Pick one: Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu -- who rules?

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shepjackson
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Pick one: Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu -- who rules?

Post by shepjackson »

Outta the big three -- if ya had to depend on a rig to get ya through -- who'd ya favor?
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n3jfw
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Post by n3jfw »

depends on the radio type and intended use
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Post by johnvassel »

All my hammie gear is yaesu, yet I use Icom commercially.
Icom performs well, but I'll take the ruggedness of my yaesu's anyday.
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Post by Wardriver »

Icom customer support and turn around time is excellent, Sent my 706 in for blown finals cost me $75.00 was back in 2 weeks from the factory.

Ten-Tec has outstanding customer support also.I needed a dial string for my old analog transceiver last year,and the sent me one free of charge.

Yaesu customer support is slow to respond on repairs turn around time sucks.

Never had to send a Kenwood back for repairs........So whats that tell you? hammertime


Kenwood all the way :baby:
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Cowthief

Rules?

Post by Cowthief »

Hello.

Customer support.
Yaesu and Motorola both suck!
Icom, Kenwood, M/A-Com, all OK.
Thales, depends on the country, even on the same product.

Quality.
Motorola, M/A-Com and Thales build excellent products.
Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu, all are OK, but for the most part, not in the same league, even the commercial products, as the above 3.

Ease of use.
The current crop of M/A-Com radios seem to have the best menu arrangement of all of the radios so far, followed by the Motorola XTS-5000 series.

The radios I like to carry.
The most common radio I carry is the Kenwood TH-f6/7a/e radio.
Yes, it is a hamster radio, but it can do 136 MHz to 490 MHz with no real issues, is small enough to be easily carried, and is cheap.

The next most common is the Yaesu VX-7r.
This radio is MUCH easier to mod for out of band operation, is somewhat waterproof, and, also somewhat inexpensive.

I was carrying the Thales tactical radio right up to a few weeks ago.
Totally awsome, really broad band multi mode radio.
This is THE radio if you want to do any kind of crypto whatsoever.
The Thales radio is totally software driven, so it is simply a command to flush both the codefill and the codeplug, but not all is lost.
Thales provides a recovery disk for that radio, and only that radio, that can restore all the factory defaults.
When is Motorola, or, for that matter, anyone else, coming up with that?
AM and FM are the order of the day, with coverage of 25 MHz to 550 MHz (US models do 30 MHz to 512 MHz).
Selectivity is OK, but the front end can easily overload in a high RF environment.
The radio will work from around 7 volts to 32 volts with no issues.
Price? around 7G.
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n3jfw
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Post by n3jfw »

Rudy-please keep your reply on topic.
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ae6ip
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Post by ae6ip »

i dunno. all my gear so far has been icom, and it has lived up to expectations. do some research and make sure you know the strong points and weaknesses of what you're buying.
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mancow
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Post by mancow »

Yaesu.

The rest seem sort of flimsy as far the amateur stuff goes.
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Post by kb3isa »

For Amateur 2m the best radio I have had yet besides a Motorola is the Yaesu VX-150. I give it :halfnotworthy: :halfnotworthy: :halfnotworthy: :halfnotworthy: and a :vestman: :baby:
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shepjackson
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Post by shepjackson »

Interestind replies so far -- I purposely left out SGC and Ten Tec since they are smaller players in the market, but Ten Tec definately deserves their reputation as a customer service leader in the industry -- not to mention their radios are great -- although some think they are not to "modern" looking.

Back to the topic -- in my experience, Yaesu's seem the most-innovative in design and menu selections -- but they tend to put a lot of lemons in the crop -- and I have had several Yaesu lemons and lost my hat on the rig because I did not and would not re-sell a POS to a ham -- Yaesu warranty service really blew too -- in terms of time spent at the factory and whether or not the rig was properly fixed (if they even admitted it had a problem).

I think Kenwood is a pseudo-player anymore -- they seem to be getting their commercial division in top shape -- the ham stuff -- yeah -- some HF stuff and some HTs seem to have slowed a little - although I like the new ti band HT but have heard some poor reports (the one with 220).

Icom -- well -- what can I say -- I love 'em -- and would trust their HTs if I needed an all round dependable rig to get me through -- same goes with their HF stuff.

If you could take the design of Yaesu, the ruggedness of an Icom and the dependability of a Kenwood you'd have a pretty good rig!
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Post by FM »

I've only owned Yaesu stuff, but both vx-5rs and the ft-817 have been well behaved. The 5rs have proven to be durable - dropped one on the floor and street a few times. It is scuffed up but still works great.

I'm not sure if this is a bug in the 817 or what, but a local 440 repeater won't hear me, even with the correct tone and squelch settings. Both 5rs hit the same repeater just fine. All the other repeaters can hear the 817 just fine...
No static at all...
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Post by VE2XDJ »

Yaesu/Vertex for Ham stuff.

Motorola and Kenwood for everything else.

Mike
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Post by spudboy488 »

Icom for HF
Yaesu for V/UHF

Your mileage may vary.........
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Post by va3wxm »

Icom for < 30 MHz
Yaesu, Kenwood, Alinco and /\/\ for > 30 MHz.
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TiNy
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Post by TiNy »

Well, I happen to like Kenwood for almost all my stuff
I have had bad luck with Yeasu HT's
3 ft-60r's bad out of the box
Icom 207 and 2100 well not enough space to type all the problems :baby:

so far nevar had a problem with Kenwood I have a F6A and a 780
but i do have Yahoo Ft8900 in the truck which I am thinking of getting rid of just cause I do not use it....
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W3ZR
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Post by W3ZR »

spudboy488 wrote:Icom for HF
Yaesu for V/UHF....
Same here... Icom has been the next best thing to Drake for my money !
Rock On !

Bob, W3ZR/VE3SXZ
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Post by va3wxm »

TiNy wrote:but i do have Yahoo Ft8900 in the truck which I am thinking of getting rid of just cause I do not use it....
Really...

Let me know. I might be interested.
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Post by KE7DZZ »

I use an Alinco for HF eh
My Yeasu VX-5R is awesome, I take it with me everywhere, including work(I work in construction) and I beat the crap out of it, it still works fine.
I have an old Kenwood TR-9130 2m all mode that kicks azz for ssb weak signal work .
I used to have an Icom 2m/70cm dual band mobile that was irritatingly susceptible to intermod.
My mobile rig in my Jeep is also an Alinco ( DR-510 dual bander) that I got for $40 , it works OK.
Bottom line , I give the nod to Yeasu and Kenwood.
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Post by BlakJak »

My Yaesu FT8900R is great.
My FT50 is 'Ok'.
No problems with Y aesu.

The older Kenwood mobiles (TM-731/2/3) were pretty good, dont know about their current stuff.

Icom HF gear seems pretty good, I looked seriously at a 706 but ran out of $$
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ICOM MIC"S mostly suck

Post by KB9ZGB »

ICOM should try somthig radical. like build a good mic. cheap garbage network cable conectors. micro switchs that come off the boards. ptt"s that stick. i suppose it is ok for a base type application, not durable for a mobile. god i hate the plastic snap mic connectors. what are they called anyway. and why did every one go to that style?????
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Post by PBR »

I have owned Icom, Alinco and Yaesu. If I had to choose only one it would be Yaesu. best combo of price, performance and durability.

Now if Moto was easier to program I would chuck them all for /\/\ but I will be damned if I am going to pay more for the software than i did for the radio (used)
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Post by n3jfw »

PBR wrote:I have owned Icom, Alinco and Yaesu. If I had to choose only one it would be Yaesu. best combo of price, performance and durability.

Now if Moto was easier to program I would chuck them all for /\/\ but I will be damned if I am going to pay more for the software than i did for the radio (used)
you do realize, you could find someone easily to help you and program your radios
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Post by k3who »

When it comes to hammy HT's I have to say that my Yaesu 170 is easily the best one I've ever owned when it comes to quality and features. I've seen the VX-150's and VX-7's as well and they appear to be excellent quality for ham HT's.

When it comes to mobiles, I've also found Yaesu to be the best quality compared to other models I've seen by other companies.

When it comes to HF I can't really say cuz I haven't seen and used that many HF rigs to really compare. Most folks I know are either die hard on Yaesu or Icom though when it comes to HF. A buddy of mine has an ICOM 756 Pro III and I will say if I had the money that'd probably be the rig I'd pick up though.
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Post by VA3XL »

n3jfw wrote:
PBR wrote:I have owned Icom, Alinco and Yaesu. If I had to choose only one it would be Yaesu. best combo of price, performance and durability.

Now if Moto was easier to program I would chuck them all for /\/\ but I will be damned if I am going to pay more for the software than i did for the radio (used)
you do realize, you could find someone easily to help you and program your radios
How?
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Post by PBR »

n3jfw wrote:
PBR wrote:I have owned Icom, Alinco and Yaesu. If I had to choose only one it would be Yaesu. best combo of price, performance and durability.

Now if Moto was easier to program I would chuck them all for /\/\ but I will be damned if I am going to pay more for the software than i did for the radio (used)
you do realize, you could find someone easily to help you and program your radios
The local radio shops charge $40 to $100 to program depending on how many channels.

$100 to program my UHF Spectra every time somebody changes a PL, goes to DPL or goes from + offset to - on the repeaters I use is an expensive pain in the ass.
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Post by K8YS »

Icom for HF
Kenwood for V/UHF hammy toy radios, /\/\otorola for radios when it really matters.

Yaesu sucks, but I like the portables after the FT530.

I used to work for the Yaesu Eastern Service Center and swore that I'd never ever buy another piece of Yaesu crap, but I ended up buying an FT50 (used, so I did not feel so bad). Yes, I used to work on that crap.
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Post by BlakJak »

I actually always liked the FT-530.

A mate of mine - blind - had one. The tones meant he knew what buttons he was pushing...
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Post by KC9UZB »

OLD style Kenwood, from the late 80's early 90s for me. Built like a tank, unbreakable. HF/V/UHF.

For some reason I have two Yaesu FT-8800's. They're good and everything, but you know if you look at them funny they'd fall apart... crossband repeat is fun ;)

Icom - I love their scanners, but I've never really played with their transceivers much. My mate has 5 Icom handhelds, two FT-8900's and an FT-8800.

Since I became a Motosnob, I'm selling up all my hammy gear (apart from one of my FT-8800's) and buy Moto stuff tbh.
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