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Yaesu FT-270R Review

office888

Active Member
Jun 8, 2009
499
17
28
35
Hartford, MI
This is the Yaesu FT-270R. It is the bigger cousin to the FT-250R, and carries a few different features from it.

ft270r001.jpg


The FT270R is absolutely rugged. It's made out of an extremely solid aluminum construction, and because of this, it has some heft to it. It weighs in at 13.8 ounces with antenna and battery mounted. It carries an IP67 certification. Ingress Protection certification is simple. The first number is protection against solids, such as dust, mud, and dirt. The FT270R carries the highest possible rating, a 6, which means no ingress of solids is possible through normal use. The second rating is liquids, in short, waterproofness. The FT270R carries a rating of "7", which means it is rated for immersion of up to 1 meter for a length of time...specifically 30 minutes. For liquids, the highest possible number is 8, which means the device is completely waterproof for any length of time for depths past 1 meter. I have personally taken my FT270R into the hottub, to chat on Echolink with people afar. It has no problem with having water splashed on it or being submerged, although the speaker gets a little constricted with water on the membrane.

ft270r002.jpg

ft270r003.jpg


Electronically, it's a bit of a nightmare at first. It's a menu driven interface, with alphanumeric display. I find this handy, as I do a poor job at memorizing what repeater frequency is what...it's even more of a nightmare where in Michigan, there's a linked repeater system with all of the same frequency...just different CTCSS codes! Speaking of CTCSS, the FT270R is capable of both CTCSS encode and decode. An accessory DTMF paging unit is an accessory. It has several options for EMCOMs purposes, such as ARTS, which warns you when you are going out of range of the other radios on the network. It has other handy features such as CTCSS tone scanning (handy for unknown repeaters). One of the interesting add ons is the EMERGENCY feature. If you press and hold #4, it makes the radio emit a loud noise, and sends a distress call on whatever your home frequency is set to. This radio is LOUD too. This radio is also packet compatible, although I have not tried this function. If find yourself in a small airplane, or no heavy equipment without a headset, have no fear. The FT270R will blast through the noise with 800 mW of output.

Battery life is extremely long with the receiver-save feature turned on. During an extended power outage, I left my FT270R scanning for 2.5 days. TX time on a full battery is about 4 hours or so.

There are quite a few accessories to choose from. I chose to buy the submersible speaker-mic, and mic/headset adapter. The adapter changes the waterproof proprietary Yaesu fitting to accept a standard 1/8" headset and mic. The speaker-mic, MH73a4b works excellently. My only complaint is that the audio gets distorted at louder settings.

ft270r004.jpg

ft270r006.jpg


If there's anything I had to say I dislike about the Yaesu FT270R, it would be that the screen scratches so easily. I do hope that for all future models, Yaesu begins incorporating Gorilla Glass. I also had a warranty issue with the first one I bought, in which the screen's water gasket was installed incorrectly, so the unit ended up taking on water. Yaesu had a replacement on my doorstep within about 10 days. My other complaint is the lack of dual-band capability. Some of us do not like the newer tiny VX series handhelds, and the FT60R does not carry the same ruggedness at the FT270R.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this radio an 8. With a Gorilla Glass screen, and dual-band capabilities, this radio would easily be a 10/10.

Radio covers 136-174 mhz.
1.5A draw on 5w TX
165 mA receiving with audio at 200 mW
45 mA on standby, saver off
20.5 mA on standby, saver on
8 mA with auto-poweroff

Operating voltage is 6.0 to 16.0 VDC
Nominal is 7.2 VDC
 


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