| KE6ANM |
Rating:  |
2010-03-25 | |
| VX-3R exchanged because of birdie |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
My review just prior to this referred to the loud birdie could not be mitigated, so a quick call to ham city, and jeff said no problem, bring it in.
We opened another VX-3R, and tried it and no birdie.
Did a straight trade and bought more accessories.
I really like the fact that the replacement battery is the same as many cell phones, so they are inexpensive.
I'm using it right now in my shirt pocket, as I work.
Love this tiny dual bander.
Love the broadcast bands.
Like having a scanner smaller the most handheld batteries.
Glad I kept it.
Get one you'll love it.
KE6ANM
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| K4TIN |
Rating: |
2010-03-19 | |
| I Like Mine! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
My acquisition started with the need for a portable air band receiver. I work at an airport; the ability to listen to the tower "on the fly" saves me some walking.
Imagine my surprise when I learned that I could have this plus a full-featured 2m/440 radio, shortwave coverage, AM/FM broadcast band, WX, and more in a small radio that fits in my shirt pocket! The frosting on the cake? A code generator that sends letters, numbers, punctuation, and combinations in 5 letter groups. It doesn't have word or QSO modes like more sophisticated trainers, but the ability to improve copy of random characters is of use to the "codester." I considered myself pretty proficient in the QSO and word modes, but suffered with random letters. After a couple months of frequent, short practice sessions with the VX-3, I have been able to about double my copy speed--to about 24 wpm, provided I'm fresh.
How to improve your speed? Like with any other cw endeavor: practice faster than you can copy. You will then discover that your target (slower) speed is doable.
Works better with anything but the rubber duckie. A plug to SO-239 purchased at the hamfest for 7 bucks.
Battery life is quite good, and the AA pack a wonderful idea!
No issues with the radio yet. |
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| W8STU |
Rating: |
2010-02-23 | |
| GREAT LITTLE HT |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have owned mine for about two weeks. So far I think it is a great little HT. Very small. It all most disappears in my large hands. No problem though. I found the manual was easy to read and it only took me about 10 minutes to program. I mainly use the HT for a link HT to my cross band repeat radio. I can also get into my local repeaters with the 1 1/2 watt power level with good audio reports.
It also has a lot of other features. Surprisingly the AM broadcast band portion was very good. I was able to receive the AM broadcast station 40 miles away with no problems. The FM broadcast was very good to listen to also. I have not used it to monitor Marine or weather as of yet. So I cannot comment on it.
If you are looking for an HT that you can put into your shirt pocket and is easy to use, the VX-3R is the radio to get. I would highly recommend this HT. Thanks in advance. 73, Stuart W8STU |
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| AB7KT |
Rating: |
2010-02-18 | |
| Two Bad Ones |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I am on my second VX-3R and am about to send it back to the factory.
The first one I bought had some kind of problem (I don't remember the details now), I sent it back to the factory. I got it back promptly and it worked great. A friend begged me to sell it to him, and he finally broke me down and I sold it to him.
A couple weeks later I regreted it and bought another one. This one won't transmit or charge the battery: right out of the box.
FWIW: a very good friend of mine has one that recently stopped transmiting audio.
Out of four radios I have close experience with, three of them have gone bad within a year. |
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| VE3TEF |
Rating: |
2010-02-17 | |
| bad apple |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
OK, first I like Yaesu. Never had any problems with my others! I love my 817 and I like the VX-3, when it works!
Problem is, after 6 months, the unit failed to turn on. Yaesu repaired it and sent it back. 2 months later, the unit failed again. Now they say the board is bad and they will not cover it.
This unit will be one year old (manufactured date) next month!
If you run the battery flat and the unit will not turn on after a full charge, GET RID OF IT. For $200, it's a nice radio with lots of features, but there are a few bad apples in every basket! I just got stuck with one! |
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| N0FPE |
Rating: |
2009-12-29 | |
| The little radio that could |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Little in size, big in operations! Works well. Plenty of useful features and easy to program. I keep it with me all the time when i am out and about.
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| K6NJ |
Rating: |
2009-12-29 | |
| A nice "little" radio |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| My VX-3R works great! None of the problems some have had. It is super handy, compact and loaded with features. I love the fact that you can get replacment batteries that are the same batteries as used in popular cameras. You can get them for $5 off ebay and they work great! I also suggest the FTBVX3 Software from G4HFQ to program this radio. Works great! The real limitation is the 1.5 watts, but for local work it is a great radio! |
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| KI4SRK |
Rating: |
2009-12-10 | |
| A Decent, Sharp Little Radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Just got the VX-3R recently and am pleased with it overall. In terms of design, it is definitely a cool looking radio. In terms of performance, unlike many reviewers, I often use it to listen to the medium-wave band, and it is actually a very decent performer with the built-in bar antenna - it picks up all the local South Florida AM stations well, in addition to some of the more powerful distant broadcasters, including several in Cuba. It greatly outperforms the VX-2R on MW, as well as the VR-120 wideband receiver, but doesn't approach the heftier Kenwood TH-F6A in this regard. I haven't really tried it on SW, but did pick up VOA with the stock antenna, which was a surprise.
On broadcast FM, it is completely overloaded by overpowered local stations - I tried the attenuator, but it doesn't seem to be available for the FM broadcast band - this makes the radio almost unusable for listening to my favorite lower-powered community and college FM stations. My only work-around solution is to use a smaller antenna, the tiny Maldol AS-25, but that still doesn't solve the problem. The audio on both broadcast bands is excellent through headphones.
With the stock antenna I've been able to hit most of the local repeaters that I've attempted to without problem, although this is from about 70 feet up in a building - haven't tried it yet at street-level. It is a bit complicated to master the menus and settings - hit the wrong button by accident and you easily end up spending the next few minutes trying to figure out how to get back to what you were trying to do originally.
The tuning/volume knob is a bit wobbly on mine. It sometimes changes frequency by one step if you aren't careful to carefully pull the knob straight up. I also don't care for having to hold the volume button in order to change it with the knob set to change frequency instead. The CW trainer is inelegant, but an okay little extra feature.
Seems a bit more solid than the VX-2R, but the lack of a belt-clip is a minus, as is the carrying case with the belt-loop rather than clip. l'm going to investigate one of the cell phone stick-on clips as mentioned in another review, although I hate to attach permanent adhesive to the back case of the radio. I plan to use this baby as a scanner at car races - you can't beat the size and weight for this purpose, especially with the ultra-tiny Maldol antenna. |
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| MBAHPAIJO |
Rating: |
2009-11-10 | |
| Great Radio But ..... |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I'm using VX1R / VX3R / VX5R / VX6R / VX7R / FT-7800R and FT2900R. I Love Yaesu.
This is the 2nd my VX3R.
The first one so far so good, has no problem.
This one make me confuse. After 3 days, i got big problem. The radio has no TX power. I measure with SWR power meter.... just 0,001 Watt in Hi Power.
Returned to the shop. And replaced with new one.
May be yaesu quality control not accurate with this one. |
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| W5ZT |
Rating: |
2009-11-05 | |
| cheap radio, many features |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I just bought my VX-3R a few weeks ago and it is already dead and returned to Yaesu for warranty repair. It didn't cost much, so I didn't expect much but it is a cheaply-constructed (case and controls are flimsy) radio with many, many functions. The power input plug became loose and intermittent and the radio would no longer charge, so it has been returned to Yaesu. I bought the radio because I wanted a small HT to carry when I travel and it does fill that role. But learning how to use it reminds me of work (using computers) so this radio is no fun and I suspect it's poor construction will soon relegate it to the junkpile. |
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