——FreeBand Mod——I just discovered what appears to be the “freeband” mod for the US version of the VX-6R. It requires the removal of one solder blob.
Here’s the procedure:
Turn off the radio and remove the battery.
Remove the stick-on plastic cover that fits over the cutout where the SU-1 goes.
You will see two rows of solder pads, one row of eight (with two pads soldered) and to its right, one row of five (with no pads soldered).
Counting from the left on the row of eight pads, go to the fourth pad and remove the solder from it.
Replace the SU-1 cover and replace the battery.
Reset the microprocessor.
The radio will now transmit from 137 – 174, 222 – 230, and 420 – 469. The TX LED lights up in many other ranges but I have not checked power output anywhere but in the ranges I just mentioned.
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——Fix for Low audio on 70cm——My VX-6R, and that of one of my friends, had very low audio on 70cm out of the box. I received some very bad signal reports on a local repeater while doing side-by-side comparisons with my VX-5R and VX-7R, both of which received good reports. Not only was audio low on the VX-6R, but I was unable to “hold up” the repeater.
The fix for this is to increase both the transmit deviation and PL tone deviation using the service menu as follows:
Set the VFO to 440.000 and turn the radio off.
While holding down BAND-Internet-0, power on the radio (Internet is the button on the lower left of the keypad, with a D next to it).
You will see “ref” at the top of the display, above 440.000. Rotate the channel wheel clockwise until you see “dEU” at the top of the display.
Press the V/M key once to enter the set mode. The transmit deviation setting will appear at the top of the display (mine was set to 62 at the factory). Write this setting down in case you need to back out the changes you are about to make.
Rotate the channel wheel to change the setting to 85. Press the V/M key to exit the set mode. dEU appears at the top of the display.
Rotate the channel wheel clockwise one step. You will see 100 at the top of the display. This is the PL tone deviation setting.
Press the V/M key to enter the set mode. Write down the factory default setting (mine was 62).
Change the setting to 75. Press the V/M key to exit the set mode.
Press the HM/RV key to save the changes. If you make a mistake and don’t want to save the changes, just power off the unit instead.
I arrived at these settings after much trial and error. The “right way” to align the radio would be to put it on a service monitor and adjust the settings while measuring the deviation.
Be that as it may, by making small incremental adjustments to one setting at a time, and getting signal reports after each one, I was ultimately able to arrive at the settings which sounded the best to others. My VX-6R now gets signal reports that are equal or better than my VX-5R and VX-7R.
If you run into trouble, return the settings to their factory defaults (which you wrote down) and start over. If all else fails, call Yaesu tech support (but it would be unwise to mention that you had been playing around in the service menu).
Use this technique at your own risk. I am not responsible for your monkeying around with your radio, so don’t blame me if it goes south on you.————————————————————
These mods were found on www.mods.dk
Thanks for the posting of the Modification for the low audio on 440. I had quite a bit of trouble with mine out of the boox as well… the repeater was 1/2 mile away. I appreciate the tinkers that get it right. Thank You
Albert N. Milliron
AL7KT
i’ve problem with this modification (remove solder in vx6r)
after that i’ve tx and rx on 3 ranges only 144,222,440
does anybody now how to fix it ?
This solder remove mod for expanded transmission works great. I can yell at the kids on an FRS frequency without switching HT’s.(Yes, I lower the TX power)
Remember that you need to reset the CPU (erasing all your settings, too) before this mod will work. Turn off the radio. Press MODE, 0 and V/M at the same time. Turn on the radio, and you should see a “reset all” message. Release the MODE, 0 and V/M keys, and press the F key. This will cold reboot the processor and the mod should work.
BTW it appears that FRS/GMRS “privacy codes” are CTCSS (PL) frequencies. Just check your FRS radio manual to see what the code->tone mapping is.
Re. The ‘freeband’ mod on the VX-6R.
I live in SE Asia, and bought the rig new last week.
Out of the box, it is a TRIPLE band (50/144/430MHZ) rig, and, as stated in other posts, comes complete with the same ‘top blob’ antenna as my VX-7R (the ‘top blob’ is the screw-on top section for 6m)
After removing solder bridge No.4, it now TX’s across a very wide range of frequencies, including 222 MHz.
A word of caution though!
If you accidentally (or otherwise) TX on a ridiculously high frequency (500MHz or so) or in the FM broadcast band, the radio shuts off immediately!
It will then NOT POWER UP at all, until the DC adaptor/charger is attached!
I thought I’d killed the rig, and had to wait 8 hours until I got home to plug in the adaptor.
This ‘shut down’ also has the very strange effect of completely discharging the battery (any ideas?).
With regard to non filtering outside of the official bands, this is not a huge concern in Cambodia, where 147.000 MHz is the ‘Icom’ band (Cambodian CB!), and 7-7.100MHz is used by shop owners and others to talk to relatives around the country and in Vietnam.
You can even buy the Thai 245-246 MHz 5w FM CB HT’s here for less than $50 (80 channel, maybe mod-able to 222 MHz?).
So, in summary, do the mod by all means, but be careful of TX on some frequencies.
And don’t panic if your radio shuts down, just be prepared for a 2-3 wait for the radio to charge again.
I would welcome any ideas on why the battery would completely discharge so quickly.
Gud DX to all.
Paul XU7ADQ
ok i too tried to remove the blob on this radio and after that i could not get the radio to communicate with program and a friend told me that you have to go back with a magnifiying glass and light and gently go over the spots with a fine point soldering iron in between the connectioins were the blob was to fully clean off any ecess solder from it , then he said it worked after this second cleaning. im gonna try this tonight , i found this handy table lamp with built in magnifiying glass on top, it should do the trick…..ill post my work upon completion on here.
I tried the free band mod and now my radio will only transmit and receive on the 3 ham bands? Does anyone know a fix for this?
hi to all!i have a new vx-6r and i want to know how to transmit full 5w with some mod or hack?also i tried the first hack for audio and the next for reset cpu with success!!mail me if you know something for my vx-6r!thank you!!
Hello, can anyone help me ?
i’ve problem with this modification (remove solder in vx6r)
after that i’ve tx and rx on 3 ranges only 144,222,440
does anybody now how to fix it ?
Does anyone know how to mod this radio to do 5 full watts on 220? I’ve heard others talking about there’s doing it,so I know that there is a way. I can’t figure out why Yaesu does this to all there Ht’s that has 220 mhz in um.
Thanks so much for the MOD! I fly, sail and kayak regularly, and am a ham. This has allowed me to have 1 unit for all 3 type of activities. (I do keep a marine or av-unit as a backup) It is just so nice to have the 1 unit that does all the work!
Thanks again!
I have tried the mod and I can verify that it works as advertised. I didn’t have true surface mount equipment but I was able to accomplish this using a standard radio shack soldering iron.
I ran into this post because after performing the mod I tried to transmit on a frequency that it didn’t like and the radio locked up. I totally went into a panic. Plugging the radio into the charger fixes the problem (after 1 power cycle).
I just wanted to let anyone know who is considering this that it works and anyone can do it with a standard soldering iron.
I took a small piece of cloth to absorb the solder and I was VERY careful not to heat up the board too much. It only took a second or so of heat to accomplish this.
I do not have an antenna for 6 meters however I have heard that after performing this mod it is possible to transmit on 6 meters also. So this will turn the radio into a quad band radio.
I hope this helps someone
Just to note my default (stock) transmit deviation and PL tone deviation.
Transmit Deviation (dEU) = 75 (stock)
PL Tone Deviation (100) = 109 (stock)
I have configured the radio as specified above.
I will post again with results
Hi all,
Do we know of any special engineering menus or similar to tell us exacly what version of the radio we have? Mine shows B3 on the box but I beliver there might be several versions of B3.
Thanks
Oliver
Mod works great, unfortunately I have no 6 meter antenna… time to go home-made. Thanks for the instructable!
Hey! Matt Bias here at 304-633-7738…after “AH029M” power off and hold HM/RV while pwr on and you are into the alignment menu or something…you can alter PLL REFERENCE, and adjust/attenuate power for all rf output levels among other interesting features! Once you call up this alignment screen just press V/M to turn on and off the ability to alter these settings. A ‘hand pointer cursor’ is visible while making changes to the specs in the menu…please contact me with any results you discover here…I can do most every thing but I want to also do AM VHF and UHF Air, as well as some of the Lo-band…I know the same thing can be done to US version as the EU version but can’t get any farther…Thanks
Hey! Matt Bias here at 304-633-7738… Huntington, …after “AH029M” power off and hold HM/RV while pwr on and you are into the alignment menu or something…you can alter PLL REFERENCE, and adjust/attenuate power for all rf output levels among other interesting features! Once you call up this alignment screen just press V/M to turn on and off the ability to alter these settings. A ‘hand pointer cursor’ is visible while making changes to the specs in the menu…please contact me with any results you discover here…I can do most every thing but I want to also do AM VHF and UHF Air, as well as some of the Lo-band…I know the same thing can be done to US version as the EU version but can’t get any farther…Thanks by the way… this is for the yaesu vx-8r…my email acct too old…call or write with your solutions…spread the word…happy dxing…
Yaesu VX8R…after “AH029M” power off and hold HM/RV while pwr on and you are into the alignment menu or something…you can alter PLL REFERENCE, and adjust/attenuate power for all rf output levels among other interesting features! Once you call up this alignment screen just press V/M to turn on and off the ability to alter these settings. A ‘hand pointer cursor’ is visible while making changes to the specs in the menu…Someone please play with this and post results! vx8r mods, yaesu vx8r, yaesu vx-8r, amateur mods, vx8r help, vx8r fix, vx8r new, vx8r youtube, vx8r ebay
Can someone give me a cheap source for SMD LED’s? For Yaesu VX-8R, for both TX/RX LED’s and backlight LED. I want UV SMD LED’s…Matt Bias…mainlinemark@yahoo.com or (304) 633-7738.
Just to note my default (stock) transmit deviation and PL tone deviation.
Transmit Deviation (dEU) = 71 (stock)
PL Tone Deviation (100) = 95 (stock)
Has anyone optimized these settings for the 144 MHz band?
Hello, I am Brazilian (Brazil) and I have a problem with my vx 6, he is wheezing (QRM) and when I close the squelch it not for the hiss, what do I do?
thanks
I did the modification and I only transmit on Ham frequencies–144, 222, 440. Does anybody have a solution for this. Are there separate models of the VX-6R where this mod just doesn’t work. I need the full range–137-174– for work so my radio is useless until this gets fixed.
Try transmitting on 6 metrs !
When I did this exact mod to my VX-6 it opened up the transmit on 6 meters making t a quad ban rg.