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Reviews For: Yaesu FT-60R

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

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FT-60R
Reviews: 324MSRP: TBA
Description:
A dual-bander io the same case format as the VX150!
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCatID=111&encProdID=PUtPQg4MnJI%3D&DivisionID=65&isArchived=0
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
43.83244.6
KC7MMI Rating: 2013-07-02
Good basic dual band radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had this radio for a little over a year and I have no regrets, for the price. Like all radios, there are some great things about the FT-60R and some not so great things about it.

PROS:
• Less than $150 price point
• Dual band
• Long-lasting battery
• Above average reliability
• Average durability
• Relatively small
• Battery charged in less than two hours with optional drop-in charger

CONS:
• WIRES is an annoying joke which activates at the accidental press of the Ø button
• Knobs are cheap, small, and difficult to operate
• Side buttons are cheap rubber
• Too many useless features
• Scan feature is missing nuisance delete and a true priority scan

That about sums it up but I cannot reiterate enough how how annoying the WIRES button is. People (including myself) bump it all the item so the radio sends a DTMF tone at the beginning of each transmission. Yaesu engineers had their heads up their butt when they incorporated this feature. Radio is a great general purpose portable 2m/70cm amateur transceiver. Even with all its flaws, I still highly recommend it.
G0UOO Rating: 2013-05-30
Good value, good quality. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Tough, easy to use, very good battery life. Hits the local repeaters well, and is useful as an airband monitor at my local airfield. The battery retaining clip seems a bit cheap, but it's never given a problem.

Bottom line:
If you're looking for a value for money good quality handy this is it.
AC9CR Rating: 2013-05-20
An Old Friend Returns Time Owned: more than 12 months.
At Dayton last week I bought an FT-60. This was a purchase that I had planned. I was going to buy a second HT as a back up. I have a TH-F6A Kenwood and had a TH-K20, but I sold the K-20 in preparation for the trip to Dayton. Nothing wrong with the K-20. I just felt as a back up I really needed another Dual Bander. The FT-60 fit the bill. The price was great at $144.00 and I even bought a Diamond SRH77 to go with it. This is the second FT-60 I had. Last year when I decided, not my brightest idea, to do some upgrading I sold the 1st FT-60. I honestly have missed it. NOW an Old Friend is Back.
It is easy to program and most function are just plane simple to use. I find the size fits my hand very well and it just feels right. I've had a couple of the cheaper Chinese imports and they are fun for a while. But, the fun wears off and they are a chore to program on the fly. The FT-60 is never a problem to program on the go.
I would actual rate the FT-60 as a 4.5 if possible. I would like a dual display and a bigger battery, but for the price this HT is hard to beat.
Because this is my second one I can say that I have owned for over 12 months.
N9APD Rating: 2013-05-01
Great radio - geat deals Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had my FT-60 for about 5 or six years, and it has been a trusty reliable performer. Paired with RT Systems programming software and I can quickly program it for a trip far away. I see that some resellers are selling them for about 1/2 what I paid for mine ($140 give or take right now). At that price, even if they are closing them out - I do not know that they are - these are a deal. For a great easy to use analog VHF / UHF HT, you won't go wrong.
KD2CTY Rating: 2013-03-06
Excellent Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I would give it 5 stars except the encoder broke and I had to return it for warranty repairs. It was fixed and returned within 2 1/2 weeks, so other than that everything is great.

People tell me that my transmit and receive audio is great. I reached a Rockland County repeater from South Manhattan just by using the standard rubber duck antenna.

I now use a Diamond MR77 as my antenna with the handheld and I am getting great range from my bedroom. 5 watts seems like more than enough power to reach my local repeaters.

I have a MFJ dual band antenna in the car, and a cup holder mount. I can use this radio as a portable, and a mobile. It makes a great first radio.
KK6BRV Rating: 2013-02-24
Very Good HT Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Bought this all time favorite HT at a remarkable price for my son as an incentive for him to get the Tech Level Ham License.
Pro:
* Tested the unit extensively and it works great without any mods to the unit.
* Very nice display and Key board.
* Tx and Rx is as good as the mobile unit at the same Pout.
Con:
* Could not set the Frequency to 146.386 MHz it either goes to 146.385 or the 146.3875. Tried it with direct frequency key entry and knob.
Overall for the price and performance, its a very good deal.
AC0YV Rating: 2013-01-31
Great Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My favorite radio. I have had this one for 2 years now and still amazed by how well it works. It sounds great and feels great in the hand, very well built and sturdy. You can pay a lot more for a hand held radio that does more, but you won't find a better value. The FT-60 radios have came down a lot in price since I bought mine. The wide receive is nice the easy quick weather frequency is handy. I think these are the most popular hand held radios out there.
GM1SXX Rating: 2013-01-25
Great little handy Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've owned this radio from new for a few years. It's seen a *lot* of use in that time, at home, at work and out in the hills. It's even been used bicycle mobile.. taped to the steering stem of my hybrid bike, being rattled by all the potholes and speed bumps around our area.

It's taken more than a few knocks in those years. It's fallen off my belt many times at work... onto concrete floors. I've accidentally dropped it down the (concrete) stairs at work several times when it popped off my trouser belt. It's been soaked numerous times and my old dog liked carrying it for me, on our many outings in the hills ... in her mouth, covered in dog drool, trailing the whip through bushes and the like. Despite all this, it still works like a champ. Recently I noticed I couldn't read the keyboard properly because the lettering was wearing off. A call to Yaesu UK and they delivered two new keypads to me at a very reasonable cost. They were extremely helpful and efficient. I got the parts in two days.

My radio now looks almost like new again apart from some worn paint on the base and a very light, almost insignificant scratch on the display window. That's pretty good for all that it's been through.

I imagine I'll use it for many years yet. The batteries I use are not Yaesu ones. I use high capacity NiMh's in dry-cell holders to power the radio, and I changed the rather puny rubber duck for a Nagoya whip. I've worked some pretty good distances on this setup, well into the hills on the far side of our river valley. Contacts out to 50 miles line of sight are certainly possible even on low power.

Apart from the stock aerial and battery, there's nothing much I could think of that could improve this great little handy. I also find the airband receive to be useful. I can get quick weather reports from the ATIS at our local airfield.

It's a great radio, the sight size, the build quality is great and I wish other things in life were built as tough at the FT60.

73 Al.
GM1SXX






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Earlier 5-star review posted by GM1SXX on 2011-02-12

I've owned one of these little radios for a few years. It has proved to be tough and dependable despite some of the bad things I've done to it, like dropping it quite a few times, twice onto tiled concrete floors! The stock antenna is a little bit weedy so I use a nagoya 1/4 wave flexible whip instead, and although the internal microphone is adequate, I prefer to use a no-name brand speaker mic. The numbers on the keypad have worn a bit making the most used ones hard to read. Yaesu please note.

I have two spare batteries which I put together using high-capacity Ni-Mh types fitted into empty dry battery cases. This allows me to cycle the batteries for a long life.
Most of our radio club members use these radios too, so thats a good advert for Yaesu. Their keypads are similarly worn.
In the past year, the UK the price of the FT-60 has increased substantially because general price increases and increased UK taxation.
I use this radio a lot and it's has some fairly harsh treatment but despite this, it's still in good general condition apart from the keyboard wear. I use it at work, while out walking in the hills, sometimes from my bicycle... in short, it sees plenty of use and has never let me down. It gets the thumbs up from me.
73 AL GM1SXX

M3UHQ Rating: 2013-01-17
I love it... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I forget how many of these units I have owned, every time I got rid of them I regretted it, luckily last week I picked up two used FT-60R's on eBay for a bargain. I never realized until now how good they are on RX especially the 225MHz - Monitoring. The key thats important here is that they are still in production, which means they are really good, of course their is no DSTAR nor GPS but for a true 2m / 70cms radio with a name you can trust, look no further than the Yaesu FT-60R.
KD8SII Rating: 2013-01-10
Okay for the price. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Purchased new. Overall performance is very good when used "as is" like a walkie talkie. Programming it isn't bad, though even that has minor annoyances (I should qualify that by saying that I've NOT tried programming software).

The only really -major- defect I've that it randomly goes into transmit mode fairly often if using an external mic, so I -strongly- recommend avoiding those. No amount of wrangling with the connector and the rubber protector makes it stable enough to trust with a mic. That alone gives me a generally unfavorable first impression of Yaesu, but again this is my first/only HT.