Don KD9KSJ took his technician exam with our VE testing team in April. About a week later he received his license and purchased a Yaesu FT-65R. The radio arrived in about a week and he was excited to get on the air. Using a scanner he already had he was able to test the radio an make some transmissions. But his goal was to get on some repeaters and talk with other hams nearby. This required programming some frequencies into the radio.
Don had used the manual and checked YouTube for programming instructions. He tried both a programming cable and keying the repeater frequencies directly into the radio’s memory with no luck. Unfortunately we’ve all experienced the unusually complicated task of programming a radio, just like Don was going through. It’s too bad that this typically poorly documented step comes right after you receive your license and get on want to get on the air.
Being a resourceful ham, like all of us are, Don continued to look for a solution and reached out to our web site for some help. Matt AC9IG received this email and after a short discussion used our mailing list Sarc-All to find a club member with a similar radio. Ray K9EYT responded with an offer to help.
Ray reported similar frustration when programming his own radio. But ultimately he worked with Don and got him set up with four repeaters and two simplex frequencies. Don says that he’s now comfortable with the programming process and should be able to add more frequencies in the future.
If you’re on one of our repeaters and hear KD9KSJ be sure to say hi and welcome him to the ham radio community.