This is an ongoing list of problems and solutions I've encountered for my Yaesu VX-6R ham radio. This information may not be accurate - my solutions and the conclusions I draw are based on messing with it until it works and then trying to document what I did as accurately as possible. As the list gets longer I will occasionally reorganize it into manageable subsections.

Memories and Banks

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How do you store a frequency into a bank? The instruction are the same as for storing a frequency into a channel.

Yes, it is the same. Beyond the channel selection 1-999 is band selection b1-b24, the steps are the same.


I can't at a CTCSS tone aka PL tone to VHF repeaters.

PL must be enabled first. Enter the frequency in VFO, then [FW] MODE to enable the tone. Twist the dial to TONE or whatever you need. Then you can set a tone for that repeater.

I can only store so many channels in a bank?

After putting a couple of dozen channels in a bank, I got MEMFUL or something similar. The strange thing is that when I went into the bank to see how many channels were in there, all of them were there, including the ones I hadn't yet done, with no apparent duplicates. I must have already put all those channels in that bank before, but I cannot explain the error.

I can't delete a memory channel.
You can't actually delete a channel, instead you mask it, and it disappears. In practice it works a lot like deleting.
[edit] Receiving & Scanning
[edit] I can't scan VHF and UHF frequencies at the same time.

Hold down BAND and twist the dial to ALL CH, other choices that limit the scanning are TAG1, TAG2, and BAND.
[edit] I've added a channel to a band three times and I still can't tell if it's scanning it! I don't see it when I manually roll through the band channels.

I haven't fully sorted this out yet, but the channels are not in order when I use the dial to scroll. Ch 1 does not appear before Ch 2, but in between Ch 203 and Ch 40. It may have been there all along, I just didn't see it.
[edit] Received audio volume and quality are both low

Make sure the mode is correct. The MODE button toggles between AM, FM, and WFM (wide FM).
[edit] Transmitting
[edit] I have to reset transmit power before each transmission

When storing a memory channel, the transmit power is also stored. When transmitting on that channel, you can override the memory transmit power level with [FW] [LXTXPO] but it appears to reset after every transmission. For a hand held unit this can be less than ideal.