Best Ham Radio Handhelds In 2022

everybody loves a good ham radio handheld even those that spend the predominant amount of their time on HF still find themselves with one or two of these things and there are so many options now from the very cheap to the top of the line that many people look around and go what should I look at well today I'm going to try and give you my top ham radio handhelds that I feel have a good balance in cost feature set and performance so let's take a look if you've been following my channel in 2022 I started doing something a little bit different I started going to the park and actually taking the radios with me and transmitting back to my home station about a mile away as the crow flies that allowed me to amass a decent list of ham radio handhelds and antennas and they're ranked based off of their signal to noise ratio the performance of the transmitted power back to my home station while this is not lab grade testing it's definitely shown us some things that I found really interesting from a practical point of view one of the things that I think is most important in a handheld is not necessarily the transmitted power output but the quality of the audio going out of it EG what your friend hears on the other end on the other radio kilo India 6 November Zulu testing the Bell thing gt5r on two meters high power high power and what you hear coming out of the radio so today's video is going to be me taking all of that into consideration and telling you what I feel are the best ham radio handhelds at the multi-price range level the cheapies basically topping out at 200 everything from 200 to 400 and then the sky's the limit with the high-end stuff starting out with the cheap stuff I went to the field and we tested sub 100 radios and there's actually a couple more that I have practical use with that I have carried and have really enjoyed for me it comes down to three or four of them that I really like the first being the Yaesu ft4x this one performed okay in my signal to noise ratio testing the audio quality is fine it has filtering in it that meet the FCC standard requirements so we don't believe it creates spurious interference and it's basically the same type of radio as a baofeng the cost way more expensive than a balfang and I feel the quality is also a bit higher in the case and some of the features this lacks a dual Channel A B Channel type experience that you would get on a bow thing some people can't get past that point so I put it down kind of at the bottom of the list on the cheapest Ham radios you can pick up it would be hard for me to make a video about a handheld and not mention a balfang does it deserve to be on the best of videos maybe not but hear me out on this one this is a gt5r this bowfeng's claim to fame it's just like all other battle fangs you've ever experienced before but this one is supposed to be FCC compliant with regards to spurious emissions a spurious submission in the form of a transmitting radio is where you could be on a primary operating frequency the one that you read on the screen and when you PTT you're transmitting on with a radio that has poor harmonic suppression when you key up you will be transmitting in harmonics of that fundamental frequency the FCC requires that we have to be under a certain level of DB power output for all the harmonics of a radio balfangs generally do pretty bad at these tests and is often one of the reasons people don't like bow things the gt5r sold by Radiology is supposed to be compliant to the FCC harmonics requirements mine is I can't account for every one of them and who knows what the QA is like for some of these factories I can't really comment on that but at the same price of a bow thing it's probably the best way to go so gt5r makes the list because you kind of have to have a bow thing on there links for radios will be in the description some of them are affiliate codes I will post when it's an affiliate link if there is one so thank you at the sub 100 Mark though my favorite was this simple olenko the the olenco DJ vx50 I felt had slightly better audio than the ft4x Hilo India 6 November Alpha Zulu testing high power it is a bit of a larger radio but in general I thought that it performed better in regards to transmit audio received audio and signature noise ratio in my sub 100 radio testing now there are two radios that are in the sub 200 category that I haven't taken to the park yet one of them I actually gave away on my channel I did carry it for a long time and I tested it in a different way on a live stream and that's the wushun kg uv90 mate the orange radio the really high Vis hard to lose kguv90 mate I generally like that radio a a lot I don't have the signal to noise ratio testing that I have done with other type of videos so I can't say where it lines up on the list but I enjoyed the audio quality the user control and the power output when we tested it live on stream the next radio that I haven't taken to the park yet but don't worry I will is my first radio or you know that that same um skew the Yaesu ft60 the ft60 is still available on the market it's been around for quite a while it is a super heterodyne radio this is where we start to make a transition into Super heterodyne by the way I'll explain that as we go here this is going to have a way way better receiver than all the cheap radios that we talked about before it won't be susceptible to what this baofeng is doing in the background which is the descents or somewhat of a potentially an intermod situation that it's having where it is having a bit of an overload of the receiver of the radio by stronger adjacent signals that are off frequency like a loud FM station in some cases or something over there likely a laptop charger is screwing up with it if I put my yasu over here no problem so the front end of that radio much much better this is still available for about 160 bucks you can get this at Ham Radio Outlet or wherever you like to pick up Ham radios those are available online you could probably get one used for very little money and it still makes a perfect radio it was my first radio I'd still recommend it for first timers it is simple sure but it's high quality and it sounds really good too all right the 200 to 400 price range I really only have one pick here this radio is simply one of the best handhelds you can get I am so happy I got this radio it is pretty much gone with me everywhere since I got it it is my daily radio it is also kind of like my have a little bag bug out radio Another Gay Sue coming in hot I think a lot of you probably already know what it is it is the Yaesu vx6 this is the first of the submersible radios that we're going to talk about it is incredibly small and it is tri-banded the body of the radio is metal literally feels like a brick it has a number of features like submersible tri-band those are kind of like the big ones that that stand out to me it is 230 to 240 dollars the accessories are not that expensive although you kind of are locked in when you get accessories for this there aren't a lot of radios on the Yaesu line that still take these batteries that are available I have a feeling that this radio will not be around much longer that's just a hunch of mine it's already kind of getting a little old so is the ft60 but I feel like this one has a longer lineage and probably more staying power I don't know how expensive this radio is to make but I feel at 230 something dollars for radio this size and being tri-band they there's it's considerable in the cost to value relationship if you are looking to upgrade from a cheap radio like a bow thing I think personally you should save your pennies and get this radio the vx6 is a fantastic radio you get a couple of replacement batteries for this get yourself a drop in charger get yourself that mic that actually can screw in and so you have a waterproof roof connection it is a really nice radio I've really liked it it sounds okay November Alpha Zulu testing the Yaesu vx6 this is our benchmark test to compare against itself to see if there is some kind of change or something I'll give a caveat here the only caveat that you could probably throw at this radio speaker's kind of small and it's also a submersible radio so it's not going to be the best quality speaker but as far as staying power goes in this area the the Yaesu ft60 and the vx6 are really good radios and really good buys something I should mention about the vx6 the vx6 gives me strong like quirky Vibes it reminds me of the the Heyday of the late 90s and early 2000s when Ham radios did all kinds of weird things this thing has a CW like trainer built into it it has that weird barometer that you can plug into it along with an altimeter among some other little quirky things that it does it's just a cool radio and I think fit at its size you can just have it with you all the time and it's just good now I have a confession to make 2022 has proven to me that I just don't really like DMR it it's not something that I've really done at all in 2022. I've really focused in the areas of amateur radio and reviewing products and doing the different things I do on the ham radio crash course specifically towards the things that I am the most passionate about and frankly just DMR isn't it but I will give a nod to all of the any tone 878 radios this is like the first gen or one of the first gens they're all good DMR radios they're DMR radios they can also do analog I understand and thank you for the correction that even the latest rendition of this radio can actually do aprs although it's kind of clunky or cumbersome to do which aprs is probably one of my top features as you well know I'll give it the nod just because it deserves to be on the list it is a good radio if you are a DMR fan this is a fine place to go if you are not that interested in DMR or you have not really experienced DMR I feel like you might want to start out with analog particularly if your new ham the only way I tell people and this is for everybody that wants to ask me this question there's only one type of person that when they ask me hey should I get into DMR I'm a new ham should I get into DMR as my first ham radio as a new ham the only person I would say yes to is someone who lives in an area with very few people that they need DMR or an Internet connected digital voice radio either via a repeater system or a hotspot to be able to make connection with people then I would say get yourself in any tone 878 not a cheap radio though probably the one of the more expensive handheld DMR radios on the market all right here's where it gets difficult the above 400 price range I have three radios I'll just get the one out of the way the Kenwood d74 is unobtainium I picked this up late in 2022 I know it's not even available it's 800 on eBay I keep repeating that don't go buy this radio at 800 it's not worth that price if you can get closer to five hundred dollars and you have the money to spend it's worth it for one type of person those who want to use that TNC capability into a laptop there's already radios that do D start there's already radios that do aprs for cheaper than this thing at this time it's also kind of a hog on the battery and to be frank it's just a brick it's it's literally just a rectangle brick it doesn't give me a lot of love when I look at it the buttons are small the bezel's big it sounds okay although the speaker is kind of small again it depends on your use case I love the radio it could be my most favorite radio of the year but it's just not worth the price so just caveat I know you guys have seen me make some con some content with this radio and I do truly like it but I don't think it's worth the 800 and I certainly didn't pay that for this next radio another Yaesu the ft5 Dr has to be on this list it is the radio I carry when I go outdoors and I'm potentially in a situation where I am going to be off the cell phone grid and I'm gonna need to use something like aprs so that I can keep my friends and family notified of where I'm going and how I'm doing this isn't a replacement for a satellite device like a spot or a Garmin inreach or anything like that but as far as ham radio goes it's one of the better ways you can stay connected when you are off grid its size is right it is an upgrade to the Ft 3dr which by the way for anybody that is curious if you can get an ft 3dr cheap just get an ft 3dr if you can get an ft 2dr cheap get an ft 2dr they're very similar radios the batteries and the accessories are all interchangeable within the Ft line all the way back to the FT1 when you got to use aprs in the field this is the radio I would take if it's simply about beaconing your location and very light messaging the on-screen controls are kind of a pain but this is one of only a few radios that has fully functioning aprs that I would actually depend on in a situation where I might need it or just for fun now last but not least is the Icom id52 the Icom id52 is the radio I take with me when I'm driving somewhere or I'm traveling not necessarily to go backpacking like just you know go into the San Gabriel Hills Local to my home or anything like that but I'm actually getting on a plane going to a ham fest going on vacation this is the radio I take if I'm driving far from my home like over an hour two hours whatever this is is the radio I want with me and the reason for that is really simple there's very little controls on this radio there's no keypad right and there's no touch screen which means well how do you control the thing what do you do well when it comes right down to it easiest thing about this radio is the memory card solution for loading repeaters on it you go to dstart info link is in the description you type in your location and basically how many repeaters you want that are d-star or analog only repeaters you load it on your compact flash card put it into this radio and load off the CF card that's all you have to do and you can create a copy of repeaters for whichever geographic area you're going into so I have one for Orlando Huntsville Dayton all the places I go for ham Fest are loaded on this everywhere I've gone on vacation I put on my little memory card which is like a 32 gig or something like that and then when I'm on the plane or when I get to wherever I'm going I just change over to that repeater set and start scanning the GPS allows you to scan geographically where wherever you're at and point you at the right repeater to listen to at any one moment you can find the nearest repeater to you whether it's d-star or analog and you can get right into talking if that's what you're all about now on the pantheon of complexity programming a yasu system fusion and d-star repeater is very low dmr's complexity of programming is much higher for its code plug nature once done though the DMR radio is kind of like locked in stone yes some are front panel programmable you can use the keypad or whatnot the yasu system fusion and d-stars however are easier to program just kind of on the fly from my point of view this is my subjective opinion here and I've had plenty of times where I programmed repeaters on either the id52 or the ft5 Dr and they've both been just completely fine now as far as a radio being a radio this radio has I feel the best transmit audio and the best transmit receive out of the speaker during my testing I found that this radio was superb in that sense in comparison to the competition this did not beat the Yaesu in signal to noise ratio but I feel that that is not as important as the transmitted audio and the quality of the receive audio out of its speaker that's why I give this radio the nod on my everyday use when I'm in and around town tooling around driving somewhere or in travel putting a backpack on I'm taking the ft5 possibly the Kenwood and then my beautiful icon probably can can stay in the shack or stay in the car don't believe me here's an audio comparison between the Icom id52 and the Yaesu ft5 Dr Hilo India 6 November Alpha Zulu stock might gain stock my game kilo India 6 November Alpha Zulu this is the Yaesu ft5 Dr testing high power high power kilo India 6 in November Alpha Zulu across the Southern California waters in Los Angeles Civic Center it was sunny with temperature of 6 . I'd like to wrap up this video by having a Frank discussion with everybody in the room that thinks that the baofang is the end-all be-all of radios or the inexpensive radios for that matter there's a couple of issues that I have with that not that you're wrong um if you're happy with your bell thing be happy with your bell thing I just hope that you will consider the following points one the quality of material that go into a balfang and a less expensive radio are not going to be close to that of say the vx6 for instance right the audio on the receive side is not going to be as good and how you sound on the other side is also not going to be that good here's a comparison of a bow Thing versus the Yaesu vx6 and the Icom id52 Amazon uv5r on two meters kilo India 6 November Alpha Zulu transmitting on the A2 vx6 at high power on 2 meters kilo India 6 November Alpha Zulu testing the Icom id52 this is at high power high power kilo India 6 November Alpha Zulu test [Applause] all right your simple bog standard uv5r across the Southern California waters further the belfeng behind me is still doing its little interference dance that it has going on cheap radios that are called direct conversion radios are going to be overloaded very easily overloaded by an adjacent signal of some kind which will actually deafen the receiver it will make the receiver not function you won't be able to pick up that repeater you're listening to or that person that you're trying to make a contact with on Simplex you generally need to step up to a more expensive radio that has appropriate filtering or go all the way into what is called a super heterodyne radio so for those of you that absolutely want to have the best reception in your handheld and try to get the longest distances you basically should start your journey no less than the Yaesu ft6 or anything that is a super heterodyne receiver and then start going up from there you shouldn't consider the bow things you shouldn't consider the sub 100 radios at all for everybody that's going to ask what about Motorola well when Motorola makes an amateur radio I will definitely review it I'm not that high on the idea of having to go get a Motorola radio figure out how to get it programmed this steep learning curve that is Motorola and then to have something that's basically a DMR radio I kind of already said I'm not a big fan of DMR right so I know there's also p25 I get all of that those are less desirable things to me but I am keeping an eye out for a Motorola radio and I do appreciate your feedback on maybe where I should look maybe there are little tips or tricks you can tell me that would make my introduction into Motorola that much easier and then I'll share it with all of you what do you think of my list here I think it's based on my practical testing that I went through my personal opinion based off of the look and feel of the radios and just frankly what I like and don't like if you find that I don't speak the same language as regards in regards to Aesthetics that's okay hey at least now you know leave your comments below I would love to hear it and I'm posting a link here for you to go check out another video that I think will really work with what you're looking to see in amateur radio I'm Josh ki6naz I'll talk to you later 73. [Music]

Channel: Ham Radio Crash Course

Views: 41,813

Keywords: ham radio, Ham radio crash course, how to get your technician license, what to do with ham radio, having fun with ham radio, how to run a ham radio net, hoshnasi, introduction to ham radio, ham radio basics, amateur radio, amateur radio antenna, ham radio antenna, operating HF, qrp antenna, hf radio antenna, calling cq on hf, ham radio review, amateur radio review, icom id-52a, yaesu ft5dr, kenwood th-d74a

Id: wAKnn8MUexw

Length: 21min 55sec (1315 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 11 2022