| N3NDW |
Rating:      |
2004-04-08 | |
| A great radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have had mine for about a week now, and I love it. I found the programing easy to use. (Not bad for an old guy). It receives and transmits very well with very good audio reports. The receive audio needs getting use to due to the size of the speaker, but I found that when working around the house I can use an ear bud and the audio is very good.
I like the scanning options the radio offers. I can program in all of my favorite frequencies, ham or public service and can select which ones I want the radio to scan.
In the evening I like to listen to the police action in my area, and the radio gives you the option to tag the different ones, and depending on where you start the scan function you can scan all of the memories or just the tagged ones.
I worked a UHF repeater today that was about 10 miles away from my office, with good reports. All this considering that I was in a cubical in the center of the building away from a window.
The radio has a whole series of shortwave and marine frequencies preprogrammed in the radio, and I was surprised that I was able to pick up some of these with the factory antenna.
I know the limitations of the radio and antenna and I am not concerned that the radio can not hear E-cars on 40 meters with the 4" antenna. When I get time, I will try it with a length of wire, and it should do fine.
I would like to have the programing software for it because it would be easy to move things around, and I would like to try and program in a crossband split, which is something I haven't been able to do yet manually.
I found the NP-60 batteries on ebay for under $10. each, and a pair with a drop in charger for under $30.
All in all, with the FT-8800 in the truck and this radio, I should have no problem working crossband repeat when the need arises.
The bottom line is that the radio is really nice and slips into a shirt pocket yet delivers 1.5 watts on 2 meters, and does all that yaesu claims. |
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| NS6Y |
Rating:    |
2004-03-29 | |
| Should have kept the 1r |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I got this one after my VX1R and it's just not the same- small but solid described the 1r, the 2r just seemed small'n'flimsy. Granted I was living in a different location but the 2r did not seem to recieve as well, and I found myself listening to it very little, and didn't make a single QSO. I did get the $50 rebate about 3 months after I sent it in, and swapped the radio by that time to a friend for other tronics toys, I don't know if he uses it much. I've not heard a peep from him about it since so I'd say he's probably got it on a shelf somewhere.......... |
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| KR3DX |
Rating:      |
2004-03-23 | |
| Great little rig |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Impressive capability in a small package. All of the handicaps of the VX-1R seem to have been taken care of with the VX-2R. Lots of memories, 20 memory banks (imagine 1000 memories without any banks, it would be useless as a scanner), rugged case and a decent receiver. I do get better VHF hi-band receive with an after market rubber duck (shorter than the stock Yaesu antenna) but for the price, these radios can't be beat. Extra batteries can be obtained from electronics superstores (BP-NP 60) for a fraction of the cost of one from Yaesu. Spend the extra money for a programming cable so that you can use your computer to input those 1000 memories. I can't imagine programming this radio "by hand". The commander software from KC8UNJ Jim Mitchell is far superior to any other that I have heard about, fantastic job, Jim!
73,
Denny |
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| N2DY |
Rating:      |
2004-03-22 | |
| Great Mini-HT |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought this radio to carry in my briefcase. I use it for amateur use and it doubles as a nice scanner. I have owned many HTs including most recently the VX-5R as well as this radio's predecessor, the VX-1R. I love my VX-5R but it has too few memories to cover everything that I may want to listen to here in the NYC area. The VX-1R was a nice mini-HT but I found the memory system and programming capabilities a bit frustrating. In addition, the 1/2 watt of power was often too little to get the job done. Well, the VX-2R combines the best of both worlds. It has more power than the VX-1R. While not the 5 watts that the VX-5R has, I find the 1.5 watts usually enough for what I do.
Yaesu made some nice simple changes such as putting the menus in alphabetical order to make life easier. The memory system is extensive and quite logical. Using the free VX-2R Commander software makes filling up the over 1000 memories a breeze.
The radio is very sensitive on all bands. It even receives well on shortwave and AM broadcast. Of course for AM broadcast a length of wire helps a great deal. Anyone who expects the rubber duck to do it all is fooling themself. Speaking of the stock rubber duck, I agree with the previous poster. It works very well for a 4 inch antenna and receives reasonably well out of band. I tried a slew of other ducks and found the Comet SMA-24 to be the best. It is a little large at 17 inches but it is very flexible, so it is not too cumbersome. You cannot fight physics. The 17 inch antenna will outduel the stock duckie any time.
Battery life has been very good. I picked up an external charger for FUJI NP-60 camera batteries that works great. I can charge my batteries without being in the radio. I also bought a few extra NP-60 batteries from a place called SterlingTek for only $13.99 each. So far, they work great.
Anyway, I highly recommend the radio. With the $50 off coupon, it is a bargain at around $130.
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| ZL4TGG |
Rating:      |
2004-03-02 | |
| Great transceiver for it's size |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have owned this rig for little over a week and I'm very impressed with it,The audio is very good and I have no problem contacting all the local repeaters as well as some of the distance one's.
I use Yaesu speaker/mike MH-34 with this radio, which has improved transmit no end, also I have no trouble with the rubber duckie supplied with this rig.
73s de ZL4TGG |
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| W8OB |
Rating:      |
2004-02-14 | |
| excellant |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I ended up getting 3 of these HT's while the rebate offer was going on. They are great transceivers, easy to setup and program. I use these a lot to monitor the public service bands from my easy chair, and like others I found they are quite deaf outside the ham bands with the stock antenna. I had a dealer send up a comet sma-24 to try out and WOW big difference on performance outside the ham bands. The small size of the battery pack is misleading, I have had these rigs for about a week now and have yet to have to recharge the batteries. For scanning, backpacking and working around the yard you cant go wrong on these rigs.A little more power output would be great but hey for the size of this HT and price who's complaining |
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| WA1USV |
Rating:      |
2004-02-12 | |
| Great Dual Bander! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
The other day I found myself in the candy store... HRO, in Salem, NH. I had done a lot of research on the VX-2R before I wandered into the store. I even downloaded the manual and studied it. When I got to the store, I was interested in seeing for myself why all the fuss over the supplied rubber duck antenna, and the reports of frontend / mixer overload.
I shared my concerns with the sales rep who told me they had very good experience with the radio. When I told him about the reports regarding the supplied duckie, he suggested I try all the after-market duckies they had in the store. Good idea. I did just that. I spent 30-40 minutes with them all. The testing, of course, was subjective, but when you're out in the field, you're not going to bring along your usual array of field-strength meters anyway.
I first tested in-band performance by keying up a repeater. To my surprize, the stock antenna performed better than any of the others, including the 17" Pryme RD-98. The Comet SMA-503 was the best of the aftermarket antennas, according to subjective receive signal strength (in band) but still not as good (and there was a difference) as the stock duckie.
Where there was a great difference (cf. other reviews) was in out of band performance. The duckie suffered somewhat when I started tuning around on broadcast FM band. I did not test on SW or the other VHF/UHF bands.
Regarding the antenna, I think it's an issue with intended use. Are you buying a dual band HT with wide band receive, or are you buying a wide band receiver that happens to have a built-in transmitter? I happened to notice the printing on the side panel of the VX-2R's box: "Ultra-compact Dual-Band Transceiver with wide band coverage." Also note Yaesu guarantees specs only within Ham bands. So there it is...
Okay, first impressions... I also own a VX-150 so I took a little time to A/B the two. I thought the VX-150 would far exceed the VX-2's performance. Nope, guess again! Both performed well for my geographical area (not a whole lot of rf). The difference in output power (1.5 watts vs 5 watts) amounts to 5.2 db. In all but the weakest signal conditions, that's not going to make much difference to me. Receive sensitivity and selectivity were similar, again to my surprize. One very cool little talked about feature Yaesu built into the VX-2R is a menu item what allows you to slightly shift the clock freq. if you're experiencing IMD on a particular channel. I thought that was pretty hi-tech for this level of radio.
When I got home there was still some charge on the battery from the factory. The low battery indicator displayed when I tx on high power, so I switched to low power. I tuned to a local mountain top repeater, 22 miles away. With my VX-150 I can work this repeater okay with 2 watts. The thing is, I could easily bring it up with the VX-2R's low power setting (100mw). This is a theoritical impossibility since there are two hills in the way, one hill right behind my house and the other hill about 3 miles away full obstructing line-of-sight path. Also, from inside my house, I could bring up a UHF repeater that's about 16 miles away and about 200' below line of sight -- still using 100mw.
Oh, back to the antennas... if all you want to do listen to FM broadcast using the stock antennas, just take several feet of light guage wire, wrap some around the stock antenna, and let the rest dangle and you're favorite stations will boom right in!
Regarding cheap NP-60 batteries on Ebay, make sure you get at least 1000mah and 3.7v (I found some 1100mah). There are some lower capacity ones and some 3.6v ones as well so be careful. All should work, but why not get the better ones?
To sum up, I am impressed. Given I'm not planning to throw the radio up against a brick wall or try to tune in China, I think it's a cool little radio for its intended purpose. |
|
| NB7I |
Rating:     |
2004-02-06 | |
| A good, small pocket rig |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I received this rig for Christmas, and have used it everyday since.
The stock antenna really is useless on any other band than 440. I couldn't even hear the local NWS station 20 miles away. I thought maybe the rig was broke, but stuck a short piece of hookup wire on the SMA, and up popped the VHF signals. I replaced the rubber dummy load with a Premier Flex whip. The NWS station was full scale then. (That's a big difference) One note - the Premier center conductor just barely made contact. With the Premier antenna, the shortcomings of the receiver become evident - intermod and mixing are common.
Did listen to some SW and BC - it works, but don't expect outstanding performance.
I have a cordura cellular phone case, with stretchy sides that I fold the long whip over and run down the side of the radio and out the bottom.
The rigs menu system seems easy to figure out, but I might have to refer to the book to perform some of the other functions you don't do everyday.
Size, battery life, and functionality are great. Audio output is good for the size. Any DC to light rig is obviously going to have some shortcomings, but this is one darn handy handi-talkie.
I give it a 4 only because it is obvious Yaesu put a rubber dummy load antenna on it to mask the shortcomings of the DC to light receiver. But it's still a keeper!! |
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| KK7PW |
Rating:      |
2004-02-06 | |
| So far, so good |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I recently purchased my VX-2R (in part to take advantage of the $50 rebate) and am glad that I did. I am able to hit all the repeaters of interest (with excellent reports and audio) and can scan / monitor many regional frequencies. It is lightweight (4 oz.) and easy to use. PTT does not seem too hard; all thumb buttons seem suitably firm to protect against accidental transmission in pocket or palm.
It took a little time to learn the many functions and features, but very intuitive -- not difficult or confusing at all (despite 1300 memories / configurations with no keypad like my FT-530 (which by the way is also a great "classic" rig).
Antenna is OK; not much action on HF bands. But that can / should be expected for reasons mentioned by others. Also a little intermod but nothing to complain about -- attenuator should do the trick if need be.
If you're looking for a small pocket rig with great features at a decent price, I recommend a look at this one. So far, so good.
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| KG0WX |
Rating:      |
2004-01-31 | |
| Fantastic! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
As the Yahoo VX-2R list owner, you would figgure I would own one of these little gems. However, It's my policy never to buy a rig within the first year of it's release. So, I waited untill the rebate offer had just about expired then got one.....
I've owned all the VX series radios, and this one is the best - it's so easy to program that I had 200 memories in before I had to look at the manual. Had to see how to program AO-27.
On the stiff PTT issue - mine is fine.
I have heard on the list that the stock antenna is a real POS. On 2m/440 it works ok for a duck but outside the ham bands it really sucks! I did a bit of research then bought a Comet SMA-24 which works wonders!
Hooking the HT up to a 134' dipole resulted in complete overload on HF freqs. Instead, I hook up to a radio shack 11m antenna indoors which gives a good compromise and performance. HF sensitivity is equal to my VX-7R.
One thing Yaesu did right is design the rig to use a standard battery! I see NP-60's on eBay for $2.74 all the time - I may go get one or two.
Another thing they got right was the menu system - is alphabetically organised and VERY easy to use.
Overall, I'd have to say Yaesu's got another winner on their hands.....
Ken KG0WX |
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