[MARINECOP]

Anyone have any opinions on the Submersible 144/430 Mhz Dual Band 5 W Hand-Held VX-6R/E by YAESU. Me and a few officers in my department were looking into purchasing a few, due to a price of only around $300.00 a piece. Thank You.

 

[sgtmvm]

Anyone have any opinions on the Submersible 144/430 Mhz Dual Band 5 W Hand-Held VX-6R/E by YAESU. Me and a few officers in my department were looking into purchasing a few, due to a price of only around $300.00 a piece. Thank You.

I sincerely hope you are all licensed amateurs, as the use of these radios by nonlicensed persons carries a hefty fine and jail time. Also the use of amateur equipment that has been modified to transmit out-of-band is prohibited as it is not FCC certified for that use; not to mention the radio's internals can not handle the SWR of TXing out of band and your investment will soon turn into a repair nightmare. Visit the ARRL web site or pick up a copy of almost any beginner-level amateur radio lesson book for information on the basic laws regarding amateur equipment.

That being said, I've been a licensed amateur for years and personally love Yaesu products. I don't know who quoted you a price like that, but it sounds absolutely astronomical. I recently picked up a brand new VX7R (6m/2m/440 plus QRP 220) for $235; I consider it to be the best HT ever produced and it has yet to disappoint me. The one weakness is the swiveling belt clip, it allows the radio far too much horizontal range of motion. The stock antenna is also overkill unless you are running 6m or using it as an HF RX; I got a cheap Workman 2m/440 whip on eBay for $7 and it suits me just fine.

A friend of mine who is a technician at a major ham retailer said that looking at the worksmanship of the internals of a Yaesu versus a Kenwood or Icom is akin to the engine compartment of a Rolls-Royce versus a Ford...one is nice, neat, orderly, and easy to work on while the other is cluttered, confusing, and difficult to move around in.

 

[MARINECOP]

Calm down buddy, I am not a licensed amatuer nor do I ever intend to be one. I am a full-time police officer, hence the web-site MASSCOPS. I am purchasing the radio for work related use. Thanks for the info on the radio. My buddy told me the price was $248.00 without the small antenna. Definetly a great price for a tactical operations radio.

 

[popo]

MARINECOP, can you program local PD freqs on those HAM radios .I got a Motorola Visar of my own when i work details in UHF departments. My HT-1000 at work is great but it's VHF. A dual-Band radio would be great.

 

[Guest]

248$ what a bargain
what store ??? i need to get me one also

 

[sgtmvm]

Perhaps I was too abrasive, but part of it IS for your own good if you are making the investment. One thing, you will need to make sure to get an antenna tuned to the proper frequency range or you will fry the radio from high SWR. Simply put, the electrical relationship between the radio and antenna. Most amateur frequency range antennas will NOT be properly tuned for public safaty bands.

Personally if I were one of you guys, the radio that fits your needs is the Alinco DJ596. Dual band, can be modified to do up to 8 watts (adjustable power anyhow), BNC antenna mount (I'd recommend an Icom FA-1443B antenna for public safety...it is a ham antenna but I've used it on Standard equipment with decent SWR), digital board option, and very easy to use. Yaesu has sub-menus and sub-sub-menus and are not easy to program for a beginner.

Other radios to consider are Bendix King keypad-programmables (just being phased out by the military) and the Motorola JT1000 (basically a keypad-programmable HT1000).

Best of luck!

 

[rscalzo]

Forget trying to use Amateur radio equipment for public service frequencies. First of all it is a violation to USE ham radio non-certified equipment on the public service bands regardless of the fact that you are a police officer. Second, while you won't fry the power amp, you will reduce the power to a fraction of normal power levels. The radio specs will not be within tolerances of commercial radios and you will not be able to program certain frequency pairs into memory. In short, they are basically useless for public service use.


Vertex has single band FCC certified public service radios at reasonable costs as do ICOM and Kenwood. My department uses Kenwood 380 and 390 radios and they are build well and preform as good or better than anything Motorola sells.

Our dealer in NJ was Command Radio. The owner Mario is a retired police officer and gave us a very good deal on our radios and related items. He also is a Vertex dealer so you can compare pricing. It won't be $260 or thereabouts but you will get a radio you can depend on.:GNANA: