I have one, the yaesu 7800 with a little inexpensive thru-window whip. It works well, but not superb. The thing I like about it is that it doesn’t catch your eye and advertise that the truck has a radio in it. I have a scanner antenna on the other side of the windshield and it looks just like it.
Overall I’m happy with this radio. I program it using the computer which is much easier than the buttons on the radio. It can hold like 1000 repeater channels, ridiculous! LOL I only have about 50 programmed in.
So what rig or rigs do you have, and do you like them?
I’m using a Kenwood TM-261 feeding a 160 Watt Mirage amp to a collinear 5/8 on 2M, a Radio Shack HTX-10 feeding a Crossbow vert. on 10M, and a Cobra 29 WX ST NS with a Turner +3B power desk mic. on 11M. The crossbow does double duty on 10/11M.
I get regular reports of strong sig and modulation/deviation from a lot of stations as far as 80 miles away. I am at 2900 feet.
EDIT: Just got a Magnum 257 (Amber face, 30W PEP) to replace the HTX-10 and my Cobra CB. Yeah, I know it’s not type accepted for 11 Meters.
Also, I recently got a Solarcon A-99 to replace the Crossbow. It works better.
I recently put my Kenwood TM-G707 feeding a Comet 5/8 mag-mount in my car, so now I’m mobile, too…
Yaesu VX-7R portable with a 2mtr amp and a mag-mount antenna, soon to probably be replaced with a real antenna
curious what kind of thru-window antenna you have yaesuuser? I bought a Workman WEP2000 (they have no website, search ebay) and was gonna use that…
Also have a Yaesu 7800 which needs some new diodes and then will be good to go… seems like it’d be a nice little rig if it wasn’t deaf (by around 48dB) on 2 meters (which the replacement diodes will hopefully fix)
Might at some point get an Icom IC-2820 and a second antenna (real diversity receive!) but not so sure I want to spend ~$600 on a radio in this economy…
I don’t know what kind of antenna it is, I do know that I got it off Ebay! I can take a picture of it for you, it’s a dual band, just like my radio. My radio isn’t deaf at all, it works great so I know it will work fine once you get it up and running normally.
Yeah I think your antenna is pretty similar to mine, which is about the same as the other 329589483945 dual band through-glass ham antennas on ebay I assume it’s about 28" long, pretty flexible especially at the coil? I’ve seen a lot of em…
Deafness is definitely due to my radio; it has a few bad diodes in the 2m signal path, damage not defect. But it was cheap on ebay! Works great on 440 tho and hopefully will be good on 2m if the diodes will ever arrive…
I’m using BaoFeng UV-5R with SP./MIC 2M/70CM Dual-Band and 136-174/400-480MHz FM. Not bad actually.
It seems that many people got their radios from eBay.
Where do you get your radio?
I Have a Baofeng UV5RE that I got to have the flexibility to use a lot of bands and do some scanning. It was cheap and versitile. Plus I made an antenna for it that I an take hunting and mount nice and high to set up a mobile base, mostly at the cabin.
I have a Garmin 650 radio Gps and that is a disappointment the maps are expensive and ******. I haven’t had a chance to try the radio much, yet, but my brother has one and we will meet up in October to hunt and see how they work.
I have a Cobra sideband and CB radio that I occasionally use in the Pickup. I used it more when I used to convoy around with a buddy on weekends windsurfing.
I also have Marine band mobile in my boat and a handheld I use in my Kayak.
I also have an old DX 390 radio shack scanner radio, oh, and another handheld CB.
The funny thing about all this is last week I thought I was just getting interested in radios and bought the Garmin and Baofeng and then I started looking around and realized all I need now is a ham license and I’m 100% in.
You’ve got a lot of equipment! I just got my own ham license a couple of weeks ago (KK4PIL) and have been playing around with a Baofeng UV-5R. It’s a great little radio, especially considering the price! What kind of antenna did you make?
I generally agree with you on the Garmin Rino 650. They’re pretty nice GMRS radios, but definitely overpriced if all you need is a radio. It is nice that you can see other people in your group’s actually location on a map, but if you don’t need this feature (or if you’re the only one that will have a Rino) then I don’t think it’s worth the cost.
Yes, the seller in eBay says the chips be upgraded, but i can not sure that. Someone said it is not true,just the baofeng uv-5r with different package.
I am so confused, anyway i like the appearance of GT-3, it looks more fashion than uv-5r, but the function need to be test.
Well, sooner or later, someone will get one and post a review. There has been some chatter about them on other forums; but nothing really in depth yet. They just hit the market, so we need to see what people discover.