I love the bandscope feature of the FT3 but if you use it on the pre-programmed “BAND” frequency ranges the scale of the scope is too small and the sweep time so slow that it becomes a little unusable.
The good news is that the special L/U programmable memories of the FT3 can act as custom “BAND”(s) with custom step size.
For a band like CB, 2M or PMR446 that is great news because with a little effort you can see the entire band on a clear and channel sized scope and with no lag!
Let me explain the photo below. The radio is tuned to 446.09375 and the scope set to 19CH mode with 12.5KHZ steps.
As you can see the scope bars are quite thick, that is because I have programmed the FT3 with a narrow set of frequency limits and a custom channel step.
PMR 446 covers just 16 channels from 446.00625 to 446.19375 in 12.5KHZ steps. Thats just 16 Channels. If I used the standard UHF band setting of the FT3 then the scope would have to work very hard to scan 79 channels at say 6.25KHZ (at least half a MHZ) of bandwidth. This makes the FT3 seem slow and the scope next to useless.
The solution is the L/U special memory channels. Here I use PMR 446 as the tutorial as it is a small and channelised band.
Press BAND to goto FM UHF band. The Press/Hold DISP to get to the settings menu.
Press CONFIG->18 (STEP) and enter 12.5KHZ then go back to the VFO using the BACK button.
Now press the Frequency display and enter 446.00625
Press Hold FMW … Turn the VFO dial until L1 (appears in the memory slot) then hit “M.WRITE” and enter PMR CH1 then DISP.
Repeat the above process but enter 446.19375.
Press Hold FMW … Turn the VFO dial until U1 (appears int he memory slot) then hit “M.WRITE” and enter PMR CH16 then DISP.
OK. From the VFO screen now hit V/M to enter the memory recall mode and turn the VFO until L1/PMR CH1 is selected.
Press FMW –> SCAN.
When the SCAN starts hit STOP, then FMW ..
Press FWD and magically SCOPE is now available to press.
Voila!
A fast, easy to read bandscope that shows all 16 PMR channels on one screen with no lag!.
The important thing to learn here is that the STEP size is SAVED with the L1/U1 pair and that is transferred into the scan control software when you press SCAN. This saves so much time!!!!!
A good reference for PMR 446 is the Kenwood Whitepaper: https://kenwoodcommunications.co.uk/files/file/comms/uk/pmr446/PMR446-White-Paper-V6_18AUG2016_JT_KB.pdf