Connecting your Yaesu VR-5000 Communications Receiver to your computer.

Making the connection between your Yaesu VR-5000 COmmunications Receiver and your computer is very simple. However, there sometimes is some confusion as to just what componets are needed to do this without frustration.

There are some thing you must observe about your receiver.

You must realize that Yaesu was trying be very funny when they used a 9-Pin 'female' serial port connector on the receiver instead of the standard 9-Pin 'male' serial port connector. Serial cables that connect between the computer and the interface they are connecting to usually are compatible, but this connector must have a gender changer attached to it, just to get started.

Also, the most important part of your connection is the need for a NULL MODEM cable. Yeah...another Yaesu attempt to be funny. This is the ONLY receiver that uses a NULL MODEM cable.

So, what do you do...you do some Internet research.

Options:

1. One of the things you can do, is find a NULL MODEM ADAPTER and use a standard 9-Pin Serial Port cable with the 9-Pin Gender changer, like I have shown in my photos below.

2. Or, find a NULL MODEM cable. Where you get them...I do not know, but people somehow find them.

My first cable was quite obnoxious looking. It had two 9-Pin to 25-Pin Serial port cables with a 25-pin gender changer and a 25-pin NULL MODEM ADAPTER connected between them. This gave me the right connector on each end to connect between the receiver and the computer. This is what I used to write my first version of my VR-5000 Signal Capture and Analysis Software. I still have it, just in case I can't find my other cable.

I was lucky enough to find a 9-Pin NULL MODEM ADAPTER at a local computer junk shop at my QTH, which allowed me to use a standard 9-Pin Serial Port cable. Although the NULL MODEM ADPATER I found was made for and sold at Radio Shack at one time. They stopped selling them several years ago. Howver, I did go to Radio Shack for the 9-Pin Gender Changer and once connected to the receiver, I was in business and the connection was much cleaner and very simple to maintain.

Here are the photos of my new setup for the above mentioned cable.


Shown Below: This is overall photo of my cable connection.


Shown Below: This is an enlarged view of the connections at the receiver.


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This page was last updated: June 20, 2011

Copyright 2011, Kenneth Stevens, KE7ATE

ke7ate@yahoo.com