Archive for the Yaesu tag

Yaesu VX-8R, the good, the bad, the ugly

As noted in the previous post, I have a Yaesu VX-8R now and I thought I’d post some of my impressions in my standard review format…

The Good

This radio is top-notch in a number of areas:

• The audio quality on send and receive seems to be excellent.  Although nobody buys an HT for its awesome sound quality on receive, it’s nice to have a radio that puts out clear audio right up to max volume.
• The radio only has 1 knob and setting the volume involves pushing a function button and turning the knob.  My initial reaction to this was not good, but as I played with the radio it occurred to me that something was different… unlike when handling my Kenwood TH-F6A, handling the VX-8R never resulted in the volume being bumped to a weird setting.  I have to give props to this, because it really annoys me when the volume knob on my Kenwood gets bumped off the preferred setting.
• The radio is light, even compared to the tiny Kenwood that I have.  This means that it can clip on clothing a little easier.  The radio is also quite thin, thinner than my wallet – you could carry it in a pocket if you had to.  Perhaps that says more about the junk I carry in my wallet than the radio, but you get the idea.
• The radio is submersible.  The primary purpose of an HT is outdoor use for me, and that means exposure to rain and a non-zero chance of being dropped in a puddle or pond.  Submersible is a major bonus in my opinion.
• APRS is built in.  This is also a great feature for outdoor use.  I hike and geocache, and it’s nice to know that I can carry a beacon with me in the event that I get into trouble.  I use my Kenwood D-700 as a repeater when I am in the woods, and now I can use it to digipeat my location when I’m on a trail or seeking Tupperware by GPS 🙂
• The radio seems to have good performance on 50 and 220 MHz.  I haven’t really played with it on the other two bands.  There is no problem getting into the 6m repeater that is in my grid square (VE3RVI: 53.030, minus, 1 MHz), and no problem making the 220 MHz repeater even on the reduced power that this radio puts out in that band (VE2REH: 224.760, minus, 110.9 Hz tone).

The GPS unit works well, even from inside my house.  It has a nice little display that gives all your position info.

The Bad

These are really snivels.  There’s only one real issue with this radio as noted in the next section.

• The lithium-ion battery that comes with the radio is, at 1100 mAH, a bit light for a radio of this power.  I wish the radio was delivered with a pack that accepted AA cells as well, but that is a separately purchased option.  There is, however, a higher capacity battery available separately.  I’ll have to look into that I guess.
• I don’t understand why this radio is so low powered on the 1.25 m band.  It’s definitely better than nothing, but it would be nice if it had full power like the Kenwood TH-F6A.  I’m sure there’s some design reason, but my gut tells me it should have been easy enough to overcome.
• The radio only has AM, Narrow FM and Wide FM modes.  This really reduces the functionality of receive in the other amateur bands.  The radio has wide frequency coverage, but within the amateur bands, you can’t listen to the SSB traffic.  Considering that competing radios (like the Kenwood TH-F6A) have SSB and CW reception, it surprises me that this radio does not.  That said, I don’t spend a lot of time listening to that stuff with the Kenwood, so it’s not a major issue with this radio for me.
• Sending and receiving APRS messages is a bit of a PITA.  If you’re used to the Kenwood D-700 system, you’ll be disappointed.  Per the previous paragraph, the APRS messaging is buried a couple levels down in menus, and my first impression is that the whole interface is not especially intuitive.

The Ugly

I have only one major complaint about this radio, and that it uses a complicated menu system.  The main menu has something like 100 items.  So many of the features of this radio are accessed from the menu, that there is a very steep learning curve.  Sure, the basic functionality is straightforward, but if all you wanted was a couple of VFOs for talking, you would buy a much less expensive radio.  I am certain that another row of front-panel keys could have reduced the menu complexity a bit and not added significantly to the size and weight of the radio.  Even simple features like squelch are in the menu system, making them hard to use.

Whatever you do… DO NOT LOSE THE MANUAL!  I guarantee you’ll need the manual often.

Summary

I am very pleased so far.  I have some accessories on order (speaker-mic, GPS antenna).  I may explore the Bluetooth board, although I am not convinced I want to use a bluetooth headset – mostly because I usually have such a headset for my telephone and don’t think I need two headsets on at the same time.  I will be seeking that AA cell battery pack.  That’s a must-have in my book.

The stock battery seems to have a lifetime of about 3 hours while using high power to talk on a repeater AND transmit an APRS beacon every two minutes.  I haven’t decided if that is good, bad, or ugly.  For most of my use, I don’t expect to use high power, so I would expect to get more battery life.