Yaesu FT-530 Manual page 28

54
Power Saving When Receiving
Monitoring with squelch closed requires about
one third the power of listening to unsquelched
noise, so you will naturally want the keep the
squelch closed as much as possible. The FT-530
uses a new high-speed version of the Battery Saver
system originated by Yaesu, reducing current
drain by a factor of five during squelched monitor-
ing. The Battery Saver turns off the receiver three
seconds after the squelch closes, and then turns it
on for 30 milliseconds periodically to check for
incoming signals. When the Battery Saver is en-
abled, a small
"SAVE"
appears near the bottom
right comer of the display, which blinks when the
saver is functioning.
In the FT-530, you can select from eight sleep
durations, from 10 ms to 1.28 seconds, or you can
select the ABS (Automatic Battery Saving) func-
tion, which senses channel activity and dynami- .
cally selects a monitor
I
sleep ratio according to
recent operating history.
The ABS mode
is
enabled as supplied from the fac-
tory.
You can check or change the sleep duration or
disable the Power Saver by pressing Cl!0 ~
fi,
and then pressing one of numeric keys 1 through 9
to change the current (displayed) sleep duration.
Possible selections and their corresponding keys
are shown in the table below.
Power Saver Sleep Ratios
Key Sleep time
On:Off Key
Sleep time
On:Off
(ms)
(ms)
TONE
1: 0.33
RPT
320
1:10.67
CD
10
CD
TSET
1: 0.67
STEP
640
1:21.33
CD
20
CD
LOW
40 1: 1.33
CD
12BO
1:42.67
CD
SAVE
1: 2.67
XFER
ASS
VARIABLE
CD
BO CD
LOCK
1: 5.33
SET
OFF
ALWAYS ON
CL)
160 CD
Transmitter Power
&
TX Save
One of the best operating habits is to always use
the lowest transmitter power necessary to main-
tain reliable communications. As described on the
box on page 23, the FT-530 offers a choice of four
levels of power output: one Hi, and three low -
L 1, L2 and L3. On top of this, the FT-530 can
reduce transmitter current drain further with its
smart TX Save feature. This feature conserves bat-
h
CJ
•
•
b
t]
d
1=
b
s
b
s
a
r
s
r
tery life by reducing power output when the mi-
croprocessor determines it is not required, that is:
• when the transmitter is keyed but you are not speak-
ing, and
• when a full-scale signal is sensed on the receive fre-
quency (such as a repeater output).
TX Save is not enabled from the factory but can
be turned on by pressing Cl!0
~
rn
~
fi.
The
fits on"
message appears on the display. Pressing
the
CD
key toggles this feature
ani
off ("
ts
OFF"
displayed). Press
rn
or the PTT to return the dis-
play to normal. With TX Save enabled,
"SA
VE"
blinks in the display during transmit.
Regardless of whether you use the TX Save fea-
ture or not, notice that the current drain of the L 1
setting is about 40% of the Hi setting, so it is good
to develop the habit of always using the lowest
setting possible, switching to high power only
when low power fails to get through. If you live in
a location where high power is almost always
needed, consider using a higher gain antenna in-
stead of opting for high power (the effect on trans-
missions is the same). Make sure any external
antenna is designed for 50 ohms impedance at the
operating frequency.
BUSY LED Disable
The BUSY function of the
BUSYfTX
LEDs is to
help you set the squelch control, and to indicate
when the channel is busy, so you don't transmit on
top of other signals. However, each LED draws
about 5 milliamperes when lit, and thus can con-
tribute significantly to battery drain when moni-
toring active channels. If you need to preserve
power in such circumstances, you can disable the
BUSY
function of one or both of the LEDs:
First select the main or sub channel, then press
Cl!0
~
rn
~
as·
The selected
BUSYfTX
LED
flashes while the "OFF" message is displayed,
indicating the
BUSYfTX LED
for that band is dis-
abled. Press
m
again if you want to reactivate the
BUSY
LED ("on" displayed). PresseD or the PTT
to return to normal display. You can toggle the
state of the
BUSY
LED at any time by pressing the
same keys again.
Beeper Disable
Like the
BUSY
LEDs, the keypad beeper draws
several milliamperes when enabled, so you may
want to disable it if you need to conserve power
while using the keys a lot. Do this by pressing
Cl!0~C:D~Cl!0 ~C:D.
To reactivate the beeper,
S5