Modifications for the Yaesu FT-530

Modifications for the Yaesu FT-530
RX 110-180, 300-500 MHz and TX 130-180, 400-470 MHz

Expanded Receive 110-180, 300-500 MHz
Expanded Transmit 130-180, 400-470 MHz

Remove Antenna and Battery.
Remove four screws on bottom holding battery track.
Remove the four (black) screws holding rear case.
Slowly... open the front cover from tranceiver and lay both halves on table.
Note positioning of white paper insulator in right half of radio and lift out (don't throw away)
Carefully locate Jumper Pad 13 and remove solder.
Re-install white paper insulator, make sure ground tab slides through the paper insulator.
Close radio back up (Careful not to pinch the ribbon cable near lithium battery when closing halves).
Re-install the four (black) screws holding rear case.
Re-install the four (small silver) screws on bottom holding battery track to radio body.
Attach Antenna and Battery.
Turn off Radio.... Press and hold both arrow keys while turning on the Radio.
Modification Complete.


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!                      !
!                      !
!                      !
!                      !
!           ---        !
!           ! !        !
!           ---       /
!           ---      /
!           ! !     /                         2 (!)  (!) 1
!           ---    /                          4 (!)  (!) 3
!                 /  <---  Jumpers are here   6 (!)  (!) 5
!              o /                            8 (!)  (!) 7
-----------------             Blowup --->    10 (!)  (!) 9
                                             12 (!)  (!) 11
                                             14 (!)  (!) 13
                                             16 (!)  (!) 15
-

Inside the rig, it really did not look quite like that ...    more like this:

...  12 (!)  (!) 11 
           (!) 13
      16 (!)  (!) 15

In addition to the published receive expansion, it also receives 800-950 MHz...
trunking radio, cell phone (I would *never* listen to that), 33cm ham band...
Expanded frequency range up to 950 MHz

Hi, this message is for those who have done the pad 13 mod to the FT-530.
This sequence permits putting a 500 mhz or higher freq in a memory channel.

Example:
To enter a freq of 506.8375 make sure you are in the uhf band.

Press 'FM'
Press 'STEP'
Rotate dial to select 12.5 step
Press 'STEP'
Enter 800.00
Press 'FM'
Press '/' MHz

799.00 Will show on the display. Turn the dial (top right-rubber duck on left) counter clockwise. The display will decrease in 1 MHz steps. If you pause for more than 2 seconds it will revert to a decrease of KHz steps. To get back to MHz steps just press 'FM' then press '/' MHz. Continue till 507.00 shows on the display. Pause for 3sec. Turn dial counter clockwise and the freq will decrease in KHz steps. Turn till 506.8375 shows on the display.
Press 'FM' for 3 sec. The memory channel number will be flashing.
Turn dial to select memory channel
When channel is selected press 'FM'. The freq is entered in that memory ch. back to MHz steps just press 'FM' then press '/' MHz. Continue till 507.00 shows on the display. Pause for 3sec. Turn dial counter clockwise and the freq will decrease in KHz steps. Turn till 506.8375 shows on the display.

If you go pass the freq you cannot turn the dial clockwise to go up freq. If you do so the display reverts to 300 MHz and you must start at #5.

Helpful hint example: 506.8375 is now in memory channel 5. Press 'MR' and select channel 5. 506.8375 Is now on the display. Pressing 'MR' again will normally let you (>>>> shows under channel number) tune up or down in freq. Now on these over 500 MHz freq you can only tune down (counter clockwise). Tune up (clockwise) and display go to 300.xx MHz. Press 'MR' and the correct memory channel freq is displayed again. The PLL on my unit will not lock above 507.6 MHz on another FT-530 it will lock over 508.4. Pressing the push to talk will display an error on the display and if the PLL will not hold the freq display will flash. 800-950 is the upper range of my unit and receives fb Yaesu FT530 AM receive

Hello,

There seems to be a difference in the way the AM receive on my new Yaesu FT530 works compared to that of the instruction booklet.

The instruction booklet says that if you enable AM receive (key sequence: FM, Set/0, FM, PRI/VFO) that it affects "the entire VHF receiver". Yet I am finding that I seem to be able to store the mode along with the frequency in the memory channels and then scan a mix of AM and FM frequencies. It also seems that one can set both VHF VFO's to one of AM or FM.

I am curious if anyone can add to the explanation on how AM receive works on this fine radio? I would guess the design engineers made an enhancement to the firmware after the documentation was completed...

You can store the "MODE" in memory.
Setting the unit to AM can be done on either VFO.
Setting the unit to AM will preclude you from receiving 2M FM.

As for how it's done... from what I heard (I never bothered to check) they run the signal through the S-Meter diode to demodulate AM.

Extended range for FT-530 New models

Here is the summary of a mod that I've put together from talking to people on the phone, radio, and email for the Yaesu FT-530. It is a very simple mod and it allows extended RX & TX.
This mod only applies to the newer models of the 530. I don't know what serial number implies the newer model, but my 530's serial number begins with 4J381xxx and was purchased in June 1995.

take off the battery pack from the bottom of the radio.
unscrew the four screws on the bottom to release the bottom plate.
after you open the plate, you'll see a green wire on the right side of the radio (if you hold it with the front panel on top).
simply cut this green wire and use some electrical tape to prevent it from touching other parts of the radio.
replace the bottom plate and screw it back in.
attach the battery
hold both the up & down Mhz arrow buttons and press the power button at the same time. this will enable to the mod. It is like a toggle, if you do it again, it will disable to the mod.
Now you should have rx 110-180, 300-500, 800-950, and tx 130-180, 400-480.

Note:
this mod will reset your radio and all memories will be erased.

Here is a second mod you can do to get more rx.

On the 70cm band, program your radio's lower (L) and upper (U) memory limits to 300 and 950.
Turn to the Lower memory channel.
Press MR once and you should see a four tiny little arrows right below the channel number.
Once you see these little arrows, you can enter any frequency from 300-950 Mhz directly on the keypad.

You can also store these new rx frequencies in memory if you like. Note: Although you can enter 800-950 Mhz into the radio, I have not heard anything in this range. It is rumored that the components to receive on this band is no longer made in the FT530.

Disclaimer: Perform these mods at your own risk. They are not guaranteed to work on your radio. And remember not to transmit out of band!!!

FT-530 Extended RX/TX Mod Update

March 19, 1995

By KA0RNY

Hi everybody.

This update is for those of you who have been unsuccessful with the extended RX/TX mod on the Yaesu FT-530. I tried unsuccessfully twice to perform the mod previously. I decided to give it a try again using a tip from a Yaesu Service Technician. The Tech I talked to said the mod should work, but that the reset sequence might need to be performed twice. Viola! It worked!

Before you dig into your radio be sure you have a good copy of the mod sheet. The one I'd recommend is ft530.mod which can be gotten off the Internet via FTP at oak.oakland.edu in the pub/hamradio/mods/yaesu directory. There are several other mod files for the FT-530 as well as other radios. If you don't have Internet access you may retrieve this file via REQDIR in the MODS directory on my home BBS, KB5TBQ.#NCOK.OK.USA.NOAM or any other packet BBS that keeps mod files.

Now that you have the mod info, perform it as instructed. If you have a very new FT-530, then it's possible that all you'll need to do is remove the four screws holding the battery mounting plate to the radio. Looking toward the back of the radio on the opposite side of the latch you might see a small green wire tucked under the white paper insulator. In two FT-530s here in town that are newer than mine, the wire exists and is all that needs to be cut for extended RX/TX. The wire ends are soldered to each side of Pad 13 so no unsoldering is required. For extended RX only with TX limited to ham bands, the small 0° surface mount chip resistor, Pad 15, needs to be removed also. If your rig is an older model, then you'll need to unsolder Pad 13. I had excellent results using a manual solder sucker to remove the solder bridge. A good set of eyes or a magnifying glass may need to be employed to be sure that all the solder bridge is removed. The mod won't work if any contact exists between each side of Pad 13.

As the mod sheet instructs, be sure that all power has been removed from the radio, I even pulled the lithium battery (you did remember to make a list of ALL your programmed memories didn't you?). Slip the battery back on and power up the radio while holding both arrow buttons down. Now twist the dial knob counter-clockwise. If the frequency will drop below 430 MHz, go no further as the mod should be successful. You may want to press F/M then Down Arrow and tune in 1 MHz steps downward. Check to see that you can tune to 300 MHz and that it wraps around to 500 MHz. If you twist the dial knob and you wrap around to 450 MHz, reset the radio again by turning it on while pressing the arrow buttons.

After you've reset the radio and activated the extended features, check to be sure that your frequency step size and repeater shifts are correct. Now you can enjoy reprogramming your radio again! I haven't found any features that have been disabled by performing the mod. Automatic Repeater Shift is preserved, unlike the mobile units. Also my rig tunes in the 900 MHz range which is quite useful to me since I can monitor a 930 MHz data system that I maintain. It also appears to monitor the entire 902 to 928 MHz band which should be a boon to generating interest in the 33 cm band. All you need to do is punch a frequency from the keypad. From there you can tune up or down with either the arrow keys or the dial knob. Also, you can store any of these frequencies in memory, tune or scan them as any other memories.

I really enjoy the added dimension the extended features give the FT-530. Being able to use one radio to receive so many different frequencies makes it a real Handy Talkie.

73, de Nate

Yaesu FT-530, Tune Any Freq. EASILY Between 110 and 950 inclusive

On a hardware modified for extended recieve and transmit ft-530, you may, without having the difficulty of popping out of range when tuning upward, tune absolutely any freqency between 110 and 950 mhz (although mine only locks between 748-950, 520-300, 183-110.

This is a big improvement over entering 800 in a vfo and tuning down only with the knob.

Enter 110 in the "L" memmory channel on the UHF side of the rig.
Enter 950 in the "H" memmory channel on the UHF side of the rig.
Be sure that neither "L" nor "H" channels are marked as skip channels.
In memmory mode tune the "H" channel.
Press MR to get the little adjustment lines ---
Enter the freq. of your choice, ANY FREQ. BETWEEN 110 AND 950 MHZ.

Note: you can only do this once, if you need to enter another freq, you must exit and enter memmory mode.

There you go. The VHF side of the rig tunes over a larger VHF range and same for the UHF side of the rig. You can use the xfer (9) button to transfer a freq to the VHF side to the rig will lock (for example tuning 181.000)

Good luck and enjoy.

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