Yaesu makes some of the best and most popular transceivers for amateur radio use.  In some locations, Yaesus are the majority of radios working local VHF/UHF repeaters.

One of the few criticisms of Yaesu is the WIRES™ feature.  WIRES is an acronym for Wide-coverage Internet Repeater Enhancement System and is unique to this brand of transceiver.  The system can link compatible repeaters together via Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).  WIRES-equipped radios using these linked repeaters can communicate over great distances since they use the internet as a pathway.  It’s a hybrid communication scheme combining short-distance radio and long-distance internet.

This sounds like a good idea but is popular only on Yaesu’s home turf in Japan.  While some can be found outside of Japan, WIRES™-compatible repeaters are not common in the rest of the world.   The Internet Repeater Linking Project (IRLP) and Echolink are similar systems more widely adopted and prolific.

So what’s the problem with WIRES™?  It uses a dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signal to identify a Yaesu transceiver to a WIRES-compatible repeater.  Unfortunately, when a non-compatible repeater see DTMF signals it Continue reading →