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Reviews For: Vertex VX-800

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

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Review Summary For : Vertex VX-800
Reviews: 4MSRP: 533.33
Description:
commercial ht but 2m use
Product is in production
More Info: http://vertexradio.com/LM/vx800.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0044.8
K4JDR Rating: 2008-02-24
Great Radio resolved one problem with programming Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Lock ups and beeps that result while a user navigates to other banks require the radio to be reprogram, this was a problem, however my remedy was to assure that every bank had at least one programmed frequency. Seems that if you have a empty bank it can eventually lock up with the user if they change banks with the select button.

Since my template has filled banks it has not been an issue anymore. I programmed 36 VHF radios for Public Safety with one bank Amateur frequencies with great performance. Some users are Hams in the group.
LA6ZJA Rating: 2004-12-11
Almost perfect Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had the radio for one year now, and the little thing works like a charm...almost. The price is pretty stiff, 750 dollars!! (no I'm not kidding. (Prices Norwegian style..).

The unit has all the bells and whistles you would expect from a commercial radio, and it looks and feels proffessional as well. The battery life is good, the audio quality great, and the radio is more than tuff enough for law enforcement use. I've used both the F5D-14 5-tone unit as well as the FVP-25 encryption unit with the radio, and they both worked well.

The daily use hasn't been trouble free, the programming is also a challenge. The CE-31 programming software is simple enough, but the radio doesn't always respond 100% to the downloaded data. I've experienced radio lock-up's, and sometimes the radio enters "lock" mode on power on, even if the toggle switch is not the lock position. I talked to the Vertex dealer, and they confirmed that the VX-800 is known to be a "problem child" when it comes to programming.

Nevertheless, I refuse to get rid of my VX-800 simply because of its small size, ruggedness, and its many features.

The radio also plays well on the ham band, but as a ham-band-only radio, the radio would seem like an "overkill". Especially with the 750 price tag..

I'd give it a 5, hadn't it been for the annoying lock ups and power on lock issues.
KG6MQE Rating: 2003-06-06
Better then motorola Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Vx 800... I have tryed all the motorala stuff from saber,ht1000 to xts3500..the motorola shows spec preformance on the bench,but tx/rx in the field falls down, the vx800 out talks the motorola, on vhf...the only motorola that beats it is the saber, the motorols stuff might work fine in a voted system, but in our single site system, the vertex, even on the hip with a speakermike makes the repeater, reliabilty where the xts does not our system is analog and hopefully will stay tht way... Jim KG6MQE
KC8AFH Rating: 2002-01-15
Update 2 Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Had to get the UHF ver. of this radio I like VHF so much. These are by far the best radio yet, well the ft-847 may be a little better.
Sure does beat my dad's MTS 2000 FlashPort ht from Motorola for his work place his is like a kids toy.