe screen should show: 0.00 to 99.95 MHz.Watch out. The factory amount depends on which version of the radio you have, and Yaesu says so. Check what yours actually shows before you change it — the standard shift for your country is almost certainly already there.

One warning about the book rather than the radio. The Advance Manual's page for RPT.ARS says that ON sets the repeater shift offset frequency, which is nonsense — that is what the next item does. ON enables ARS. If you were reading the manual alongside this page and got confused there, that is why.

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

Set the squelch on an FTM-6000R

Squelch is not in the menu on this radio. It is a key and a knob, and it times itself out.

1. Press SQL back once.SQL backThe screen should show: A squelch level meter.The same key steps back through menus and sets the squelch, depending on where you are when you press it.
2. Turn DIAL until the background hiss is just gone.dial → until the noise stopsThe screen should show: The meter moves.Watch out. The higher you take it, the more weak signals it will also silence. Set it just past where the noise stops rather than as high as it will go.
3. Press SQL back again to finish, or just leave it alone.SQL backThe screen should show: The display goes back to normal after about two seconds.It returns on its own, which means a squelch adjustment you started and wandered away from has already been saved.

Two shortcuts worth knowing. The microphone's B key adjusts squelch the same way, which is handy while driving. And the SQL OFF function, which sits on the microphone's P1 key from the factory, opens the squelch fully so that everything gets through — useful for listening for something very weak. Yaesu does not say whether it holds only while you press it or latches until you press again, so find out on yours before you rely on it.

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

Change the transmit power on an FTM-6000R

Three levels, on the Function list, and the radio remembers your choice separately for each band and each memory channel.

1. Tap F menu and select F-30 TX PWR.F menu›F-30 TX PWR›DIALThe screen should show: TX PWR, with the current level.Watch out. Tap rather than hold — this is another of the four factory Function list items, so the Menu list will show dashes at 30.
2. Turn DIAL to the level you want and press DIAL.dial → LOW, MID or HIGH›DIALThe screen should show: LOW, MID or HIGH. It arrives on HIGH.High is 50 watts, mid is 25 and low is 5. Low is plenty for a repeater you can hit reliably, and it keeps the radio cooler.

Because the setting is stored per band and per memory channel, a channel you saved on low power will come back on low power however you left the VFO. And if you transmit for a long time the radio protects itself by dropping to low power on its own, without telling you — so a rig that suddenly stops getting out on a hot day is more likely warm than broken.

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

Listen on the repeater's input on an FTM-6000R

Reverse swaps your transmit and receive frequencies so you can hear the other station directly. On this radio it is on the Function list, one tap away.

1. Tap F menu, select F-19 RPT.REV and press DIAL.F menu›F-19 RPT.REV›DIALThe screen should show: The frequencies swap and the minus or plus icon starts blinking.The blinking is the whole point. A steady sign means normal operation; a blinking one means you are reversed.
2. Do exactly the same again to come out of it.F menu›F-19 RPT.REV›DIALThe screen should show: The sign stops blinking.Watch out. Left on by accident, reverse puts your transmitter on the repeater's output and your receiver on its input. Everything looks normal and nothing works.
3. If you use it often, put it on a microphone key: hold F menu, open 14 MIC.PGM, pick which of the four P keys to use, then pick RPT.REV.hold F menu›14 MIC.PGM›DIAL›dial → PGM.P1 to PGM.P4›DIAL›dial → RPT.REV›DIALThe screen should show: The P key you chose now shows RPT.REV.Item 14 assigns the microphone's four P keys. Reverse is a good candidate because it is the kind of thing you want to try without looking down.Watch out. 14 is a container and needs the extra level — choose the key first, then the function. All four P keys arrive with something else on them, so whichever you take, you are giving something up.

Reverse also works on split memory channels, where the two frequencies have nothing to do with a standard offset. There it shows as a blinking minus-plus pair rather than a single sign.

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

Name a memory channel on an FTM-6000R

Six characters, typed on the radio with the DIAL knob, and two other keys move the cursor.

1. Press V/M mw until you are in memory mode, then turn DIAL to the channel you want to name.V/M mw›dial → the channel to nameThe screen should show: That channel's number.Watch out. Check you are in memory mode before the next step, not the VFO — holding V/M mw in the VFO opens the write screen instead of the naming list. The home channel can be named too, but it is not in the DIAL sequence here; you reach it from F-12 HOME on the Function list first.
2. Hold V/M mw, turn DIAL to NAME and press DIAL.hold V/M mw›dial → NAME›DIALThe screen should show: A cursor on the first character position.Holding V/M mw is the gateway to everything a memory channel can do — writing, naming and deleting all start there.
3. Turn DIAL to a letter, number or symbol, then press DIAL to move to the next position.dial → a character›DIALThe screen should show: Your name building up, six characters at most.Watch out. A press of DIAL here moves right rather than finishing. If you need to go back, BAND grp moves the cursor left and PMG pw moves it right.
4. Hold V/M mw to save the name and come out.hold V/M mwThe screen should show: Back to the memory channel, now showing its name.

Hold DIAL down to flip between the name and the frequency, which is how you check what is behind a name you no longer remember writing. Names ride along when the channel is stored, so if you overwrite a channel you overwrite its name too.

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

Delete a memory channel on an FTM-6000R

Same key as storing and naming, one level further in. Two channels on this radio cannot be cleared at all, and it is better to know that now than to spend ten minutes trying.

1. Go to memory mode and select the channel you want gone.V/M mw›dial → the channel to clearThe screen should show: That channel.
2. Hold V/M mw, turn DIAL to DELETE and press DIAL.hold V/M mw›dial → DELETE›DIALThe screen should show: DELETE selected.This is the same menu that offered you NAME. The list of what you can do to a memory channel all lives behind that one held key.
3. Hold V/M mw again.hold V/M mwThe screen should show: OK?Watch out. OK? is the confirmation. Nothing has been deleted yet.
4. Hold V/M mw once more to clear it.hold V/M mwThe screen should show: The channel is empty.Watch out. Channel 001 and the home channel cannot be cleared, and Yaesu says so in as many words. If nothing happens on one of those, that is the reason. Store something else over the top instead.

Clearing takes the channel's name with it. If what you actually want is for the scanner to stop landing on a channel you still want to keep, that is the memory skip setting, which is stored with the channel rather than deleted from it.

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

Turn off the roger beep on an FTM-6000R

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 isn't one. Nothing in this radio sends a tone at the end of your transmission and no setting adds one. The menu list runs to 35 items and none of them is a roger beep. If something is beeping at you, it is one of these three.

1. Item 05 BEEP is the click on every key press.hold F menu›05 BEEP›DIAL›dial → OFF›DIALThe screen should show: OFF, LOW or HIGH. It arrives on LOW.This is the one people mean nine times out of ten.
2. Item 06 BELL rings when somebody calls you with a matching tone or pager code.hold F menu›06 BELL›DIAL›dial → OFF›DIALThe screen should show: OFF, or one, three, five, eight times, or continuous. Off from the factory.Watch out. This one only fires on an incoming call, never at the end of your own transmission. If it is going off unexpectedly, the tone squelch settings are what to look at.
3. Item 02 AR MOD is the ARTS alert, which beeps as you move in or out of range of another ARTS radio.hold F menu›02 AR MOD›DIAL›dial → OFF›DIALThe screen should show: OFF, IN RNG or OUTRNG.ARTS is a Yaesu range-checking system between two radios. If nobody you talk to is using it, this is just noise.

If somebody on the air tells you they hear a beep at the end of your overs, it is not coming from this radio. The repeater's own courtesy tone is far the most likely answer.

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

Turn off the voice announcements on an FTM-6000R

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 does not talk, and unlike some Yaesu models there is no accessory that makes it talk. Neither manual contains a voice, announce or speech setting anywhere in the 35-item menu, and the published options list for the radio is microphones, speakers, brackets, Bluetooth parts and cables — no voice unit is offered.

1. The audible feedback you do get is the beep, and item 05 sets its level.hold F menu›05 BEEP›DIAL›dial → HIGH›DIALThe screen should show: OFF, LOW or HIGH.Turning it up to HIGH is the closest this radio comes to telling you out loud that a keypress landed.
2. If the reason you wanted voice is a display you cannot read, item 08 controls the panel illumination.hold F menu›08 DIMMER›DIAL›dial → OFF, MID or MAX›DIALThe screen should show: OFF, MID or MAX.Watch out. Worth a word of warning on this item. The Advance Manual describes OFF as bright and MAX as dark, which is the opposite of what both words normally mean, and the factory setting is OFF. We cannot tell from the books which way round it actually is. Try all three and pick the one that looks right.

If spoken feedback matters to you, the thing to know is that it is a model-by-model choice rather than a Yaesu-wide one. Several Yaesu radios take an internal FVS voice unit, and Kenwood's TM-V71A takes a VGS-1 that reads out frequencies and menu numbers. This radio is not one of them and no amount of accessory shopping will change that.

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

Turn off dual watch on an FTM-6000R

Dual watch on this radio is not where you would look for it. It is not in the menu, it is not on the front panel, and no key carries it out of the box — you have to put it on a microphone key first. What it watches is fixed: your current frequency plus the home channel, not any two frequencies you like.

1. First put the frequency you want watched into the home channel. Get into VFO mode, tune to it, hold V/M mw, turn DIAL to the LEFT until HM appears, and hold V/M mw again.V/M mw›dial → the frequency to watch›hold V/M mw›dial → left, to HM›hold V/M mwThe screen should show: HM lit over your frequency — the radio stays there afterwards.Watch out. Two things to get right. You must be in VFO mode first: holding V/M mw on a memory channel opens the copy, name and delete list instead, and the second hold would fire whichever of those you had landed on. And HM sits BEFORE channel 001, while the write screen opens on the lowest free channel number — so turn left. Turn right and you write your frequency into a numbered channel instead.
2. Press V/M mw to come off the home channel, then set the frequency or memory channel you actually want to sit on.V/M mw›dial → your main frequencyThe screen should show: Your working frequency.This is Yaesu's own step one. Dual watch runs from here and checks the home channel periodically — the book does not say how often, and unlike the FTM-150R this radio has no interval setting. This is the side you will be talking on.
3. Hold F menu, open 14 MIC.PGM and choose which of the microphone's four P keys to use.hold F menu›14 MIC.PGM›DIAL›dial → PGM.P1 to PGM.P4›DIALThe screen should show: PGM.P1, PGM.P2, PGM.P3 or PGM.P4.Watch out. All four arrive with something else on them — squelch off, home, scan, and either weather alert or the 1750 hertz tone depending on where the radio was sold. Whichever you pick, you are giving something up.
4. Turn DIAL to DW and press DIAL to save.dial → DW›DIALThe screen should show: DW assigned to that key.
5. Press whichever microphone key you assigned to start dual watch, and press it again to stop.Press the P key you just assignedThe screen should show: The frequency blinks while a signal is being received.When the home channel gets a signal the radio stays on it until the signal goes, rather than flicking back and forth over somebody talking.Watch out. Press the key you actually chose two steps up. P1 arrives set to SQL OFF from the factory, so if you left the defaults alone, P1 is the wrong one.

There is a companion setting, DW RVT inside item 23 SCN.TYP, and it is worth reading before you leave it alone. With it ON, pressing PTT during dual watch transmits on the HOME channel — flatly, whatever you happen to be listening to at the time. That is a good way to transmit somewhere you did not intend. It arrives OFF, and OFF is the setting where PTT goes out on the frequency you are actually hearing. One caveat even on OFF: while dual watch has paused on the home channel because a signal arrived there, PTT transmits on the home channel then too. Yaesu says so in both descriptions.

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

Lock the keypad on an FTM-6000R

The lock is on the power button, which is unusual and takes one try to get used to. A brief press locks; a long press switches the radio off.

1. With the radio on, press the power button briefly.PowerThe screen should show: LOCK, for about a second.Watch out. Briefly. Hold it and you will turn the radio off instead, which is a memorable way to learn the difference.
2. Press it briefly again to unlock.PowerThe screen should show: UNLOCK.The screen says which way it went, so you are never guessing.

Two things stay live while it is locked: the PTT switch and the volume knob. Everything else — the keys and the DIAL knob — is dead, which is exactly what you want from a radio mounted where a knee can reach it.

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

Factory reset on an FTM-6000R

One reset, and it takes everything. There is no settings-only option on this radio, so every memory channel goes with it. Yaesu's own caution says to write down what is in your memories first, and that is worth taking seriously.

1. Turn the transceiver off.Switch the radio offThe screen should show: Dark.
2. Hold all three of BAND grp, V/M mw and PMG pw together, and switch the radio on with them held.hold BAND grp›hold V/M mw›hold PMG pw›Switch the radio onThe screen should show: ALL.RST.Three keys at once is deliberate. This is not something you want to reach by accident.
3. Press DIAL.DIALThe screen should show: RST.OK?Watch out. Here is a trap in the manual rather than the radio. Yaesu's printed text says ALL.RST appears again at this step, which is just step two's words repeated. The illustration next to it, and the radio, show RST.OK? — the confirmation prompt. If you follow the text you will think nothing happened and press again, which carries out the reset.
4. Press DIAL again to go through with it.DIALThe screen should show: RST.ING, then RST.CMP when it is done.Watch out. Pressing PTT at any point during this cancels it, right up to the last press. That is the escape hatch if you got here by mistake.

If what you actually wanted was to move a working setup onto a second radio rather than wipe this one, the radio will clone: hold F1 on both while switching them on, with the optional cable between them, then set one to receive and one to send. That copies the memory channels and the menu settings across in one go.

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