Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: Yaesu VX-150

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Hand-held

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : Yaesu VX-150
Reviews: 245MSRP: 170
Description:
2m Vertex / Yaesu 5W handheld.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.yaesu.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
002454.7
N8YIG Rating: 2004-05-08
Can take Wife's abuse Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My wife knocked HT off of the kitchen counter one week after I got it. Took a three foot drop, NOT A SCRATCH ON IT! Works like brand new, battery life is fantastic! Would definately recommend this unit to anyone.
WB5SST Rating: 2004-04-19
Great little HT Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a solid, well performing HT. It programs easily enough, and has more features than I have been able to use. Battery life is exceptional.

For $119, it's a great value. Add free shipping from Texas Towers, and it's exceptional.
N8XE Rating: 2004-04-15
Great little radio Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I wanted to get a more durable HT than the FT11R I had. A fellow ham bought one and she was very happy with it. They had them on sale so I bought one.

This little thing does really great. The battery last longer than any HT I have had before (mostly because this has alot of things you can turn off to conserve battery life). I have used this in the mobile sitting between the seats using a speaker mic and vehicle power adaptor and have no problems getting into the repeaters. Oh yea, I am using the antenna on the HT. I know that some would argue that it has nothing to do with the radio ("you just have good repeater coverage"). Perhaps. I know that I never was able to do that with the FT11R!

Anyways, the thing is easy to program, simple, and I LOVE the angled display so that I can see if from my belt.

Get you one of these gems, you won't be sorry you did.

73,
N8XE
KB1KIX Rating: 2004-04-12
Great Monobander!!! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I read a few of the negative posts before I replied, I can't say I agree with a single one.

It worked just fine for me out of the box - bar none. Has been more dependable than my other HT's and Mobile.

Setup is quick and easy. Full quieting is all I hear from the area repeaters (they are 40 miles or less away and less than 200W). I'm only useing a portable groundplane antenna with 2 radials and it works awesome!!!

I have had this radio for over six months now, and will get another just for a spare.
KE5ASU Rating: 2004-03-31
Excellent radio, but the documention can use some improving Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I agree with all the other reviews here, but I had a problem programming the DTMP Autodialer (page 26 of the manual). I called Yaesu tech support and told Mike the problem. He said he'd call me back today and he did!
The documention on page 26 of the manual is missing some information. When programming the DTMF Autodialer (there are 9 memorys), the * is E and # is F. If the label (or number) is less than 16 characters, you MUST press the F key prior to pushing the PTT (a step 7A if you will).

Mike also said the Yaesu programming software does NOT work for Windows XP, and refered me to RT Systems. I've ordered the software from them, and waiting on the post office.
WA6OWH Rating: 2004-03-29
Great radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Strong audio on receive and transmit. Bought a generic 1.6 Ah battery and the rig seems to go for days before needing a charge... it does need the larger optional charger to recharge it.
The speaker mike connection could use improvement as it tends to pull out just a little and go into transmit. Oops.
No problems even after a few drops to the ground while out walking. The case is metal and just gets slight scratches.
Over all would buy it again.

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by WA6OWH on 2003-02-10

This is a great little HT. The receive & transmit audio are excellent plus the antenna seem to get out better than some other duck antennas.
The rugged feel of the metal case gives a good grip and provides a heat sink for the finals.
The Belt Clip is excellent and holds on better than some others that slip off when you bend over to pick up something.
The 700 ma NiCad battery lasts a long time. The radio incorporates a receive battery saver and a Transmit Timer (30sec, 1 min, 3 min) that beeps a warning just before it shuts you down... only HT to have this that I know of. Nice touch.
N4CQR Rating: 2004-03-17
Great Price Performance Ratio Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I purchased my VX-150 in March of 2003 for general 2M activity, monitoring NOAA and a couple of railroad frequencies. As of this writing I have had nothing but solid performance from the radio. Battery life is very good for a NiCd pack. TX/RX audio is great also.

All in all, best in it's class.

Craig - N4CQR
N2YQT Rating: 2004-03-15
this thing is a workhorse Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I owned one of these a couple years ago but sold it when I needed money for another project. I recently purchased another one to use in a solar powered APRS digi.

This radio is built to take a beating. It is commercial quality through and through. You can tell even with the battery off that this thing has enough heft that it will last a while. I put the first one I had through it's paces on four wheeler trips, snowmobile rides, bouncing around in my 4x4, on fire calls and it it never let me down. This second one is going to be the radio for a solar powered APRS digi. I plan on not using the batteyr pack that comes with it and instead using external power and placing a heatsink from an old pentium 166 where the battery would sit. There was some chatter on the Yahoo! VX150 message board about these radios having problems heating up and loosing there finals. this should curb that.

You can't beat the price for theses either. $119 as of this writing. Thats pretty cheap fora portable that will most likely last as long as you do!

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by N2YQT on 2002-05-16

This is a rugged little radio. There is plenty of recieve audio. Audio reports where great. Lots of features and they all work as specified. I would recommend getting the ADMS software if you are going to program alot of memories. For the price it can't be beat.
KI4EFG Rating: 2004-03-11
Love it! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a wonderful little hand held transceiver (and I do mean little). It feels very solid, but my one complaint is that it's a bit on the hefty side. I'm going to resolve that with a hand speaker/microphone. Overall I've received very good signal and audio quality reports. I'm using the Comet SMA-24 antenna as recomended by one of the other reviewers, and it's working beatifully. I can hit all of the repeaters within about twenty miles on two watts with it. The included rubber duck works pretty well, but it can't beat the Comet for transmitting. Battery life is pretty good. It lasted about two days for me with normal use after the first charge, using mostly two watts, with a few transmissions at five watts. The speaker is nice and loud, and the radio generally has all the features I need. I bought it based on reviews I read here, and so far I have not been dissapointed.
KG4WMG Rating: 2004-03-04
Very nice HT Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This HT is a great little piece of equipment. I love the metal chassis, small size and the menu is very easy to access. I also like the fact that it has 3 knobs instead of 2 like some HTs. The SMA connector is very nice but I am considering putting a BNC connector in place of the SMA when the warranty is up so I can attach the more readily available BNC antennas.

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by KG4WMG on 2003-10-04

I purchased this HT for $120 after borrowing one from a fellow HAM and have never regretted it! It has gotten very wet and has fallen off of my roof more than once and still works flawlessly! I strongly recommend it as a first HT (Although it now usually costs $169.99) because it is user friendly, tough and has astonishingly good transmitted and received audio.