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

The Yaesu VX-6R is an outstanding tri-band handheld that truly lives up to its reputation. The build quality is exceptional—rugged, compact, and fully submersible, which makes it perfect for both everyday use and outdoor adventures.Performance is excellent across all bands, with strong transmit power and very clear audio. I’ve been especially impressed with its reliability and how well it handles different conditions without any issues. The wide receive coverage is also a big plus for monitoring a variety of frequencies.Battery life is solid, and the radio feels great in the hand. Once you get familiar with the menus, it becomes a very powerful and versatile tool.Overall, this is a high-quality, durable handheld that’s well worth the investment. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a dependable tri-band amateur radio.

Great radio, not cheap has not broken on me keep on the rig, my second radio

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

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.

Perfect fit, great battery life

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 had made a complaint in error I’m trying to erase it I misunderstood an yaesu order I thought I received the wrong product but actually Yaesu issues the product manual for European version yaesu vx-6r/e for their North American version vx-6r but yaesu doesn’t clarify it on the cover of their manual for the transceiver. So I thought I receive the European version since the manual indicated it was for the European version, but actually they issue one manual for both versions but only print the model number for the European version on the instruction manual and don’t clarify it on the instruction manual. It was not until I looked at the transceiver itself that realized that I did not receive the wrong one I received the correct one and I apologize to the vendor! I was surprised Yaesu which simply not issue an instruction manual separately for the north of American version vx-6r and the European version vx-6r/e. The instruction manual says dual band transceiver for the North American version but actually it’s a triband transceiver but the manual states dual band transceiver because they were too cheap to make a separate instruction manual for the dual band and the tri-band. I am very happy with the order and I plan on placing another order for the same transceiver this week to have two of them!!

...The one they sent me transmits on 6m, 2m, and 70cm bands. It does _not_ transmit on the 1.25m band, and it does not have an FCC ID label. I chose not to send it back because there's a 6m repeater in my neighborhood that gets more traffic than the local 1.25m repeaters get.I have not had this thing out in bad weather, so I can't comment on its weather-proofness, but it feels like a little brick. Very solid. The face is plastic, but when you hold it in your hand, your fingers grip it by its cast-aluminum chassis.It's my first Yaesu radio, and I think the programming interface is absolutely horrendous. But once it's programmed, accessing channels and channel groups is easy. (I don't even _try_ to program the radio through it's keyboard and display. I bought the RT Systems app for programming it.)The internal speaker is weak. That's probably to be expected in such a tiny radio. It's OK in a quiet room, but if you want to be sure to hear it in a noisy environment, then you'll want some kind of an earphone or headset.I put it on a cheap-o power meter. The meter's not calibrated, so all I'll say is, power on 2m is in the same ball park as what's advertised, power on 6m is around 20% of that, and power on 70cm is around 75%.