1) Make sure the radio is actually writing APRS logs
On the FT-5D:
- F → SETUP → APRS
- Confirm the items that matter for “I want files on the SD card”:
- APRS Log / Message log / Position log options are ON (wording varies slightly by menu item)
- If there’s an option for Log to SD, enable it
- Do an APRS receive/transmit test (so you know new entries will appear).
2) Write data to the SD card (from the radio)
- Insert SD card
- F → SETUP → SD CARD
- Choose WRITE
- Select APRS (or ALL if you want everything)
This step matters because some data won’t exist on the card until you explicitly “WRITE” it out.
3) Pull the files on your PC
- Power off radio, remove SD card
- Insert into PC card reader
- Browse the Yaesu folder tree; typical paths are under something like:
YAESU/APRS/YAESU/LOG/- sometimes
YAESU/BACKUP/contains packaged backups, while APRS logs stay in APRS/LOG subfolders
What you’re looking for is generally text-like logs (often CSV-ish or fixed-width text). Copy the whole APRS folder to a dated archive, e.g.:
FT5D_APRS_2026-01-08/
4) Turn the logs into something you can search/filter
Most folks want one of these end states:
Option 1: Excel/Google Sheets
- If the log is CSV: open directly.
- If it’s text: import as delimited, then split columns on commas/tabs/spaces depending on the format.
Option 2: APRS mapping / analysis
- If the file contains lat/long or raw APRS strings, you can:
- parse into columns (time, source, dest/path, lat, lon, comment)
- plot in a mapping tool once you have clean coordinates
5) Recommended operating practice
- Each outing / event: WRITE → APRS to SD when you’re done.
- Keep “raw” copies; do your parsing on duplicates.