More on the Yaesu FTDX10

 

I’ve used the FTDX10 daily for just over a month now. There is much to love about this little rig.

It took a bit of head-scratching before I eventually got the single-cable control and audio I/O working. There are USB drivers and CODECs on the Yaesu web site that need to be installed. At first, there was no love from the 10; I could not get Ham Radio Deluxe to recognize the Yaesu no matter what settings I tried.  Eventually I gave up on the USB cable and tried RS232C. That didn’t work either. Finally, after much resetting and disconnecting and reconnecting cables and restarting and cursing, I was first able to get audio through the USB port and into GarageBand. A few more tweaks and the rig control started working. I’m still not sure what I did, but it was clearly an issue of getting the right devices assigned to the right virtual COM ports in Parallels. Now I have the audio CODEC feeding the Mac natively, and rig control operating via HRD running in Windows inside a Parallels virtual machine. 

An unexpected surprise: after years of searching for good external stereo speakers, I’ve finally found them—and I didn’t have to look very far: my iMac. The audio coming out of my iMac’s built-in speakers is full, undistorted, RFI-free (as far as I’ve found to date), and beautifully tailored in GarageBand. I’m starting to capture audio snippets again just like I did back when I was a kid with my brother’s Akai 1/4-in. reel-to-reel recorder hooked up to my DX-160! (Where are those tapes today?!?!?)

🔈🎶  Radio Mali 9635 kHz 17-Feb-2021 0830 UTC

With all that accomplished, my next trick will be to get the K3’s audio into the Mac. This is where I will undoubtedly regret not upgrading to the KIO3B board to deliver digital audio straight from the radio. It might also be a good excuse to buy a used K3S. 

Or another FTDX10...