Quality Radios

[kc2prn]

I would like to know what are the quality handheld radios, antennas, mobile units, and base units out there? So far I have 2 Yaesu VX-2R and the VX-7R. And so far I like the Yaesus (but hate the manuals). Please your thoughts on this and help a new ham out. Thank you!! 73. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[KC2MDP]

I found that most modern rigs do the job all about the same. The only real difference is all the bells and wistles,some nice - some just plain worthless. And let's not forget the cost, there can be a REAL difference here.
#You can get away with all the fancy doo dads running a fixed station, but mobile. How are you supposed to use half of these features while driving? Let alone remembering a twenty step sequence just to get the feature you want.
As for the manuals? #I think most of them come with a bigger book than the rig itself. # #Theres a lot to be said for the good old days of tubes.

Read up on the ones your interested in, pick out the ones you like and then ask the folks who have these rigs on there opinions. I'm sure they'll be more than happy to give you the goods and bads. NOW you have some ammunition to make a wize choice.

[n6hcm]

as for manuals ... i found that the mini-manuals from niftyaccessories.com to be really useful.

[WA2ZDY]

All three of the main Japanese manufacturers make good rigs. The bells and whistles and transmitter power vary between them, but for the most part, a rig is a rig.

There are exceptions of course. The Icom 2720 is a dog. It barks in the night and you should steer far away from that one. Yes there are folks who got good ones or their circumstances don't highlight the rig's problems, so not everyone will tell you horror stories. But there are plenty of the horror stories, including my brother's experiences with his 2720.

In my experience the Kenwood TS570 is questionable too. I've used two and both had awfully bad receivers. I've seen a few posts here referencing the same issue. But, unlike the Icom 2720, most things I hear about the 570 are good. Maybe it was just one sub-model, or one production run, or who knows.

For HF, add TenTec to the expensive but good bunch of rigs.

Mobile antennas: Larsen. Hands down. There are so many success stories, they are used in the land mobile industry and there are a few of us here who've had the same antenna in service for 20-30 years. I hate to say this but the "amateur grade" antennas, Comet, Diamond, etc, are expensive and just don't have the track record of Larsen.

For home station VHF/UHF antennas the market is a bit different. If you don't want to spend ridiculous commercial repeater money on Celwave (or whatever they call themselves this week) or DB Products, you're going to have to go with Hustler, Diamond, etc. For HF, build your own. Wire and insulators are cheap. There is NO excuse for lining someone else's pocket to buy an HF dipole.

As for manuals, well, some of these rigs have so many bells and whistles . . . useless ones at that but they still need a paragraphy or two each. Coupled with the native language of the amateur radio tech writers being Engrish . . . well, there you go. Whether a rig has a good or crummy book seems to be hit or miss more than anything else. I think the tech writers are contracted by the job, so there's no continuity among the writing of any one company.

Good luck.

[NO8M]

I have the VX-6R and the FT-8800. The 8800 was definitely worth the money. It performs well and the ability to monitor 2 channels at once plus the crossband repeat capability make it golden. One note about these radios....I definitely recommend acquiring cables & programming software - it's SO much easier than programming by hand. Check out www.RTSystems.com for that stuff....that's where I bought mine and it works great.

I've also operated ICOM's 746 Pro and 706MKIIG....both great radios.

[wa9cwx]

All about the same, the technology changes, and rigs change, bells and whistles are there to test us.

ZDY is wrong.
The manuals are ALL written by one person.

He is a hybred semiperson who has no human contact, only an old word processor, a few pages of a Hebrew translation of the King James Bible, and a dartboard with #partial phrases on it.
They are then edited by a fifth grade remedial class with ADHD.
Scanner instruction manuals are worse than Ham rig books. In all honesty, I had to buy a SIMPLIFIED version of an English translation of a high end scanner #instruction book, it is, as I recall, 90 pages or so long.
The original English book was almost unreadable, using bizzar terms and phrases.

It was filled with things like "The Channel scanned lock out to be programed as active must be entered in the bank of hold frequencies unused as active when searched in non-prority." and other little literary gems designed to make me wish I was born overseas.

Only truely terrible rig from a non-user friendly standpoint, and unlearnable as far as I was concerned was later Azdens.
2000 Great, 3000 Good, 4000 ideal, 5000 logical, but sneaky, 6000 not for non-geeks, 7000 totally unusable, designed by the same guy that writes manuals.
All very good rigs, but progressivly more complex, non-intuitive, and finally totally bizzaro.

[KG6YTZ]

Quote[/b] (wa9cwx @ June 26 2006,22:43)]All about the same, the technology changes, and rigs The manuals are ALL written by one person.

He is a hybred semiperson who has no human contact, only an old word processor, a few pages of a Hebrew translation of the King James Bible, and a dartboard with #partial phrases on it.
From Dave Barry's column "Read This First":

"For results that can be the finest, it is our advising that: Never to hold these buttons two times! #Except the battery. #Next, taking the [something] Earth section may cause a large occurrence! #However. #If this is not a trouble, such rotation is a very maintenance action, as a kindly [something] viewpoint from Drawing B."

I assume you guys are aware of the web site Engrish.com? http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

ANYWHATSIT... #Back to the original topic. #KC2PRN, you're likely to find a lot of sharply divided brand loyalties when you ask questions like that. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif #I know hams who swear that Icom stands for "I Can Only Monitor," but I own two IC-2100's and have never had any problems with either of them [although, to be honest, neither one has very much mileage on it]. #You'll find hams who insist that the only good rig is a Kenwood rig. #In my opinion, a good rig is one that does what you want it to do without burning up and/or falling apart. Brand names don't matter - reliability matters.

[K8ERV]

Hint on manuals. The Nifty are good except for the inflated ship cost.
When you are familiar with the most needed programming sequence, just
type up your own mini manual. I store mine loose in the battery compartment
so I can remove it to look at while programming. With all my rigs I can't remember
them all.

Works for me.

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

[K8ERV]

I have 15 (no, don't ask) Icom VHF rigs, and like them all.

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

[W3MIV]

Tom: How do you program without the battery?







http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[K6UEY]

As A new Ham the worst radio you can invest in would be a VHF hand held radio. In 6 months of only talking on repeaters you will be so frustrated you will take a loss and give up Ham Radio or the rigs will wind up on the top shelf of the hall closet.

Amateur Radio opens up a vast oppurtunity for the ham who has the insight to take advantage of it, DON'T get BOGGED DOWN on a vhf repeater. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

[W3MIV]

Quote[/b] (K6UEY @ June 27 2006,10:03)]As A new Ham the worst radio you can invest in would be a VHF hand held radio. In 6 months of only talking on repeaters you will be so frustrated you will take a loss and give up Ham Radio or the rigs will wind up on the top shelf of the hall closet.

Amateur Radio opens up a vast oppurtunity for the ham who has the insight to take advantage of it, DON'T get BOGGED DOWN on a vhf repeater. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif
Sage advice: Upgrade and open a new and better world of interest.

BTW, Howdy, ORV! Glad to see a post.

[K8ERV]

Quote[/b] (W3MIV @ June 27 2006,06:50)]Tom: How do you program without the battery?







http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
I remove only the manual, try to keep the battery in place. Works mo better that way.

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

[N7RJD]

Quote[/b] (WA2ZDY @ June 25 2006,23:50)]For home station VHF/UHF antennas the market is a bit different. If you don't want to spend ridiculous commercial repeater money on Celwave (or whatever they call themselves this week) or DB Products, you're going to have to go with Hustler, Diamond, etc.
Chris, I agree with you dead on and word for word but do have to add that for VHF/UHF base antennas it is hard to beat Arrow for both performance and value. This is without even going into if you ever need to call and ask a question which company offers better customer care pre, during and post sale.

[k9kjm]

Consider the Yaesu FT 8800 Dual band radio. Cross band repeats, And is actually two radios in one box. A great rig.
AVOID at all costs the Icom 2720 dual band........... #A real lemon. # http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[ab8ro]

Without a handheld, crossband repeat isn't all that useful.

If you're just going to chat on the local repeaters you can buy two meter radios all day and all night (well, all morning at least) at hamfests for $20 to $70.

I've got an old heath HW2xl 2m handheld which I got for $15 last summer. Unfortunately the squelch control has dirted itself to death and cleaning doesn't bring it back to life. But, I used it for a year.

I dunno, mabye it's just me, but half the fun is getting it all working together. If I was looking to spend my first $300 on ham radio I'd do it at a hamfest. You should take someone who knows the value of stuff along with you though.

[kc2prn]

Thanks guys for your input on this (touchie) subject. Let it be known that I am a newbie and all the feedback is great in decision making for handhelds, mobiles and base. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[al2i]

I am a Kenwood Man. I like the audio, I like the RF performance, and I like the intuitive controls. Everyone finds their own favorite.

Rollin', rollin' rollin',
Keep them Kenwoods rollin',
Radio Pride!

I hope you realize that I am not being very serious here. He He :blush:

[ai4ep]

handhelds ---

worst --- Icom older model 32 dual band ( 2 meter & 440 ) & the Icom model handheld that had the 2 meter transceiver and the wide band receiver on the right ( required 2 seperate amtennas ).

Never owned a Kenwood handheld

Alinco --worst ---dj-162

Yeasu --worst -- ft - 470

-------------------

Handheld BEST

Alinco - dj- 580
Yeasu - ft - 150
Icom - none
Kenwood --- never owned one to judge it

Also -- no less than 8 realistics htx - 202 through the 15 + years I have been a licensed amateur radio operator...built like a brick ( look like a brick ) and easy to program and operate. Only reason sold any of them is --- folks make offer and I sell it to them, I didnt really try to sell them, they sold theirselves with quality and reliability.

===============

mobiles ( 2 meter & 440 )

WORST
Adi - 147 ---junk
Yeasu ft - 5100 ...hard to use
Kenwood tm-732 ...flaky
Icom 3200 --- noisy

BEST

Yeasu - ft - 1500
Kenwood - tm - 231
Icom ic-2100...not real fond of all the buttons on microphone but otherwise good rig.

[WA7KKP]

There are all kinds of quality radios out there, but the price makes the average ham faint dead away . . .

Motorola makes probably the best two-way FM radios, but you pay dearly for a new radio. Usually about 10x the price of an equivalent ham radio. Now you can get bargains in used gear, but be prepared to program/align them yourself -- don't expect a commercial tech to do the job on a $10 radio for less than $100, or his one-hour rate. And don't moan about that either . . . .

Just like any electronics, there are good, better, and what some would consider best. All depends on the luck they've had. My opinion of Kenwood is good, but the worst radio I have is a Kenwood -- not due to electronic design/ruggedness, but to lack of operator ease. Maybe that's why it hasn't seen 12v DC applied in years.

Gary WA7KKP

[KC9HJX]

I will second Motorola.


Find yourself a Good, Used Maxtrac or GM300 on VHF or UHF and I garauntee, hands down, that it will be the best "bare-bones" radio you will ever own. Once you've used Motorola stuff, you usually see that there's no comparison to hammy crap. Some of it is OK, but most of it is fragile and cheap-feeling.

Just my 2 cents. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[N2MWE]

Need I say anymore? http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[KC9HJX]

Nice

MTS+HT Sexy! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[ai4ep]

The best built 2 meter Amateur handheld that I have ever owned ( see partial list above...that is not the complete list, just mentioning the best & worst of all I have owned ) is the Realistic htx - 202. Yep, the one that will not recieve nor transmit " out-of-band "....nor is no longer made.

Built like a brick ( sized about like one )...super easy to program and use on a one-time-per year basis. This is not a rig you have to use every day to remember how to use it.

But your opinion may vary ( I hope all of you do not think like me !! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif )

AI4EP (Robert) http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[WA2ZDY]

I'm glad to find some semi-agreement on manuals. I was trying to be kind . . .

I should have thought of Arrow Antennas. I have one!

You may also find it worth considering what YOU plan to do with the rig to decide which is best. Kenwood HF rigs have been known for 30 years for very good noise blankers. In my book that makes them preferred for mobile use. That's what I've used for over 20 years. Other rigs may do other things YOU want to use better.

I decided to leave the Motorolas out of my discussion of best. Yes, they absolutely are, but they're not for everyone. Some guys want to change things around enough that paying the local MSS to reprogram isn't doable. Then paying $385 for a legal copy of MTSX isn't doable either.

Yes, Ma M is the best but far from user-friendly for a ham who likes to "tune the band" at will. For me they work. And yes, the GM300 is great, so is my Syntor X.

Now this pic is not up to date - I have an MT2000 now too. And the high band MT1000s are gone. My HT200 on 29.600 isn't in this pic either. And right now I need an MT500 battery for it. We'll see . . .http://www.wa2zdy.com/radios.jpg

[N2MWE]

The biggest problem I have with amateur gear is the fact that because they are synthesized and broadbanded, their front ends usually stink. I've had Yaesu and Icom handhelds that were rendered totally useless in the City of White Plains and the City of New York because of all the RF.
Hence, my MTS2000 for 2 meters and my MTX838 for UHF...the White Plains PD repeater is on top of my building, yet doesn't even bother my 838. Pagers all over the roof of my building...not a peep on my MTS2000.

Why can't the amateur gear be that tight?

[kg4llq]

As for manuals................
Para englis, marke uno; para espanol marke dos.

73, Ken - KG4LLQ