I'm looking at getting a handheld tranceiver for now that I've got my HAM license. Any HAMs out there have a radio model they really suggest or warn against? I'd want something rugged, with good battery life and preferably either a dual-band or tri-band. Price isn't too much of an issue, since I've kind of planned for the expense, but I'm looking at around $300.

First congratulations on your ham license.

My wife and I have a pair of Icom T90a's which we bought a few years back. Triband, 2m, 70cm, 6m, 5 watt output with good battery life and small compact size. We like them quite a bit, but I have not done any study on any newer radios since I bought these.

Sort of a pain to program, but easier with the very crude programming software. A bit of intermod in the city, but overall not bad. Wide receive including other ham bands, TV, AM, FM radio, NOAA weather, (all but cell phone).

Needs a good antenna....Smiley Antenna's are now my favorite (5/8 wave 2m, 5/8 wave 440 and a dual band. We have not used the 6m band at all.

We bought a spare Li-ion pack and AA holder for each radio.

Our emergency comms group is farily well represented with Kenwood and Yaesu radios of similar capabilities, so I think as long as you stay within these brands you almost cannot go wrong.

About the only thing I have noticed with all the folks in our comms group is that the more compact and complex radios are pretty easy to forget how to program. The little quick guide laminated cards are real handy to slip in the radio pouch.

Almost every handheld I have ever seen comes with a totally useless antenna....junk it and order a decent gain antenna right away. I have used Pryme, Maldol, and the new Smiley's. The thin wire Pryme RD-98 is a great antenna, but the precision tuned Smiley's are much better....even if of old telescoping style. I also have made tiger tails for these radios which can help a bit too.

http://www.smileyantenna.com/

I've been wanting to get one myself but so many are coming with Lithium Ion which I don't want because I don't want to have to buy a new battery every 2-3 years even if they are lighter.

The Yaesu VX-7R is really great. It is dual receive and also receives TV, AM, FM radio, NOAA weather. It is extremely rugged, and is rated to be submersible to three feet for a half hour!
I got one recently for $300 from hamcity.com after some research. It is one of the best you can get, and I love it so far.

http://www.yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=Dis...mp;isArchived=0

I have learned to mistrust the ham manufacturer's battery packs over the years. They just don't use very good quality cells inside, whatever the technology. And they charge an awful lot to buy their custom-fitting short-lived packs. So I would say, if you can, try to get a radio that has an accessory form-fitting pack that can take AAs, for use as a backup (or even regularly, but with less power output).

I take the dead packs apart very carefully and rebuild with my own choice of cells after they die. Way cheaper, and not one I have rebuilt with quality cells has ever died. But then, if you're a ham, doing thngs like this is what it's (meant to be) all about...

You sure are right about the programming of these radios. I would never say I have the best memory, but these things have so many functions and the programming of some of the important functions is really obscure. I wish they put their user manuals in Word or pdf etc. format. Maybe some do? I actually typed the manual for mine into Word, shrunk it down a lot so it all fit on one page both sides...I use it all the time. Must be getting old...

I just got my HAM Tech license a few months ago.

I also have the Yaesu VX7 radio and like it quite a bit. Here is a webpage with reviews for this radio:

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/2350

Justin

You can go to Eham.net look for the reviews and check there for handheld reviews I have yeasu and love the radios alot.

Lee

The problem I'm having is being able to buy a radio wihout the Lithium Ion pack. All the ones I find they come with the pask then you have to buy the AA pack seperate so I'me paying for a soon to be useless Lithium Ion pack that I don't want or need.

What I want if the ham equivalent of this. I have one of these I bought used for $40. The battery pack slides off and then pops open to hold 6 AA's. Then I bought two more packs which were designed to hold 8 AA NiCad's and filled them with Sanyo Eneloop NiMH and it works fine. So I have one pack to use while the other is charging and I can use the NiCad trickle circuitry built into the packs if needed or pull the AA's out and plug them in a good charger. Used it a few weekends ago when I met a friend in a state forest. We were past cell phone service so I handed him that handheld CB so we could talk back and forth as we drove around trying to find the shooting range.

I've been using the Yaesu VX-5 (a precursor the VX-7) for a while now.
I hate it.
It's got an obtuse, insane programming process, you can inadvertantly press buttons that leave the radio inoperable until you press a totally different sequence other buttons to clear the action of the first button press.
The function menus are in no particular order, features you'll never use (like setting the Barometric Pressure Offset for the optional altimeter) are at the same level as setting the squelch (which can ONLY be accessed via a multi-step process).
As a ham radio, it's OK - I can talk and be heard on local repeaters.
As an AM Broadcast Receiver you'll better with a crystal radio set made from a razor blade and oatmeal container.
It's fair to poor on other receive bands like the 150Mhz and 450Mhz bands. It does pretty poor on Aviation bands.

Kenwood makes a much more useful and practical radio in the TH-F6A. At about $320, it's comparable to the VX-7, however, I find this to be a radio that I can actually USE. Not only that, it's small. The TH-79 (a dual-bander) is pretty good too, a bit bulky, but you can find them for $125 pretty much everywhere.

I did a quick search on the TH-79 and it says discontinued which must be the reason for the low price as everyone must be clearing them out.

I have both the Kenwood TH-6A and TH-79. The '79 is a great but old radio. Large by todays standards, but a good starter radio if you can find one cheap. Lots of features and easy to program. Rugged as well.

The TH-6a is also a good radio. It is not as sensitive on some of the SWL bands as a larger radio would be, but I can listen to SSB with a wire antenna attached.

Only real problem with the TH-6 is the alkaline battery pack. Only holds 4 batteries so if you are not using alkaline or lithium batteries, the voltage will be too low for high power operation. NiHh cells are a bit lower in voltage so the total of 4 is a bit low for full power operation. I usually keep lithium batteries in the pack as a back-up to the lithium factory battery. But the factory battery seems to provide excellent service.

TH-6a has a lot of nice features, but does not do full duplex which the '79 does, but not many folks will miss that feature.

Yaesu 7800. I like mine.

First, thanks everyone for the congradulations on my license. Its something I've been looking forward to getting and something I think is a great survival skill.

Second, thanks for the recommendations. I plan on getting a Yaesu VX-7R. It sounds like its a little more difficult to program, thats set off by how rugged it seems to be. I'll be taking it out in the field quite a bit either for recreation or for geology trips, so rugged is a big thing for me.

Hope to be talking to everyone soon.

First let me join in congratulating to your new licence.
I own the Kenwood TH-F7E. It´s a good transceiver. The output is only up to 0.5W with the optional battery pack. With the original pack the output is 5W. I use it a lot for a SOTA-like contest. I even had QSOs at about 30km ATCF with a 53 rapport at 0.5W.
You might wish to buy a few accessories too. I have a speaker-microphone, a small flexible mobile antenna and about 40cm length and a small magnetic mount with 2.5m of RG174. The antenna has more gain than the original one and the cable offers the option of placing your antenna for best reception/transmission. This can be a huge advantage as proper placement may make the difference between a QSO or no QSO. The speaker-microphone allows to operate the handheld more comfortably and at a bigger distance from your body (less interference). It also helps to reduce the risk of dropping it.
If you want use it for emergencies you might consider the option of using APRS. The TH-D7E has a build in TNC. The TinyTrack helps to use other tranceivers and a GPSr for APRS.

Sorry but I noticed that the post wasn´t at the intended point just a little bit too late .

Joining the congratulations. But changing back the name of the useful topic. If you don't mind...

Not at all, I haven't ordered anything yet, so new input's still very welcome. Good to see so many HAMs on the forum.

Yaesu makes decent stuff, so not a bad choice at all.

These very small multi-bander HTs all have a fatal flaw IMO. What we need is a proper user interface. Ummm...these radios are much more complex than a cell phone, but have a fraction of the ergonomics. They assume every user is a geek I think. OK, guilty, but still. About half the volume of current units is battery...understandable and good. But I'd take another inch+ in height for a better screen and menuing system. And it would probably give room to make the battery even larger too. What's a few more ounces in weight, it's not like you put these in a shirt pocket? It is so easy to screw up the setup of these radios by pressing the wrong button just once or twice trying to figure something out. Which is why I mentioned I always stuff a miniaturized copy of the instructions somewhere in my carry stuff. A menuing system would make these radios so much more appealing, and I'm sure it will be available very soon, progress is exceptionally slow in the commercial ham world, they are always a generation behind the general consumer world tech (which somehow seems odd, but it's been that way since I've been involved in the 70s).

What do you guys think of the VX-150 or VX-170?

VX 150 is a great little radio have one and love it. Eham reviews 4.6 out of 5, 200 + reviews.

Lee

Thanks, thats a model I'm looking at now since its AA pack is the same voltage as its lithium ion pack so it should allow full function without needing the lithium ion.

After I earned my amateur radio license last year I read a lot of reviews on the eham.net web site. The one handheld radio with the fewest complaints was the Yaesu FT-60. I focused my research on it and eventually bought two of them. One for me, and when my wife earned her license, one for her.

It's a dual-band (vhf/uhf) radio with good battery life. While it has all the complexity that comes with many features in a small package, the basic features are easy to learn and use. It's weather resistant, and continued to operate with no problems after being rained while providing support for a local event.

You can buy the radio for under $200, which leaves a little money in your budget for extra accessories, such as a mag-mount antenna for your vehicle. I think the FT-60 provides a lot of value and I haven't regretted buying it.

Dennis

One thing the FT60 also uses the same battery holder as the VX150 even though the battery packs are different. I also have the Ft60 and like it also.

Lee

I have to put a vote in for the FT60 also. I did a lot of research on-line and talked to many other hams. What some issues came down to was ease of operation. I learned that the ICOM's and Kenwoods are quite complex and difficult to get use to. For me that read frustration and if your frustrated with any techy thing you might end up not wanting to use it. Anyway, I bought the FT60 and I really like it. It is rugged. The battery that came with it holds its charge for a long time. I too bought the AA battery pack accessory though I have not used it. This radio has been very simple to use. The manual is easy to understand. I bought the CD program to manage frequencies to upload/download on my PC. That alone is very cool. I participate in a local emergency communications group and on 5watts others can hear me as I them on our local repeaters. This radio goes with everywhere. I bought a MFJ magmount for my truck for 40 bucks including shipping. That has helped "get out" on simplex.
I would suggest participating in your local HAM club. Lots of helpful and knowledgeable folks that really want you to enjoy HAM. Ask them what HT they carry and WHY they like it.
Welcome to HAM radio and have fun with it.
KI6GRS

I received a private message regarding my earlier posting. One of our members asked if I thought he (she?) could earn a Ham radio license without taking a formal class, since they could not find one in their area (Chicago, which surprises me). I answered them 'off-line' but then realized others might have the same question but not be willing to ask. Here is my response:

I don't know how much you know already, so bear with me while I provide some background. Feel free to skip ahead if it suits you.

The FCC currently issues three levels of Amateur Radio (i.e. Ham radio) licenses: Technician, General & Amateur Extra. In broad outline the Technician license gives you "voice" privileges on several VHF & UHF radio frequency bands. The General and Amateur Extra class licenses provide privileges on the HF (i.e. shortwave) frequency bands usually used in long distance communications. This is a gross oversimplification, but it gives you a rough idea of what you get with each license class.

The Technician license is quite easy to earn. You can learn everything you need to know to get started in Amateur Radio from books, though a class helps introduce you to others in the hobby. The American Radio Relay League (ARRL)(www.arrl.org) is an excellent source of information. Their book "Arrl Ham Radio License Manual" ( http://www.amazon.com/Arrl-Ham-Radio-Lic...85108494&sr=8-1 )
is an excellent introduction and was the textbook used for the class I took last year. I could have passed the test by reading the book without the class, but the class was fun. Convincing a few of your friends to get their license at the same time sounds like a great idea.

You can take a sample test (which uses 'real questions', the test question bank is public) at this site: http://www.eham.net/exams/. By the way, here's a link to information about classes in the Chicago area, courtesy of the "Amateur Radio Toy Store" in Wheaton: http://www.amateur-radio-toy-store.com/classes.php.

When you're ready to take the test you can find testing sites and times using this link on the ARRL web site: http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/examsearch.phtml. There is a $14 fee to take the test. The fee covers the overhead costs of administering the program, including sending the exam paperwork to ARRL (via FEDEX) for input to the FCC.

I got into Amateur Radio for a number of reasons. First, my dad has been a Ham for decades, and has wanted me to get on the air for many years. Since learning morse code was eliminated as a requirement for the Technician license a number of years ago (and for all license classes this year) I finally made it a priority to get my license last year. I expect to use it for emergency communications when traveling and to participate in public service communications as a volunteer periodically. For example, next Saturday I'll be helping to provide radio communications for a local bike race. Next month I'll help at a parade here in town.

Feel free to follow-up with more questions. I'll do my best to answer them or point you in the direction of resources to help you find an answer.