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Reviews For: Yaesu FT-211 RH

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Base/Mobile (non hand-held)

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FT-211 RH
Reviews: 3MSRP: About 100 Euros on used Market
Description:
VHF Monoband Amateur mobile Transceiver
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.rigpix.com/yaesu/ft211rh.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0034
W0BKR Rating: 2014-12-18
Great Olders VHF Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Solid performer, solidly built. Easy to use and no frills or confusing menus. Tone Encoder for repeater use is optional but readily available. The FTS-12 is still in production and can be had quite easily off Ebay, swap boards or new. Radio is intuitive to operate, and has all the tones required for repeater use. If you see one, snatch one up!
K7VO Rating: 2005-06-22
Very decent older 2m FM mobile with some limitations Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
The Yaesu FT-211RH is a 45 watt mobile FM transceiver from the late '80s and early '90s. The FT-211RH is part of a series of radios that included models for 222MHz, 70cm, and 23cm.

This rig has big, dual function controls, a backlit display that is readable in almost any light, and is intuitive to use. You don't need the manual to figure out this radio.

The rig has just 10 memories which is a bit inadequate in a larger metro area. It can do memory scanning or band scanning but it cannot do a programmed (limited) band scan. If you've done the extended receive mod, let's say to be able to pick up NOAA weather frequencies, you're left without a good way to just scan the 2m band. I find this a significant drawback. When I'm near home scanning the 10 memories is fine, but in areas where I don't know the local repeaters I want to be able to do a programmable band scan.

The angled display comes tilted up from the factory but can be reversed. I have an FT-311RM (222MHz version) on one side of the console in my car and the FT-211RH on the other side. It was no problem to reverse the display on the 2m version so that both radios were angled towards me. This was a very nice touch Yaesu only had on this series of radios and probably is one of the reasons the displays are so easy to see in all lighting.

The main thing to watch for if you buy one of these is to make sure that the FTS-12 CTCSS (PL) tone encoder/decoder is installed. If not they are almost impossible to find. I learned this the hard way and still need one for one of my rigs. With the PL board installed you just dial up the frequency you want which can be stored into memory.

When I switched to this rig in the car I immediately got unsolicited complimentary audio reports. People just seem to love the way the rig sounds on the air. Received audio is equally nice. I wonder if the previous reviewer's radio needed work. These rigs are getting a bit old.

All in all I bought this rig because it matched my 222 rig. I do like the FT-211RH but you really need to make sure you can live within its limitations and you need to get it for not much money since new 2m monoband rigs are quite inexpensive now. It's a good rig but, by today's standards, its lack of memories and scanning options keep me from calling it a great rig.
DM7IC Rating: 2004-09-14
Does the Job Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
With the original Mic the Audio sounds dark.
The Receiver Audio sounds a bit tinny to me. For QSOs with Hams in Neighbourhood this Radio is enough.