What radios to keep / sell / buy
What radios to keep / sell / buy
Today at 12:55pm Mark & Quote Quote Modify Remove
Since I have now sold all my photography gear I am in a position to buy some new radio gear Smiley Before I go spending any money I want to assess what I have now and what I want to have in the future to meet my needs, the first step in this is to decide what to do with my current scanners, which to keep and which if any to sell.
At the moment I have the following:
Icom RX7
Uniden UBC93XLT
Yaesu VR500
Now all these scanners have good / bad points and features that I like buy trying to keep 3 of them setup the same and remembering how each one is programmed, what frequencies are in what bank and so on is hard so it means at least 1 does not get much use most of the time.
The UBC93XLT has close call which I use quite a bit and as it is the most basic / cheapest of the 3 I am going to keep it which leaves the RX7 and VR500 to decide between, comparing the two I see these as the major points for each one:
RX7:
+ Fast scan / search speed
+ PC programmable (I have the software / cable to do this)
+ Good size
+ Takes 3 AA batteries
+ Good belt clip
+ Memory auto write
- Does not have SSB
- No band scope (something I use on the VR500 quite a bit)
- Keypad has no back light (makes night time use hard / impossible)
- No “manual” setting for backlight on display
- Hard to manually program / change information away from a PC
- Audio is on the low side
- Keypad very hard to use / press.
- Multi layer menu system.
VR500:
+ Acceptable scan / search speed
+ PC programmable (Can get software / cable)
+ Great size (small)
+Takes 2 AA batteries
+ Memory auto write
+ Does SSB / HF
+ Band scope
+ Back light for Keypad / display with manual setting
+ Easy to program by hand
+ BNC aerial connector
- Has some issues with FM broadcast / TV audio on some VHF Midband frequencies (none I really listen to)
- Scan / search speed slower than the RX7
- No “lock out” feature but this can be solved another way
So basically I need to decide which way to go with this, I have a couple of ways I think:
1) Sell the RX7, keep the VR500 and get a wideband base / mobile unit like the AOR8600, Icom R8500 or R1500 / 2500.
2) Sell the VR500, keep the RX7 and get a HF base radio like the Icom R75.
3) Sell both the RX7 and Vr500 to get a 396T and also a base radio as above.
4) Sell both the RX7 and Vr500 to get something like the AOR8200 or Icom R20 which would do everything I need, only issue is have with them is the physical size.
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