Thanks to Dan for the information and all other users who took the time to answer my post. I have had two 7250s for quite some time and not had any issues with them but I recently acquired an 817ND and that caused me to look into Chirp again. I will now happily proceed with my programming plans.
Howard, VK4BS
On 14/05/2025 11:37, Dan Smith via Users wrote:
The very brief version of the story goes something like this:
Early versions of chirp did something that according to Yaesu wasn't needed, and did it very frequently. This action 'wore out' or 'used up' a certain component, forcing the owner to return the radio to Yaesu for repair. According to legend, the replacement part became either hard to get or too expensive (or both?), and Yaesu determined the unusual repairs were due to chirp. Yaesu advised chirp (I assume), and chirp changed its software. Ever since then, Yaesu has advised against using chirp to program Yaesu radios, and even said that if Yaesu determined radio was damaged by chirp they would not repair it.
The Yaesu position remains unchanged.
The chirp software has changed.
I've heard this story too, but I can tell you it's not true.
Yaesu has never reached out, and CHIRP has not changed to address this. Not only does it not make sense in general (every click of the VFO knob writes to the same location in EEPROM) it also doesn't make sense specifically. Unlike most other manufacturers, almost every Yaesu radio uses a different clone protocol and thus a different set of code in CHIRP, so one change wouldn't affect but maybe a few models. It also doesn't make sense because Yaesu radios don't actually implement a programming protocol, they only support radio-to-radio cloning. It's a one-way super dumb data flow that literally can't be done any other way or it wouldn't work at all. The radio thinks it's getting a clone from another radio when CHIRP is writing to it. Unlike most other manufacturers that let the PC communicate back and forth with the radio, Yaesu radios are just all-or-nothing brain dumps.
I'm sure I've reverse engineered the clone protocols of more Yaesu (and Icom and Kenwood) radios than any other single person on the planet over the last 15 years. You learn a lot about the engineering culture at these companies when you do that :)
There have not been any reports (that I am aware of) about Chirp damaging any Yaesu radios.
This part is true :)
That is my understanding, it is up to you to determine the level of risk this represents to you and your radio.
This part is also true :)
--Dan _______________________________________________ Users mailing list users@lists.chirpmyradio.com https://lists.chirpmyradio.com/postorius/lists/users.lists.chirpmyradio.com To unsubscribe, send an email to users-leave@lists.chirpmyradio.com To report this email as off-topic, please email users-owner@lists.chirpmyradio.com List archives: https://lists.chirpmyradio.com/hyperkitty/list/users@lists.chirpmyradio.com/