Yaesu VR-5000

[SCPD]

Guys Im looking for any input or opinions on the VR-5000 Receiver. Im in the market for a good wide range receiver for Military, Milair and Satcom monitoring.Right now Im thinking the IC R-20 or the VR-5000. Im kinda split.The only thing Im not sure about with the VR-5000 is its ability to record.That would be a negative if this is not the case.

 

[ka3jjz]

That radio is among the worst piece of you-know-what that Yaesu ever attempted to make. Go read the reviews on this radio - you will find that many think it's a compromise on so many levels. Even Larry Magne panned this radio - badly - on its HF performance.

One radio is never going to do everything equally well. Just from the choices you mentioned, I assume you are looking for an all in one radio. Ain't going to happen. Far better to get radios dedicated for the ranges you want to hear. A good HF radio would be a start - many ham transceivers do very well (they have built in general coverage radios), or perhaps a nice Software Designed Radio (SDR). Even an used Icom R75 is a wise investment if you're really going to jump into this.

As for reviews and information on some (certainly by no means all) of the SDR radios out there, start here (things in blue are links)

HF Equipment and Accessories - The RadioReference Wiki

Do your homework first and you won't be disappointed so easily...73 Mike

 

[SCPD]

Wow...thanks for that info. What Im looking for is a radio dedicated to Milair and UHF Satcom monitoring. It would also be nice to have 2.5 GHz as well. As far as HF/SWL monitoring is concerned I am currently using a Satellit 750 and a DX-398 for that end of it.

 

[MarkWestin]

I had a VR-5000 for a relatively short time a few years ago. At the time Yaesu had a promotion that if you bought the radio, they would give you a DSP module free. The DSP worked fine, but the radio was the classic bad design. The CPU would spontaneously reset itself, wiping out what had been programmed. At the time there was no programming software available. The radio was a "Class A" computing device (business use only). It was so noisy that with a back of set antenna, it wouldn't or couldn't pick up anything. With an external antenna, it performed adequately. The panel lights were white LEDs and were very bright. They couldn't be dimmed to an acceptable level. The CPU board had a NICAD battery soldered across it in an attempt to make it more stable. I sold mine at a considerable loss and was glad to be done with it. Avoid the VR-5000 at all cost.

Mark

 

[ka3jjz]

Wow...thanks for that info. What Im looking for is a radio dedicated to Milair and UHF Satcom monitoring. It would also be nice to have 2.5 GHz as well. As far as HF/SWL monitoring is concerned I am currently using a Satellit 750 and a DX-398 for that end of it.

Neither of those radios can ever hold a candle to a well equipped ham transceiver - not a chance.

You might find a used R7000 or even a used R8500 floating around - they're probably the top of the line insofar as satcom stuff is concerned from everything I've been told. You could use a scanner, but that would fail if you were trying to hear any sideband stuff - which, as I understand it, does show up in the 240-270 mhz satellite area from time to time. I'm not at all a fan of the AOR8600, but that's another possibility. I would dig up some reviews on that radio before plunking any money down.

Problem is, most radios sensitivity falls off - sometimes off a cliff - when you get above 1Ghz or so. Above this range, you're likely looking at a downconverter/amplifier combination of some kind (I used to know more than a few folks that did that for our local ATV Ham system). Since we have an allocation (secondary, I believe) in the 2.4Ghz area, that might be an avenue to explore. 73 Mike

 

[airwolfbell222]

I have an R-20 and it's a great radio. If you wanna use it for satcom, the best part is you have a 4 hr built in recorder, so you can park it on a freq and the recorder only records when the squelch is broken.

As for HF it does good provided you use something other than the stock antenna. I went down to Rad Shack and got some red wire and connected it to the telescoping whip with an alligator clip and improved reception dramatically.

I have a couple youtube vids showing dual receive in action using the home brew wire listening to SanFran Radio on HF and VHF tower on the other VFO.

YouTube - ICOM R20 Dual Receive HF and VHF

The second video is using the homebrew antenna stretched out the window about 25ft and was able to decode HFDL from aircraft.

YouTube - ICOM R20 HF ACARS

I really like the R20, because it's a mobile and covers everything. The milair reception is really good, I put it next to my Pro-97 and the R20 pulls all the UHF mil traffic out of the weeds making the 97 sound deaf.

 

[airwolfbell222]

Found a video from a guy using the R20 for satcom:

YouTube - Brazilian pirates using Satcom 252.150 Mhz