Yaesu 991A

read post from start to finish

read it again

follow the steps

DO NOT connect a USB cable from your computer to the FT-991 until you load the drivers listed below.

B. Go to the Yaesu web site and download the drivers for the FT-991. The drivers you are looking for are the: FT-991/ SCU-17 USB Driver (Virtual COM Port Driver) (3.74 MB).

What will happen is that you will end up installing: TWO (2) COM ports. One is an ENHANCED COM port (in my case COM 4) the other is a Standard COM port (in my case COM 5)

Now that you have installed the drivers, now you can connect a USB cable from the PC to the 991. You might even hear the PC making some system beep noises as it realizes that it has been connected to an external USB device.

With the 991 connected you can check that these COM ports were installed on your machine by going to Control Panel, then Device Manager, and look under the “Ports (COM & LTP)” drop down. You should see two newly added ports:

Silicon Labs Dual CP210x USB to UART Bridge: Enhanced COM Port (COM 4) (<–OR SOME OTHER NUMBER)

Silicon Labs Dual CP210x USB to UART Bridge: Standard COM Port (COM 5) (<–OR SOME OTHER NUMBER

Again, your new ports might be numbered 3 and 4, or 6 and 7, or some other combination. The key is that there are TWO of them, one is labeled Enhanced, the other Standard.

Note: These ports will NOT show up unless you have the 991/991a connected to the computer via the USB cable.

Please note that it can happen that the drivers are not installed but they appear in the device
manager (under COM Ports) however without port number. In this case you have to install them
manually leaving the USB cable connected. Click on the com port in device mgr and then on
update driver. Do this for both Enhanced and Standard COM ports. This happened to me- K3EK

I recommend the Triplite USB 2.0 Hi-Speed A/B Cable with Ferrite Chokes (M/M), 3-ft. cable for the

connection to the radio from the computer. Other cables do not have the ferrite or may not have the

shielding that you need to have within the cable. MANY errors that show up with software crashing or

Hamlib pop up errors, of folks crashing software when on 40m or high power on 20m are due to the

cheap USB cables without shielding out there. Get a quality cable and be done with it. Lack of

grounding and RFI issues are quick to present themselves when using digital modes. If your keyboard

starts to lock up, or your mouse, or the software starts acting sluggish.. check your grounding and

address RFI issues.

If you have different radios that you are connecting to the same laptop for digital (in my case, a

FTDX1200 and the FT-991), PAY ATTENTION to the different COM ports that are assigned and make

sure your are using the correct “pair” of standard and enhanced ports.

Know what you have installed.

Check them in the System Properties!

Once the drivers are loaded, it is a matter of getting the digital software that you want installed and

setting it up to talk with the USB port on your laptop.

Remember:

USB drivers (Win 10) HAVE TO BE installed first.

DON’T SKIP THIS.

If you do not install the driver first, NONE of this will work.

Just stop reading now. Stop reading and install the driver from the Yaesu site. Here is the link again.

Once that is done, then move forward to the next step.

Yaesu FT-991/FT-991A MENU SETUP:

These are the MENU settings that I changed from the default values.

031 CAT RATE 9800 ( just make sure the software and radio match the same CAT RATE, mine's set to 19200bps - see step 33

032 CAT TOT 100ms

033 CAT RTS Enable

062 Data Mode OTHERS (NOT PSK – change to OTHERS)

064 OTHER DISP (SSB) = 1500 Hz

065 OTHER SHIFT (SSB) = 1500 Hz This widens the audio bandwidth

066 DATA LCUT FRED = OFF

068 DATA HCUT FREQ = OFF

070 DATA IN SELECT = REAR

071 DATA PTT SELECT = DAKY

072 DATA PORT SELECT = USB

073 DATA OUT LEVEL = 30

Yaesu FT-991 Screen settings:

MODE: DATA -USB (NOT USB), choose the DATA-USB setting.

These are the settings on the main screen of the FT-991 that I adjusted (via the F – M List ).

WIDTH: 2400 or 3000

METER: ALC (I use an external meter to watch RF power out)

RF PWR: 8-50w start low and work up.

NAR/WIDE: W 3000 OR W3k

DT Gain: 6 *** IMPORTANT ***

The DT Gain defaults to 50! This will overdrive the rigs modulator which will cause unwanted audio

harmonics. Not good. Turn the DT Gain setting down to about 4, and start working your way back up,

watching for ALC on the meter as well as the power out that you want. As you move the DT Gain

setting back up (higher), you will see your power level increase as well as ALC levels. Find the happy

medium of NO ALC showing on the meter. Excessive ALC indication is a sign that the audio drive is

too high and distortion is most likely happening.

Open a Winmor session via the main menu : open session > Winmor

Go to the speaker icon in the task bar and right click on it., a window will open

Go to sounds >playback and activate (set default) the USB codec speakers; then go to recording and activate the Microphone USB Codec.

Go back to playback and highlight the Codec speaker.

Then click on properties > level.

set the max level.

Same thing for the Microphone Codec level.

Back to Winmor. In settings > rig control you'll have to choose your radio FT-991A. Mode USB

(Settings - Radio - Vara HF radio Settings)

Mode: USB

(USB digital?)

Serial Port to use: Your enhanced COM port

Baud Rate (9600)

(19200 is better)

Enable RTS

Enable DTR

PTT Port: FT-991A

Check that the baud rates are set the same for the port and the radio (step 1)

On the new Vara Window (the one with the scope and gauges) Select the audio devices in settings>Sound Card Setup

Capture device is the Microphone USB Codec

Right click on microphone - click properties

click on "Listen"

click "listen to this device"

Check that Playback device is the Speakers USB Codec

Click again on the speaker icon in the taskbar and this time go to : Open volume mixer

Check that the Winmor volume setting slider is present

Still in settings make a test if your PTT works and if your 991A starts sending out a test signal

settings > trasmit level test

Look at the receive bar/gauge in Winmor and try to keep it in the green zone,with the sound levels, you can use the RF Gain knob on the 991A

Check the ALC of your transceiver during the test. Do not overload the audio.