# F T X TALK v3.5 by Ian Spencer (DJ0HF/G3ULO)

This program was written by me DJ0HF and designed to allow simple operation of the Yaesu FTX-1 transceiver for the blind using a windows PC and using single key presses to select most options and doesn’t need any libraries etc. just one single exe file to run. It should run on any Windows PC XP/7/8/10/11 but has only been tested on Windows 10 and 11. This program was tested on the Yaesu 5.11.25 firmware.

## Rasberry Pi

Gena M0EBP has produced an image for the Raspberry Pi which will allow you to run F T X Talk on a Pi.

## This Talk Program

This program is written especially to control the Yaesu FTX-1 Field or Optima radio’s, for all other Yaesu radio’s please use F T Talk and not F T X Talk which will not work correctly for other Yaesu radio’s.

The program is free to download along with this documentation and other files but of course although the program has been extensively tested (Thank you Gena M0EBP) you use it at your own risk.

If you haven’t already read it then I would recommend reading the Getting Started document written by Gena (M0EBP) which is part of this package.

New in version 3 is the ability to run a second program on your PC such as AC Log with your radio at the same time as F T X Talk using something called a virtual radio, read the document virtual radio’s to see how to do this, though I advise getting F T X Talk running first before trying the virtual radio option.

And although I have made this program/package free for all to use none of the files in this package may be modified in any way without my written permission.

If you have a question which is not answered by the documentation, or a problem then I can be contacted via the E-Mail address :- dj0hf@spencerweb.net

## Preparing your Radio

Using the USB connection on your radio then the standard speed is 38400 Baud. You can connect a standard USB cable between the USB port of your radio and a USB port on the computer. Windows will select a driver for the radio port and it may work okay though Yaesu recommend downloading and installing the Yaesu com port driver to use the cat functions. As described in the getting started guide.

In a moment you will need to enter the com port number and connection speed into the configuration file (Standard 38400 Baud), if you are not sure how to find the com port or speed, or simply want to do it the easy way then you can run the program ‘find my radio’ in this package which will search all the com ports and tell you the com port number and speed and will also automatically put that information into the configuration file.

## Important FTX Features

The FTX-1 has a main and a sub radio where VFO A is the main radio and VFO B is the sub radio.

Normally you are always transmitting and receiving on VFO A (main) except when using split or repeater then you are receiving on VFO A (Main) and transmitting on VFO B (Sub). The FTX-1 has 2 receivers Main and Sub so even if you are transmitting on VFO B (Sub) when not transmitting you are receiving on both VFO A (Main) and VFO B (Sub) which is why there are two A F gain controls in my program and you use the up and down cursor keys to adjust the A F Gain for the main receiver and the left and right cursor keys for the sub receiver.

When you start the program the power on each band always returns to the last power used.

There are some work arounds as bugs in the current firmware cause a number of problems. The worst bug is that putting the radio into transmit on AM or FM crashes the radio, so that you need to power the radio off and then on again. So for Tune mode you are asked to press and hold the PTT.

## Setting up the config file

Unzip the F T X TALK folder onto your computer.

Use a text editor to change the first line in ftxtalk.cfg to match your comport between 1 and 99 and the second line Serial speed for the radio, I recommend 38400.

The third line is swr and if set to 0, in tune mode you have to press the S key to hear the SWR. Setting to 1 for continuous SWR is currently not available due to a bug in the Yaesu firmware.

The f ourth line is ATU and when set to zero and you press T then the program will use the automatic ATU built into your radio, this is only possible with the Optima version, for the field version it will default to an external atu. Or if your radio doesn’t have an automatic ATU (Field version) or you want to use an external ATU with the Optima then set this parameter to 1, the program will expect you to use an external manual ATU to tune your antenna.

So if your radio has an automatic ATU then set the ATU to 0 then when you press T the radio will do an auto tune of the antenna. However auto tuning is often very fast and so the radio reverts to receive mode and so there is no chance to hear the SWR.

If you have a External ATU then I recommend setting both SWR and ATU to 1. When you press T then the radio will be put into transmit mode with 5 watts and the SWR will be continually repeated so can hear your swr and if you have manual atu then you can adjust it for best match.

If you set the ATU parameter to 2 (only possible with the Optima) then you can combine both tuning modes. The program will first of all turn on the Auto ATU then wait about 5 seconds and then put the radio into transmit mode and you will be able to hear the SWR as often as you want even though you are using an auto ATU and can be sure the antenna is tuned correctly.

You may be using your radio with an amplifier and want the automatic atu to be turned off, in this case then you need to set the ATU parameter to 1 and if not already turned off while running the program you can use F12 to turn off the auto ATU.

The fif th parameter is Auto off if set to 0 nothing happens but if set to 1 then when you quit the program with Q it will turn the radio off. Unfortunately due to firmware and hardware limitations it is not possible at the moment to automatically turn the radio on when you start the program.

Then there are parameters for repeater offsets for the bands 10, 6, 2 metres and 70cm. And are in Khz and include plus or minus. For 10 metres the maximum offset is 990Khz for 6 metres and 2 metres 3.99Mhz (so 3990Khz) and for 70cm it is 9.99Mhz (so 9990Khz) for 10/6 Metres 10Khz steps are used, on 2 Metres/70cm 50Khz steps are used.

The last parameter is the virtual radio port which is normally set to zero but may be used to allow a second program like AC Log to work with the radio by sending it’s commands to FT Talk which relays the communication to and from the radio. How to set this up is explained in the document virtual_radios.pdf.

## Using F T X TALK

Start the program with the F T X Talk executable file, you can exit the program at any time by hitting the Q key, I recommend always exiting the program with the Q key rather than simply closing the window because if you use the Auto power on and off feature the program will be unable to turn the radio off if you didn’t quit with the Q key.

The program will announce the version and connect with your radio and the first time you run the program it will start on 40 metres, when you run the program again it will always return to the last mode and frequency and power you used. Voicing the mode and frequency and say connected if it is successful in communicating with the radio. If when you press a key it says radio not connected then usually there is a problem with the chosen com port or speed, the windows driver or the cable. Or if there is simply no voicing then usually the loudspeaker on your computer is not the default audio device. Noise Blanker and Attenuator are automatically reset but Noise Reduction, Speech Processor, Break-in and VOX remain in the same state as set in the radio. The first time you run this program the preamp is configured to be off on all bands up to 30 Metres (10Mhz) and on for all bands above 30M (10Mhz) as this suits many radio’s however read further down this documentation on how you can change this at any time.

You can voice the help file at any time by hitting the H key.

You put the program into various modes by a single key press and when you use the program for the first time it will initialize on 40 metres. While using the program if you return to a band you have already used then it will return to the last frequency and mode you used on that band.

### Frequency mode

Frequency mode can be entered at any time by hitting the F key and if you then hit the up and down cursor keys it changes the frequency by 1Khz is SSB and AM/FM modes. In CW mode it is 500Hz. The left and right cursor keys change the frequency by 100Hz in SSB and AM modes and by 10Hz for fine tuning in CW mode. In FM mode small changes like 100Hz or 10Hz are not useful so the left and right cursor keys change the squelch setting. The page up and page down change the frequency by 10Khz except in FM mode on 2 metres and 70cm where they change the frequency in 12.5Khz steps. The plus and minus keys can be used to change the frequency in 1Mhz steps.

Pressing F at any time will voice the mode and frequency and if set such things as Repeater and CTCSS.

If you tune the radio using the main tuning knob the program will follow the frequency changes and if you stop tuning on a station and want to know the frequency just hit the F Key. You can get the S meter reading at any time by hitting the S key. In modes like SSB the S meter will be changing all the time and a sighted person reads the peak value he sees. This is difficult for a blind person because you may read the S meter with the S key during a pause between words so my program has a hysteresis built in which holds the peak value for a short while.

In split or repeater mode you can use the extended command mode to voice the other VFO or repeater input frequency (See Extended command mode).

### Frequency Entry Mode

hitting E will put you in frequency entry mode where you can enter a frequency between 1 and 440Mhz. The Mhz and Khz values must be separated by a full stop/point so for example to go to 14.2Mhz you would enter 14.2 and then hit the Enter key to move to that frequency, or if you want to go to exactly 21Mhz then enter 21 and then the Enter key. Entering an invalid frequency the word invalid will be voiced and the entry will be ignored.

Pressing F will confirm that the frequency change has taken place if you want to check.

### Zero Frequency

if you have been tuning manually with the knob then when you stop on a station you may not be exactly on the Khz frequency which is where most stations transmit. If you tune the audio to sound a bit high frequency and then hit the z key it will zero the frequency for you. If the audio still sounds a bit high pitched hit z again to change to the next Khz step. In CW mode hitting Z will zero the pitch so that you will be transmitting on exactly the same frequency as you are receiving on.

### Modulation mode

you can change the mode at any time by hitting the M key and it will cycle through LSB/USB/CW/AM and back to LSB. Except on 10 and up where FM follows AM and then back to LSB. FM is normally FM Narrow that is 2.5Khz but using the extended command mode you can select FM which is 5Khz.

### Digital mode

If you want to use Fusion C4FM then if you are in FM mode then hitting D will put you into the digital C4FM mode and hitting D again will take you back to FM mode.

In the following modes the up and down arrow keys work to increase or decrease the parameter chosen.

### Split Frequency mode

is entered by hitting the V key for VFO B when you are in any mode other than FM. This mode can be used to split the receive and transmit frequency when a DX or expedition station says it is working split. So hitting V and then you can use the cursor keys to change the frequency of VFO B and you will be receiving on VFO A and transmitting on VFO B. You can exit split mode by hitting V again.

### Repeater mode

if you are on a band 10 metres to 70cm and in FM mode then hitting V will put the radio into repeater mode using the standard offset configured in the fttalk.cfg file or the temporary standard offset if you have created it with Extended mode O. You can of course use I to insert a CTCSS tone or DCS code before hitting V and going to Repeater mode.

You can of course save channels which you have set up in repeater mode and recall them later.

### Band change mode

mode by hitting the B Key. In band change mode you can go directly to any band by hitting one of the number keys 1 is 160Metres, 2 is 80Metres and so on with 0 being 10 metres, for 6 metres you hit the X key or for 2 metres the T key, 70cm the S key or to go to the last frequency used outside an amateur band the U key for unknown. After selecting a band using these keys the radio automatically returns to frequency mode. Or you can use the up and down cursor keys to change band and then F to go back to frequency mode.

The program will automatically return to the last frequency, mode and power you used on a band and whether repeater and/or CTCSS/DCS is in use.

If you are not sure which band you are on just hit the B key again to voice the band and then F will put you back in frequency mode.

### Bandwidth mode

by hitting the W key. In Bandwidth mode the up and down cursor keys increase or decrease the filter bandwidth in steps, this works in both SSB and CW Modes, SSB between 1.8 and 3.1Khz and CW between 1200Hz and 50Hz. This feature is disabled in AM and FM modes. In SSB the left and right cursor keys still change the frequency by plus and minus 100Hz just as in Frequency mode. In CW mode the left and right cursor keys change the frequency by plus and minus 10Hz and this is particularly useful if you reduce the bandwidth and the wanted signal is then outside the pass band and you can use these keys to get it back into the pass band.

### Power mode

by hitting the P key. In Power mode the up and down cursor keys increase or decrease the power in 10W steps above 10 watts and in 1 watt steps at 10 watts or lower (minimum Optima setting 5 watts and Field setting 1 watt). The VHF and UHF bands can use different power settings than the HF bands and the current power setting will be voiced correctly for each band. You can change the VHF or UHF power setting without it affecting the HF power setting

### R F Gain mode

by hitting the R Key. In RF Gain mode the up and down cursor keys increase or decrease the Main Receiver RF gain. The Left and right cursor keys will adjust the Sub RF Gain

### A F GAIN mode

by hitting the A key. In AF Gain mode the up and down cursor keys increase or decrease the Main Receiver AF gain. The left and right cursor keys will adjust the Sub AF Gain.

### Keying Speed mode

by hitting the K key and the radio will go to CW mode and announce the current keying speed. You can use the up and down cursor keys to increase or decrease the keying speed in steps of one word per minute. The Yaesu radio’s normally have break in enabled and the program will set the radio to the lowest power setting while adjusting the speed to avoid unnecessary interference. Hitting K again will turn off keying speed and return to the mode last used and the last used power setting.

### Channel Save

is used to save the current frequency, mode and things like split and CTCSS into a memory channel. There are 100 memory channels in ten banks of ten. The first bank, that is bank 0 are quick memory channels.

To save to a quick memory channel you hit C for channel save and then a number key between 0 and 9 to save the channel. If you want to save to a channel which is not in bank zero then after hitting C you hit B for bank and hit a key 0 to 9 to select the bank and you will be asked for the channel so hit a number key between 0 and 9 to save the information to the channel in that bank. As it can be difficult to remember what you have saved in 100 channels the program creates a text file called memory.txt which is in a human readable form where you can check what you have stored in each memory slot.

### Go to Channel

can be selected by hitting the G key and works like channel save in that if you now hit a number key between 0 and 9 you will recall the channel from that memory location in bank zero.

If you want to recall a channel from another bank then after hitting C you bit B and then a number key to select a bank and then a further number key to select the channel you want to recall.

### Cycle up through memory channels

if you go to a memory channel with G then each time you hit U it will take you up to the next memory channel in the selected bank. After channel 9 the function will cycle back to channel 0. You can check the frequency etc with F, or the S meter reading with S and the function will still be active. Choosing any other function like band change or if you change the frequency then the function will be automatically turned off.

### Insert CTCSS Tone or DCS code

hitting I when in FM mode will ask for a CTCSS or DCS number. You can read the CTCSS numbers from the CTSS.txt file and the DCS numbers from the DCS.txt file. It must be a 3 digit number then when you hit Enter CTCSS or DCS will be turned on. It will be automatically turned off if you change modes, bands or enter a new frequency. If you are setting up a repeater split then it is important to enter the receive frequency first then select repeater before hitting I to set up the CTCSS tone or DCS code.

The CTCSS or DCS status will be saved when changing bands and as part of the channel information so that you can return to it later. The program codes for DCS Normal are 500 to 603 which gives DxxN but if you add 200 to the number so 700 to 803 then the radio will use DxxI the inverted DCS value.

### Tune Mode

Hitting the T key will turn on the Radio’s transmitter in Tune mode so that the ATU can be used to adjust the antenna matching.

If you have set the ATU parameter in the config file to 0, then the auto atu will be activated (Optima version), the radio will tune the antenna and while the program is in auto tune mode there will be a short beep every second and after around 6 seconds the program will say okay and turn tune mode off.

If it is set to 1 then you have an external ATU or your radio may be driving an amplifier. You will be asked to press and hold the PTT and y our radio will begin transmitting a low power carrier and if you hit S you can hear the swr. Or if the swr parameter in the config file is set to 1 then you will hear the swr being repeated contiuously So in this mode if you have a manual ATU you can adjust the tuning and listen to the swr changi ng. Releasing the PTT and h itting T again will put the radio back into receive mode and turn off tune mode

Note that when the ATU parameter in the config file is set to 0 that after autotuning which can be very fast, many radio’s immediately go back to receive after matching the antenna and so you cannot hear a valid swr.

However you can set the ATU parameter in the config file to 2 and then the radio will use the internal ATU to do an automatic tune and after around 6 seconds my program announce okay and ask you to press and hold the PTT which will turn on the transmitter with a low power carrier so that you can hear the swr achieved with the internal ATU. Releasing the PTT and h itting T again will put the radio back into receive mode and turn off tune mode.

The need to press and hold the PTT is due to a serious bug in the Yaesu firmware.

If you try to use the Autoatu above 60Mhz or you are in the field configuration then the program will announce that the auto atu is not available and immediately go to external ATU tuning mode.

### Transmit/Receive

Hit t ing the Space Bar will put the radio into transmit and hitting it again will return the radio to the receive mode. This mode can only be used in SSB and CW as a serious firmware bug prevents correct operation in AM or FM modes. When you first start transmitting on a mode like SSB then there is no RF and the swr value will be zero in other words swr 1 to1. However when you start speaking and generating RF, then stop speaking and hit S then you will hear the highest swr seen while you were speaking.

### Menu Mode

you can select a menu item by hitting N for menu number and entering a 6 digit menu number and hitting Enter. You can now read the contents of this menu item by hitting Enter again or entering a value you want to store before hitting Enter and the value will be stored in the menu item.

### Preamp

You can use the F1 key to cycle through the Preamp settings that is Preamp 1, Preamp 2 and Preamp off for the HF bands up to 50Mhz and for higher VHF or UHF bands you can cycle between Preamp 1 and Preamp off. The preamp setting for the band is stored and restored when you return to that band.

### Level Mode

if after switching on Noise Blanker, Noise Reduction, Contour or Speech processor you hit the L key it will put the program in level mode and the up and down cursor keys will change the level of the last enabled option, Noise Blanker, Noise Reduction, Contour between 10Hz and 3200Hz or the Speech Processor. You can exit level mode by selecting any other mode such as F, frequency mode, B, band change mode etc.

### Options voicing

If at any time while running the program you would like to know which options are enabled (set by the function keys listed below). Then hitting o will voice all the options which are active including the antenna being used and the status of the internal automatic tuner.

### Extended Command Mode

is turned on by hitting X and extends the command set for commands which are used less often. Hitting X again will turn it off as will hitting any key not used in Extended Command Mode. Some extended commands like Voicing the other VFO, Swap main and sub exit Extended command mode automatically after being used.

#### FM and FM Narrow

In Extended command mode hitting M while in FM mode changes the FM mode between FM Narrow (2.5Khz) and FM (5Khz).

#### Voicing other VFO

In Extended command mode if you hit F while working split then then VFO A (the receive frequency) will be voiced. In Repeater mode the Repeater input frequency will be voiced.

#### Swap Main/Sub or VFO A/B

using Extended Command mode

My program always works with the Main receiver, but hitting S in extended command mode will swap the Main and Sub receivers.

Remember hitting F always tells you the frequency you are transmitting on except in Repeater mode.

#### Change Antenna

using Extended Command mode

Every time you hit C will switch between Antenna 1 and Antenna 2 if you have the Optima configuration and you can check the S meter reading by hitting S. You can exit Extended Command mode by pressing any other key or X.

#### Cycle through AGC selection

using Extended Command mode

Every time you hit A it will change to the next AGC setting fast, mid, slow and auto. Exit from the Extended command mode/AGC selection by hitting X again.

#### Voicing the standard offset or setting up a new repeater offset

using Extended Command mode

Hitting O for offset and then Enter will voice the current standard offset for the band. Hitting O followed by the plus or minus key for direction and then a 3 or 4 digit Khz value and then Enter will change the current standard offset to the new value which will be used the next time you go to repeater mode. Note restarting the program will reset the standard offset to the value in the config file.

### Function Keys

F1 switches the Preamp to 1, 2 or off (See Preamp section above)

F2 switches the attenuator on or off

F3 switches the Noise Blanker on or off

F4 switches the Noise Reduction on or off

F5 switches the Auto Notch on or off

F6 switches the Contour Control to Contour dip and next press to contour

peak and hitting it again to Contour off. Contour starts at 1200Hz if

fitted.

F7 switches the Speech Processor on or off (if fitted)

F8 switches the VOX or CW Break-in on or off

F9 switches the TX Monitor on or off

F10 not used

F11 puts the radio into Mic Gain Mode so that you can adjust the mic gain using the ALC readings from the radio.

First it is important to do the tuning operation to make sure your antenna is matched to the radio and you are not going to be transmitting into a high SWR. When you hit F11 you will hear Mic Gain and a reading for example four two meaning the mic gain is set to 42 at the moment. Then the program will voice Peak ALC and it should say 0 as we haven’t begun the adjustment yet. Now press the PTT and speak normally into the microphone for about 10 seconds. Now release the PTT and the program will be telling you your peak ALC reading of between 65 and 70 seems to be good for the FT991A. If it is lower than 65 than you can use the cursor up key to increase the mic gain or it it is higher than 70 then that could be too much ALC and you can use the cursor down key to reduce the mic gain. As the mic gain goes from 0 to 100 it is probably better to hit the key 5 times to change in steps of 5. You will now hear that the peak ALC voicing has gone back to zero. So press the PTT and repeat the operation until you get your ALC between 65 and 70. These ALC readings are just suggestions and you may need to experiment while another station is listening to your transmission and of course if they say you need to increase or decrease the mic gain then just hit F11 and use the up and down cursor keys to change the mic gain and then hit F11 again to exit the mic gain mode.

F12 AUTO ATU If fitted switches between on, both and off for (T) tune mode (Optima). When on the auto atu is always used in tune mode, if off then the program expects you to be using an external atu or the radio is feeding an amplifier. If set to both then after the quick auto tune the transmitter goes to low power transmit so that you can hear the swr (See tune mode).