Yaesu CAT Control

Why I wrote it

Modern Yaesu rigs have a lot of setup menu — the FT-710 alone has 296 items. After a reset, a firmware update, or an experiment that didn’t pan out, getting every one of them back by hand is tedious and easy to get wrong. And if you set the radio up differently for FT8, contesting or portable work, you end up re-keying the same handful of settings over and over.

Yaesu CAT Control fixes that. It reads the radio’s entire menu over the CAT port with the EX command, saves it to a file on your PC, and writes it back whenever you want — all of it, or just the items you pick. Save as many set-ups as you like, then put your favorites on six preset buttons and switch the whole radio over with one click.

Supported radios

FT-991 / FT-991A, FT-891, FTDX10 and FT-710. When you connect, the program asks the radio for its ID and selects the right model automatically. Each radio’s menu list was built from Yaesu’s CAT reference manual and lives in a plain XML file, so another EX-based Yaesu can be added without recompiling.

Features

Full menu backup and restore

The Menu Settings tab reads every menu item from the radio in a few seconds — all 296 on the FT-710 — and shows them in a grid next to the allowed values from Yaesu’s manual, so you can see what each raw number actually means. When the read finishes it offers to save; the default file name is the model plus the date and time. To restore, open a backup and click Write All to Radio, or select a few rows and click Write Selected.

Restores you can trust

• Verify after write. Each item can be read back after it’s written; anything the radio didn’t take is flagged as a MISMATCH.
• Doesn’t pull the rug out. CAT and serial-port items (CAT RATE, TOT, RTS, 232C) are skipped by default, so a restore can’t change the baud rate halfway through. If you do restore them, they’re always written last.
• Read-only items are protected. Things like firmware version and Radio ID are saved for reference but never written, and dangerous items such as the FT-891’s menu RESET are never touched at all.
• Model check. Open a backup from a different radio and it asks before going any further.
• Graceful errors. An item the radio refuses is marked Not accepted by radio (?;) and left out of the file — nothing else is affected. Three timeouts in a row stops the job, and Cancel stops it any time.

Find and edit individual settings

Type in the Filter box to show only the rows whose number, name, group, parameter text or status matches — EQ, CAT, MISMATCH and so on. Double-click a value to change it, then use Write Selected to send just that one item. The Parameter column shows the radio’s raw format, and the status warns you if the number of digits doesn’t match the manual.

Six one-click menu presets

Save a backup for each way you use the radio, then assign them to the six Menu Presets buttons on the Control Panel. One click — or Ctrl+1…Ctrl+6 — writes that whole set-up to the radio. A preset only writes to the same model it was saved from, and the “ask first” prompt can be turned off for true one-click use. Right-click any preset button to set it up.

Control panel

Large readouts show VFO-A, VFO-B, mode and transmit power. Type a frequency in MHz (14.074) or Hz (14074000) and click Set; choose a mode from the list; set power with the slider or number box. Tick Poll radio to keep the readouts live while you tune. Polling pauses automatically during a backup or restore and stops on its own if the radio stops answering.

Raw CAT console and log

The Raw CAT command box is for trying commands straight out of the Yaesu CAT manual — type FA;, MD0; or ID; and press Enter. The answer appears in the time-stamped log at the bottom of the window. Tick Log raw CAT traffic to see every command and reply, which is handy when troubleshooting or learning the protocol.

Painless connection

The Yaesu USB driver creates two COM ports for the radio, and it’s easy to pick the wrong one. The port list shows each port’s Device Manager name and picks the Enhanced port (the CAT port) for you the first time. The list updates itself when the radio is plugged in, unplugged or switched on and off, and if the port vanishes while connected the program disconnects cleanly.

Color themes

Seven themes under Options → Color Theme: Slate Gray (the default), Night (Dark) for the late-night shack, Light Brown, Sage Green, Steel Blue, Rose Clay and Windows Default. The change is instant and remembered.

Slate Gray Control Panel · Night (Dark) Menu Settings with the filter set to “DATA” · the theme menu

Requirements

• Windows 7 SP1, 8.1, 10 or 11. The program uses .NET Framework 4.8, which is built into current Windows 10 and 11; the installer adds it on older PCs.
• The Silicon Labs CP210x “Virtual COM Port” driver from Yaesu’s support page for your radio.
• A USB cable from the radio to the PC (or a serial cable to the RS-232C jack, if your radio has one).

Installing

1. Download the installer zip below and extract both files into the same folder.
2. Run setup.exe. It checks for .NET 4.8, installs it if needed, then installs the program with a Start-menu shortcut and an uninstaller.
3. If .NET 4.8 is already on the PC you can run the .msi by itself instead.

Getting connected

1. Plug in the USB cable, then switch the radio on — the radio’s USB chip often only appears after it powers up.
2. Make sure the Port box shows the Enhanced COM Port, and set the baud rate to match the radio’s CAT RATE menu. The defaults (8 data bits, no parity, 2 stop bits, no handshake) work with all four radios.
3. Click Connect. The status turns green with the model name and the Control Panel fills in.
4. Before trying anything else, go to Menu Settings, click Read All from Radio and save a backup.

Keyboard shortcuts

Downloads

• ZIPYaesu CAT Control installerVersion 1.0.3 · setup.exe + MSI — Windows 7 SP1 through 11 · 1.3 MB→
• MSIMSI onlyVersion 1.0.3 · for PCs that already have .NET Framework 4.8 · 1.5 MB→
• HTMLUser guideFull manual, also installed with the program (F1)→

SHA-256 · ZIP e036895a97d292bf6d96ba015bfb1d9b10bfe25912b287f187452697af13ef86
SHA-256 · MSI 2a2c2f2ad9f49ba174865756469b7de84708013b49c6edf6917a62a7396dfc2c

Provided free and as-is. Always save a fresh backup before writing a different set-up to your radio. If something doesn’t behave on your rig, let me know. 73!