Vx-8r

[DaveIN]

Anyone using the VX-8R? I've read the eHam reviews, but I'm looking for other input.

 

[prcguy]

I just got one at Dayton, it replaced a VX-7R and is much easier to use. Seems to work very well except its very numb in the 250-300MHz UHF mil air range. Everywhere else the receiver is very sensitive, transmit audio is great, lots and lots of memories, sexy looks. The common TX mod does not cover as much as I hoped but maybe there is another simple mod yet to be discovered.
prcguy

 

[XTS3000]

Great little radio, only thing I don't like is how the battery fits loose on the back of the radio. Too much "play". I see the same thing happening to the 8R as the FT10/40 FT50, when the battery contacts get a bit worn or dirty, the radio crackles and/or breaks up on high power transmit. Battery capacity is a bit low too for my taste

Wish they made it out of metal like the 7R / 5R.

Becasue of the above issues, I will not be buying a VX8R.

 

[AK9R]

Does the radio come with the smaller of the two available battery packs? There's a FNB-102LI pack available that's rated at 1800 mAH.

The chassis is die-cast aluminum according to the brochure. The outer shell is made of polycarbonate.

Dave, if you aren't in a big hurry and you are looking for an APRS handheld, Kenwood says they will have their TH-D7 replacement out sometime in 2010. It will have a built-in GPS receiver so you don't have to mess with the add-on unit for the VX-8.

It pains me to say anything against Yaesu. I've owned Yaesu handhelds since 1989 and have generally been happy with them. The one Kenwood handheld I owned was such an intermod sponge that I sold it after less than a year.

 

[prcguy]

My stock battery and alkaline batt adapter fit very tight and the chassis is die cast as someone else mentioned. That leaves batt capacity as a possible issue and its too early for me to judge.
Everything else about the radio is just great.
prcradio

Great little radio, only thing I don't like is how the battery fits loose on the back of the radio. Too much "play". I see the same thing happening to the 8R as the FT10/40 FT50, when the battery contacts get a bit worn or dirty, the radio crackles and/or breaks up on high power transmit. Battery capacity is a bit low too for my taste

Wish they made it out of metal like the 7R / 5R.

Becasue of the above issues, I will not be buying a VX8R.

 

[WayneH]

Moved to the Amateur Equipment forum.

 

[dsviper22]

Great little radio, only thing I don't like is how the battery fits loose on the back of the radio. Too much "play". I see the same thing happening to the 8R as the FT10/40 FT50, when the battery contacts get a bit worn or dirty, the radio crackles and/or breaks up on high power transmit. Battery capacity is a bit low too for my taste

Wish they made it out of metal like the 7R / 5R.

Because of the above issues, I will not be buying a VX8R.

Strange.. my VX8R battery fits soo snug and tight it's hard to get off.

This has more features than you can shake a stick at. Yes the radio is polycarbonate on the outside of a metal frame. It doesn't get hot after usage like ppl say about the vx7. With the exception of the high pricing of the accessories it's a great radio. I think the GPS unit should come with the metal adapter instead of charging another $20+ for a piece of metal. All in all I love it. I would buy another if I wasn't so poor.

 

[eorange]

I've had one for about 2 weeks and it's a great radio. Strengths:

- fits nice in the hand
- I can actually remember most programming functions - seems like Yaesu made the interface + key sequences consistent
- the dual VFO is very nice
- I've received good Tx Reports
- the built-in APRS features rock! This radio has me interested in APRS all over again
- 16 character memory and bank tags - FINALLY!

My battery fits pretty snug. Speaking of, the battery "empties out" pretty non-linearly. Reminds me of my VR-500 when I see the "battery low" message, followed by lights out about 3 seconds later.

I am wondering how the rubber earphone / DC port plug will fare after about 100 bends.

Every now and then I notice bizarre "shadows" on the display. It's hard to describe, but almost like when the display is silhouetted in the shadows, I can see dark spots on the display, but they disappear when light shines directly on the display. I think they begin to appear when the radio is more than warm...?

Shortwave performance is only slightly worse than my VR-500; both were side-by-side and using Diamond RH77-CA antennas. I'm not much of an AM listener, so to that extent I wish it had SSB, but that's not a knockout by any means.

All in all, a very fun HT. I have not yet had the chance to test the UHF mil air range, but VHF air doesn't seem too bad.

 

[JStemann]

not the radio for me

I was pretty much set on getting one. I had looked through the manual, read the reviews, all seemed ok. I finally got to check it out at R&L electronics this week. I could not get used to the feel in my hand, like it didn't fit right. The 2nd part I had a problem with was the squelch. I had looked through the manual a little but hadn't actually read it yet, didn't think I would need to to set the squelch. I looked over the radio quite a while and still couldn't figure the squelch adjust procedure. Turns out it was a simple press function key, the moni key the turn the knob, then press PTT to store.

Now, this might sound nitpicky, but I feel like some settings/adjustments should be fairly obvious and easy to get to. Like squelch and volume. Volume wasn't too bad, by the way, just function and turn the knob. I thought the radio had some real potential for me, I'm glad I waited to check it out in person.

I ended up ordering an Icom Ic-92ad today, found one for a decent price on ebay. probably will never use d-star, but I played with one for a bit at R&L and really liked it(except for the price).

Anyway, after all of my rambling, I'd highly suggest laying your hands on a vx-8 before committing to buy over the net.

jeff s.

 

[Pigshanks]

I have had mine just about two weeks and I live it. Being a die hard Yaesu man I find it extremely easy to use. Only read up on the APRS setup. Most of the menu settings are very similar to the 7R which sits on the shelf right next to it.

 

[N1BHH]

A friend has one and it was deaf compared to others he had. He sent it back and they returned it to him supposedly all serviced but it still seemed to be deaf. I think it's going through the usual growing pains of new radios.

 

[N2JBO]

My VX8R "Pops"

I start to transmit on my VX8R and after a few minutes I hear a "POP"
Then the audio from the speaker is all "Tinny and almost unreadable"

I turn the radio off and after a few minutes I hear another "POP"
I turn on the radio once again,

Then the audio from the speaker is back to normal.

I do Not have the TX or RX saver engaged on my radio.

Has anyone experienced this ???



73 de Dave - N2JBO "Just Being Obnoxious"

 

[eorange]

I haven't experienced this, but I read about it on the Yahoo groups. Apparently heat buildup causes a pressure increase in the radio, which affects the speaker. Pop the battery off to relieve it.

 

[rescue3]

I've had my VX-8R about 2 weeks now. So far, I really like it, especially the APRS functions. Here are some of my findings:

Battery:
As others have posted, I find my battery to be pretty tight, too and it can be a little struggle to remove. I'm going to get the high capacity battery and drop in charger at the Huntsville Hamfest. I've not had a chance to run it continuous to see how long the stock battery lasts. The belt clip on the battery seems to be the weakest point on this radio in my opinion.

GPS and Speaker Mic:
I've bought the speaker mic, the GPS and the little mount for the GPS. The only fault I can find with the GPS is there is no turning the GPS on or off without removing it. So if the GPS is mounted to either the radio or speaker mic, it is drawing power. The GPS also appears to be very sensitive. Inside the house, it is locked onto 9 satellites.

Once you get used to the menu system, the radio isn't hard to figure out. The toughest part of programming this rig was trying to figure out how to make it save the correct time. I think the software and programming cable from RT Systems will greatly aid this radio. I wish they would do a remote control software like that for the Icom 91 and 92 series.

Overall, I really like the little rig and hardly notice it on my belt.

 

[DaveIN]

Thanks for the report. How does it sound to others on repeaters and simplex? Is the power output adequate? How about the ham reception vs. general coverage?

I see one positive report on this so far.

 

[rescue3]

Thanks for the report. How does it sound to others on repeaters and simplex? Is the power output adequate? How about the ham reception vs. general coverage?

I see one positive report on this so far.

I've not tried it simplex, but I've got good reports via repeater and power seems to be ok relative to range. I'm running the stock antenna without the extra screw on extension. With that in mind, I've scanned the aircraft band on through to the weather band with good indoor reception. I've also listened to the FM music broadcast on it also with good reception. I've not tried the mil air band yet.

 

[KE5MC]

As with many HF radios the antenna is the limiting factor for good reception and the 8 is no exception.

My solution is to add a Diamond BNC to SMA adapter for easy on/off of better 3rd party antennas for 2m/70cm bands. I also can use a BNC to 5-way binding post adapter and easily connect a long wire antenna for the HF bands.

...How about the ham reception vs. general coverage?...

 

[eorange]

Thanks for the report. How does it sound to others on repeaters and simplex? Is the power output adequate? How about the ham reception vs. general coverage?

Just used it today over lunch. Repeater reports were just fine. I used a Diamond RH-77CA while in the car, as well as the stock antenna when I was standing outside.

I think general coverage is no better or worse than any other HT I've used (which recently for me was the Yaesu FT-60). This isn't to say "mediocre"; in fact I think the Yaesus have pretty good ears and the VX-8R is right up there with the rest of them.

Now that I think of it, I was scanning the built-in marine band and heard quite a lot of traffic, including a French-speaking station from Canada, which I never heard before probably due to some skip.

AM airband is also fine; I have not yet tested the UHF mil air band yet, only because I haven't been hunting for mil air with this rig yet.

Bottom line...it definitely ain't deaf on VHF and UHF. Hope this helps so far.

 

[michaelp68]

I've had the VX-8R for a few weeks now.

I'm relatively new to amateur radio and do not have a large base of comparison as I've only owned one other ht before this one.

It's certainly not deaf. I'm receiving clearly from repeaters in 2 meter, 220 and 440. Some are fairly close but others are actually pretty far. I've also been able to transmit and hit them from a pretty good distance, too, with reports that I'm transmitting clearly.

I had a brief chance to try simplex and that was fine, as well, but admittedly, it was a very short distance.

I've been using a longer Diamond antenna I bought.

The battery case fits snug.

As a new amateur operator, I decided I'd do all of the programming manually to force myself to learn the device. It seems fairly simple and intuitive.

I don't like the price, but I'm quite pleased with the product.

 

[kd7eir]

VX-8R loose and plastic? Ha!

I have the VX-8R and I cannot budge the battery pack when it's on the radio, and it's actually hard to remove. Others I have looked at are just as tight.

The chassis on mine is aluminum die-cast, with a polycarbonate case to prevent the radio from feeling hot in your hand. Not sure what could be better about that.

kd7eir

Great little radio, only thing I don't like is how the battery fits loose on the back of the radio. Too much "play". I see the same thing happening to the 8R as the FT10/40 FT50, when the battery contacts get a bit worn or dirty, the radio crackles and/or breaks up on high power transmit. Battery capacity is a bit low too for my taste

Wish they made it out of metal like the 7R / 5R.

Becasue of the above issues, I will not be buying a VX8R.