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Reviews For: Yaesu VX-5R

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

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Review Summary For : Yaesu VX-5R
Reviews: 257MSRP: 249 (AES and HRO)
Description:
The VX-5R is a miniature tri band FM transceiver
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCatID=111&encProdID=nFLhjiVz8z8%3D&DivisionID=65&isArchived=1
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
002574.2
W3FHW Rating: 2003-04-21
I like it Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have read several reviews about memory not being able to be erased on the VX-5R. A very smart friend of mine played with the programming features on my VX-5R for about 30 minutes and developed a very easy way to erase a memory from the VX-5R. First get into memory mode, then select the memory you want erased. Next press the FW button untill you hear the beeps (2), release the FW button, and immediately press the MR button. The memory returns to channel 1. Dial through the remaining memories and you will see the deleted memory is gone. Other than that the manual is pretty good as is the radio. Battery life is super. LU1DAW can use this info
LU1DAW Rating: 2003-04-21
The Very Best!!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Really good handy, I have many before (FT-50, FT-10, FT-530, TH-79A...) but this is the Best, really resistent and the TX-RX work so good, I use a antenna Diamond SRH-536 to 144/440 and is EXCELENT!!!! and in 6 meters the original work fine.
Only 2 thing to say, it´s a barbacoa when use 5 watt and 13,8V.And the second, you can´t erase a memory :( for the rest PERFECT!!!
KA2QIT Rating: 2003-04-03
Problematic Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Purchased from HRO. Less than 1 MO after purchasing squelch circuit would not operate properly. Would not pass audio even at setting 1. Dealer would not accept a return. Sent to Yaesu, rectified squelch, however now S-meter does not work. Used this way for two MOs, now squelch problem has returned. Fed up with Yaesu products, will replace with an ICOM T90A, a far superior product. When it did work, poor receive on SW, 220Mhz, and >500 Mhz. Excessive intermod on 440MHz, and poor image rejection on >200 MHz. Good TX audio, poor receiver audio. Programming operation illogical. There are better choices out there.
K0HB Rating: 2003-04-03
Solid Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Good solid little HT. I carry it in my walleye boat to communicate back to K0CKB in the cabin, so it gets beat up pretty well, but keeps on playing.

Pay the extra $38.00 and get the ADMS-1 programming software/cable, because it's pretty tedious to program, especially if you want to plug in a lot of QRG's.

I'd like a real knob for squelch, otherwise I'd have given it a "5" rating.

73, Hans, K0HB
2E1EAW Rating: 2003-04-01
It's damm good Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I bought a VX-5R second hand about 6 months ago; for GBP 150 including fist mic, soft case, barometer unit, fast charger etc. It was well warn when i had it and smelt like pub! Once i'd got rid of that so you could get it less than a foot from your face, i found it to be really great. Having used an ICOM 2E (2m h/held) for may years (at least 15!) which bares a remarkable resembelence to your average house brick and a Yeasu 227 (old 2m portable - about 50w, but also about 1/2 a ton)(which i still use - great rig) it took a bit of getting used to (70cms, scanning, digital display etc. whats that all about!). I used it mostly on 2m but also 70cms, only scanning etc. ocassionally. Very robust, i drove over it once! Often used for RAYNET exercises - so go dbattery life a great use last all day no problem. Havent had any problem with the anntenna sicket as others had.

All in all a great h/held, enough power for most things (since i had it took the 227 out of car). Ohh nand the 2E makes a great door stop!
W5LDA Rating: 2003-03-29
good rig Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
all in all an amazing little rig. you guys having problems with your antennas,just go to your nearest rat shack as they have a wrench to tighten up the connector and will sell you one if they have them in stock or you can use 2 small slot screwdrivers and tighten up yourself
KD7SPC Rating: 2003-03-17
Excellent Radio! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've had my VX5R for about a month now and I really enjoy it. Range is good, sound quality excellent! The intermod problems mentioned by others is sometimes a problem, but not often, especially with the squelch set to 11 or so. Fortunatly, many repeaters in our are are newer and use PL tones which also helps the intermod issue. One can't expect a plethera of filtering capabilities to be stuffed into such a small radio package (yet)... So I'm neither shocked or disappointed at the minor incidences of intermod.

Battery life - like the VX1R - is amazing!

I purchased this radio based on similar experience of friends who have the VX5R...

If you plan to use it as a mobile radio (in your car with an external antenna), the SMA/BNC adapter available at www.icongrp.com/~sllewd is very sturdy an much more cosmetic than the factory adapter.
KG4URI Rating: 2003-03-16
Ok radio but not great Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Bought mine in December of 2002. There are some things about the VX5RS I really like and some I just really hate. The likes are the battery life, the backlit keypad and display, short wave reception, the ruggedness of the radio. The hates are it gets hot on long QSO's, has low TX audio, the receive audio isn’t that great either, cant delete a memory channel, slow scan, slow CTCSS decode, 1.25 meter 220 MHz would have been way better then 6 meter, and receives intermod like crazy totally knocks out the repeater which is only 4 miles away. But I think that ruggedness and great battery life is what matters in an HT. Haven’t had any major problems like others have experienced with the SMA connector being loose.
PA7MU Rating: 2003-03-11
Problems Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've bought the vx-5r a month ago its the third generation tranceiver, i have extended the tx freq. for use abroad in the us for example, now that i want to use the menu button: Fw than set/ar/band and rotating to a menu item, it won't
react anymore or on de display it say's out of range, also i can't reduce the power anymore.
I've made the mistake to reset the microprocessor
(could that be the problem??). please help me out
by sending me an email Thank You Marc pa7mu Breda Netherlands (sorry about my poor English)
KC2KEG Rating: 2003-02-24
Mixed Emotion Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
The VX-5R was my first rig and at the beginning I did not have much trouble with it. Here's a list of the pros and cons I discovered:

Pros:
- 5 watt, great signal report

- Great coverage of the band

- rugged, I dropped twice and the unit still functions (more on this later)

Cons:
- HORRIBLE SMA CONNECTOR PROBLEM: the ring that holds the antenna and the transceiver fell off, I tried some glue and it holds for a while but the problem comes back, the problem has bugged me for almost 2 months and I decided to dumb my VX-5R and go for a HF/VHF/UHF rig (like the 706 series)

- Very low 470 Mhz WFM audio, you have to put your ears next to speaker to hear the action

- Complicated programming, no memory deletion


So now you have it, I have mixed emotion about the VX-5R, if you have money buy a new one, go for it. If the seller said antenna problem, stay away from it