Modification of Yaesu FTDX-10 for Bulgarian conditions

Extending the transmission range

Backstory

Some time ago, a friend and radio amateur (I’m not writing who he is, because I haven’t asked him if he can) shared that he can’t broadcast on part of the 60m range. He assumed that his Yaesu FTDX-10 transceiver, because it was prepared for Spain, reflected the Spanish regulations.

My Yaesu FTDX-10 is also “Spanish”. At least its User Manual is in Spanish. I checked and it turned out to be the same – it only broadcasts in 5351.5 – 5366.5 kHz. And for Bulgaria, the resolution is 5250 – 5450 kHz, on a secondary basis, 1 class, 100 W, all broadcast classes.

I thought, “There can’t be some mod to fix this problem”. I just didn’t have time to dig around the Internet right now and I posted a question in a FB group about the Yaesu FTDX-10.

After less than a day, among the hundreds of nonsense written under the question, there were also a few meaningful ones. There were also suggestions on how to unlock the transceiver from transmitting anywhere it can receive. But I didn’t care about them, I wanted to get my 60 meters right. And when I finish successfully, to explain to my friend how to do it too.

I thought this information might be useful to other radio amateurs, so I’m posting it here, I hope it works for them. At the same time, I have not carried out any intervention that would violate the warranty.

Problem solution

I solved the problem in a few easy steps, without opening the transceiver and without breaking the warranty:

1. I saved my personal settings, menus and memory on an SD card:

<FUNC> <EXTENSION SETTING> <SD CARD> <MENU SAVE DONE> <NEW> <ENT>
I tapped <FILE SAVED> for exit.
<FUNC> <EXTENSION SETTING> <SD CARD> <MEM LIST SAVE DONE> <NEW> <ENT>
I tapped <FILE SAVED> for output.

Note: This step is optional. The transceiver is reset to factory settings, and if you want to keep what you have configured additionally, you will need it.

2. I turned off the transceiver.
3. I pressed FINE and MODE at the same time and held them. Without releasing them, I turned on the transceiver. A green LED VFO-A RX started flashing rapidly.
4. I short pressed <FUNC>. The LED VFO-A RX blinking has slowed down a bit.
5. I waited a few seconds for the change to be copied and pressed <FUNC> again, now for a long time. I don’t know how long, it was about a few seconds until the LED stopped flashing and the transceiver rebooted.
6. After the restart everything was already OK, the ranges covered the permissions in our country.

As a bonus, I also received a 70 MHz range, also allowed in our country: 70-70.50 MHz, on a secondary basis, 1 class, 50 W, A1 (A, B, C, D) and J3 (C, E, F).

7. I could restore my old settings from the SD-card but I preferred to do it again, clean, for educational purposes. I did them anyway without knowing what exactly did what, then I was still learning about my new transceiver.

It basically works like this:

<FUNC> <EXTENSION SETTING> <SD CARD> <MENU LOAD DONE> <CHOOSE FILE> <OVERWRITE OK>
You tap <FILE SAVED> to exit, an automatic restart follows.
<FUNC> <EXTENSION SETTING> <SD CARD> <MEM LIST LOAD> <CHOOSE FILE> <OVERWRITE OK>
You tap <FILE SAVED> to exit, an automatic restart follows.

Note: If you did not complete step 1 and save your settings and memory, there is no way to restore them and perform this step.</p > I hope this procedure is useful to someone.

73!

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