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.