I 100% defer to Dan, what I described is the story I had heard, nothing more.
That said, I own (and like) my FT-7250, but I programmed it long ago with RT-Systems software, I never tried CHIRP. I think if it as the mobile version of the FT-70DR HT, but it does have a reputation of being a problem/odd-ball radio according to its owners.
I've owned FT-817/818 radios, but never programmed them with CHIRP.
Hope this helps,
Ken, N2VIP
On May 13, 2025, at 21:21, Dan Smith via Users users@lists.chirpmyradio.com wrote:
I have an FT817ND and an FTM7250DR, both of which are listed as supported radios. However, I have seen a number of posts on the internet from Yaesu stating that using Chirp with Yaesu radios may damage them. On the 7250, Chirp uses the clone mode of the radio which, to my mind, is a very safe way to go. I am not sure how it works with the 817. I would like to use Chirp with both but I am, of course, worried by the Yaesu statements. Are these statements still valid? Or have they been invalidated by progress within Chirp? Or were they not valid in the first instance but a reflection of some other issue?
Of your options, I'd say "not valid in the first place". Yaesu has never reached out to the project to complain (or help), but I've heard the same rumors of passive-aggressive bashing. The 817 has been in use by tons of CHIRP enthusiasts for a very long time, and even provided the first (only?) solution to fix their 60m channel memories when the details needed changing.
That said, I will say that Yaesu radios are the least-robust of really any radio I've ever worked on. Their programming protocols and memory formats are more fragile than $25 chinese handhelds, with no good excuse for why. They're the only radios that (still) require a silly dance of coordinated button-pushes and software clicks, they don't actually reset their memories when you ask them to (they just mark all the channels as deleted), and they don't do much checking of the content you send them over the wire. It's totally inexcusable for an expensive computer-programmable device in 2025 to claim that sending something bad over the wire could cause it physical harm, but that's the implication of their claims.
I feel like you're probably in good company with other 817 users. The 7250 was a hot mess that is now discontinued, IIRC. There were apparently some silently-incompatible firmware version discrepancies floating out there, so your mileage with CHIRP may vary. I can definitely say you'd be better off replacing your Yaesu radios with something better and then you don't have to worry about it :)
--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/