Programmer for the VX-8

There have been three stages to the information provided about the programmer for the new Yaesu VX-8 HT. To recap for those of you who are just joining us....

For those who inquired early (before the radio's release) we had to be conservative. Remember, we get nothing prior to the radio being available on the American market. We purchase a radio from a dealer just like all of you.

After what we found with the last radio Yaesu released, the FTM-10 that "clones" via UHF frequency and not from the computer, we had to wait to make any predictions for the VX-8. So we waited.

Once we received our radio (December 19th) the first attempts to address the radio did not go well. Notice first the mic jack on that radio. It's a very unique 7-pin jack taking, of course, a very special 7-pin plug. We hoped that the mic adapter would be wired with the right connections for programming, as was the mic adapter for the VX-7 when it appeared with its threaded mic jack. No such luck. And attempts to get in through the speaker jack also failed. So we ordered another piece to try and we waited.

The new piece arrived (December 23..5:30 PM) we solved one more piece of this puzzel. After about a dozen tries...eleven of which ended in failure and several discissions of this not being possible...SUCCESS.

We have now identified all that needs to be done...

1) A new plug to address the mic jack must be developed and manufactured by RT Systems. These are not available from Yaesu in bulk as we would need them for resonable pricing.

2) A new circut design for the electronics of the interface between the radio and the computer. This radio does not use the same electronics as any of the other handheld or mobile radios.

3) Software development and testing: at this point, this is the easiest of the three as we are in control here...all the others are in the hands of our suppliers.

There have been several surprises with this radio. Now that we have identified the things to be done, we can work to get each completed to have a programmer and cabling for you just as soon as we can.

Check back here for more information. I'll keep you posted every step of the way.