Yaesu FT-2900R: Detailed Review

The Yaesu FT-2900R is a 2 meter heavyweight. It’s solid, brawn-ish features combine with a hefty 75 watts to provide a powerful RF punch. It’s heavy, sure, and it’s quite large; but if you’re looking to this single-band mobile radio, you’re probably less concerned with style and class than you are with work performance. As I’ve spent time with the FT-2900R, I’ve grown to really appreciate it’s ruggedness; and though I’ve never thrown it against a concrete wall, I have no doubt that this radio is bombproof.
Although the FT-2900R is hearty, it comes at the expense of some functionality and, as mentioned, size and weight. As I explain below, this is a wonderful radio, but its uses may be somewhat limited. Without spoiling any more of the fun, let’s get right into it!

Iron Weight on the Doorstep

HEAVY. It’s the first word that comes to mind when holding the box containing the Yaesu FT-2900R. Coming in at nearly twice the weight of some competitors like the Icom IC-2300H, the FT-2900R is a full 4 1/4 pounds, perfect for those days you’d rather do bicep curls with a radio rather than head to the gym. Let’s just say, I was very surprised when picking up the delivery box.
It comes packaged with the typical mobile radio componentry:

• Radio
• Mount + Hardware
• Handheld Mic
• Mic Mount
• User Manual
• Warranty
• Extra Fuse
• DC Power Cable

As with every Yaesu, included with the radio is an in depth user manual. The form and format of every Yaesu manual I’ve read is infinitely impressive. It’s published more like a book than a pamphlet, and each features is coherently organized into chapters, with explanations, how-to’s, and ‘tips’ scattered throughout. I seriously consider Yaesu manuals to be a strong purchase-point–not just because the manuals are so rich in content, but because they represent a company that is committed to customer education and proper product use. It’s also great for new radio operators or for users who are new to a particular type of radio.
Yaesu radios also come with a warranty certificate on which the serial number is pre-stamped. It’s a great gesture, and although other manufacturers may offer warranties, I’ve always been impressed by Yaesu’s program.
The one item that was ostensibly missing from the package is the ‘base station feet.’ I’m not sure if these were supposed to come with the radio, or if maybe Yaesu stopped including them–either way, I couldn’t find any in the box. The feet are mentioned in the manual, and I’ve seen examples of the included feet on other hams’ radios. If they do normally come with the FT-2900R, it would be a great little bonus. The feet have little ‘aligners’ on the front so that they don’t move around, and would essentially make the radio more practical in a ‘desktop’ situation. Note that the speaker is on the bottom of the radio, so slightly elevating the chassis is recommended.

2 Meter on Steroids

It cannot be overstates how burly the FT-2900R appears. The entire chassis is one black, die-cast heat sink, and even the knobs feel very industrial. It weighs in at 4 lbs 4 oz., which, as I wrote earlier, is nearly twice as heavy as the Icom IC-2300H. The speaker is on the bottom, covered by a thinner alloy plate. The heat sink extends nearly two inches beyond the rear termination of the actual radio body, attempting to provide as much heat dissipation as is practically possible without a fan–something to be aware of if you intend to mount in a vehicle or other small space.

Buttons

The push-buttons are all soft plastic, and, although they don’t have an audible mechanical click (digital click can be programmed in the menus), they do feel responsive and natural. All push buttons are translucent and backlit except for the Power and Internet/Lockout, presumably because these buttons aren’t actively used while operating. The power button is an easy-to-push red button, just to the right of the mic input. It’s slightly recessed so that it feels slightly different from the other menu buttons. Similar to most mobile radios, it requires a 1-2 second ‘push’ before powering on or off
The rest of the buttons are in a series along the bottom of the display, and, because of the backlight, they are all easy to read even in low-light conditions (except for the Internet/Lockout button, of course.) The most notable button is ‘MHz(Set)’, which allows the tuning knob to adjust frequency by 1 MHz, rather than by the kHz step. It’s a one-press function, so its very easy to use. Simply hit the MHz button, zoom into the desired frequency range, hit the MHz button again, and dial into the specific kHz–done. It’s a nice feature, but it’s also a necessary one, considering the keypad’s inability to input frequencies apart from the tuning knob. The rest of the buttons are rather typical, and can me read about in the user manual (my intent is not to rewrite the manual!)

Knobs

Starting on the right side of the screen, the oversized tuning knob works very well. It’s a rather deep button so it’s easy to grab on to, however I found myself comfortably scrolling with just my index finger. The knob is ‘light’ in the sense that it’s easy to turn, but this doesn’t make it feel cheap or loose in any way. As for the movement itself, it has lighter ‘tick’ rather than a bumpy feel, which I tend to like.
The two smaller knobs are oriented side-by-side just left of the display screen–one is for volume and the other for squelch. These knobs are significantly ‘tighter’ than the tuning dial, but this makes it easier to get more precise adjustments. Concerning the noise squelch knob, I feel as though the squelch’s high-pass filter is too ‘high’ on its low-end (I think I’m describing this correctly.) What this means is that, even for a strong signal, the squelch doesn’t ‘open’ until the knob is turned to nearly the 12 o’clock position (half-way point.) Whether this is normal on the FT-2900R or just a defect, I’m not sure.

Display

The display is as big and bold as the unit itself. The main display utilizes six main alphanumeric digits along with a ‘.5’ marker and 3 channel number digits. The Signal Strength Meter is located along the lower edge of the screen, similar to most other mobile radios. Other than that, it’s rather straight forward. It does have ten brightness settings, which is an improvement over some other models. At night I like to turn the screen down as far as possible while still being able to read it, and I was impressed with the flexibility I had with display brightness.

 http://amateurradiotech.com/yaesu-ft-2900r/