Tri-Band Yaesu VX-6R Submersible Amateur Ham Radio Transceiver (144/222/440)

About the size of a pack of cigarettes, overly well built, and with the Commet SMA-24 antenna, it becomes the untimate emergency/bug out bag radio. Highly recomend the emergency "AA" battery packs, the black high capacity Panasonic Eneloop AA rechargeable batteries(Nickel Metal Hydride), and solar charger for AA batteries. Also invest in the 12 volt power adapter by Yaesu, and if you really want to let your hair down, the drop in charger for lithium battery packs.(about $80 for the drop in charger) The white Panasonic Eneloop rechargeable batteries can be recharged 2100 times verses 500 times for the high cap black ones, but the white ones will give you less run time as they are standard cap. And for the love of who ever that it is that you worship, DO NOT use a cheap AC to DC 12 volt power inverter to run your electronics with.(laptop, cell phone, HAM RADIO,...ect.) Cheap power inverters do not produce a pure sine wave and will eventually destroy your electronics. They are only good for recharging batteries and battery packs, running a fan, and other devices that don't contain intergrated circuits in them. Otherwise a real power inverter that does produce a pure sine wave usually costs $200 or more for the same wattage output as the bargin power inverter.

This is an amazing little radio. It is built tough as nails, very compact and the performance is beyond expectations. I live in a mountainous area with a few repeaters but I am in a sheltered lower area between hills. Thinking that I would not be able to hit the repeaters with the stock antenna, I was amazed that I could hit several of them with ease. Further, this radio is very easy to program and I was able to store several repeaters, their offsets and CTCSS tones in minutes. I can highly recommend this radio for the experienced Ham OR the beginner. Excellent value and thanks Yaesu for an excellent product!

I have had 3 other radio's before this one (Kenwood, Boafeng, and Yeasu). The radio has a lot of nice features and is worth the money. Takes a little bit of patents to get the hang of programing it or just use a cable and load it. It is built really nice and rugged .If you use Comander software it is real easy to program and you can set almost all features up in the program. Only downfall is that all the add-on items are expensive.

Yaesu has never disappointed me with their quality and they are maintaining this status. I use it aboard a boat and I wanted a dependable, submersible VHF Ham radio. The it is complicated to get into the features, for which it has plenty, because of the three levels of function for each of the keys, but this is a result of wanting so many features in such a small package. I got around this by downloading the PDF of the manual to my phone, so I always have it with me if I need it. The performance of the VX-6R has been great and I enjoy having access to the 220 and 440 bands in addition to 2m. It is a good choice for those wanting to use it outdoors with its ability to receive the weather, marine, aircraft, AM and FM bands. It also has a mode to practice copying CW. It is a fantastic radio, particularly for the price.

Excellent packaging.Great product

It feels expensive. Water proofing seems top notch! Love the texture of the body — which is a thing with this device! It’s lightly stippled. Recommend an antenna upgrade. Def my favorite HT.

Good all band transceiver - like how the receiver covers so much of the HF, VHF and UHF spectrum.

I've had this radio for a bit over a month. It's very small for what it does and very solidly built. A hunting buddy and I decided to get our HAM licenses and these radios for more reliable service versus GMSR radios when in the field. These radios will easily go into a pocket. We have not yet had the opportunity to test them under hunting conditions but we have tested them in town with simplex operation and were able to clearly communicate when we were both outside (not inside houses or automobiles) between our homes which are 2.85 miles straight line in a retail/suburban environment (homes, some open land, numerous single story businesses, power lines, traffic etc.). They are clear and easy to understand. I do recommend getting the cable and programing software for it. The radio can be a bit intimidating when looking to program it because most of the keys use more than one function. Programing with the cable and software is very simple using a spreadsheet type entry.Update Nov 2016: My buddy and I used these on a recent hunt in Colorado, usually separated by trees and hills and they worked great. Every time we called each other we had good reception. These radios are not cheap but they were money well spent. They worked great. Reminder that you do need a HAM license for these radios. Doug KG5KVZ