Part of our Yaesu FTX-1: The Complete Guide.
The FTX-1’s touchscreen makes manual VFO tuning easy, but once you’re regularly hitting the same nets, repeaters, or POTA calling frequencies, memory channels save real time. Here’s how I organize mine and the fastest way I’ve found to load them.
Planning your bank layout before you touch a single channel
Before I programmed anything, I decided on a structure. The FTX-1 groups memories into banks, and fighting that structure after the fact is more work than planning it up front. I split mine roughly like this: one bank for HF calling frequencies and digital mode watering holes, one for local FM repeaters and simplex, one for POTA and SOTA calling frequencies by band, and one for EmComm nets I check into regularly. If you only ever operate one or two of these categories, you don’t need four banks, but having a plan before you start beats renaming everything twice.
Loading channels on the radio itself
To add a memory, tune to the frequency and mode you want, set any offset or tone if it’s an FM repeater, then hold the MEM key and tap the touchscreen memory slot you want to write to. The FTX-1 will prompt you to confirm before overwriting anything, which has saved me more than once. Give each channel a name, not just a number. Six months from now you will not remember that channel 14 is the Tuesday ARES net.
Why I stopped programming by hand for anything beyond a handful of channels
Once you’re past 15 or 20 channels, doing it all on the touchscreen gets tedious. I switched to programming software that talks to the FTX-1 over USB, which lets me build the whole memory list in a spreadsheet-style view, then push it to the radio in one shot. It’s also how I keep a backup of my channel list so I’m not starting from scratch if I ever need to reset the radio or set up a second one.
A few things I’d tell myself starting over
- Name every channel. Numbers alone are useless a month later.
- Group by purpose, not by frequency order. You’ll navigate by what you’re trying to do, not by band plan sequence.
- Leave gaps between banks so you can add channels later without renumbering everything.
- Back up your memory list before you make bulk changes. A bad import is annoying to undo one channel at a time.
None of this is complicated, but it’s the kind of setup work that pays off every single time you’re scanning for a net or trying to hit a calling frequency fast. Spend the twenty minutes now.
Need the quick version? The FTX-1 (VHF/UHF) field card covers repeater programming, VFO mode, power, and scan in one printable page.