I have the AnyTone AT-D878UVII Plus, the Kenwood TH-D74A, and the Yaesu FT3DR listed in alphabetical order by manufacturers.
With respect to usage, the Yaesu goes with me everywhere when I am out and about rolling around. While we do have Fusion repeaters around here, it usually stays on two local FM repeaters. The Yaesu has very broad receive capabilities and therefore does double duty as I also use it to listen to the local FM broadcast radio station while rolling around.
At home, the AnyTone finds itself in use the most on various BrandMeister talkgroups via a SkyBridge hotspot. There is a local DMR repeater but the owner(s) of the repeater keeps one time slot for local voice repeating and the other time slot is fixed on a single worldwide BrandMeister talkgroup that cannot be changed. As for the AnyTone HT and SkyBridge hotspot, I got the pair on a killer deal. If I were to buy a hotspot outright, I would probably go with the openSPOT 4 as
@jazzboypro stated above.
Last but not least is the Kenwood. This is my go to HT for our 220 MHz repeaters mainly because it is the only radio that I have that has the 1.25 Meter band. LOL 😂! I have yet to make a D-STAR contact.
In a way, I’m glad that I have all of the bases covered. Here in the Baltimore-Washington corridor, you never know where you might be asked to respond to. Different areas and different clubs seem to diversify the hodgepodge of protocols around here.
Maybe one day we will have some “standard” where we can all talk to each other or perhaps somebody will get the rights to put all protocols in a single HT. Of course, that brings complexities such as D-STAR and Fusion require two different CODECS. And that is just for starters. Then there is the cost of the HT. With licensing fees and complex hardware and perhaps even a new “chip” that can handle all of the protocols. I get a headache just thinking what all would be involved; not to mention an HT with a price tag 🏷️ north of $1500. 😳
Sooooooo… my recommendation? Get all of the above plus a CB radio that does AM/FM/LSB/USB and don’t forget GMRS. I’ve had to get all of the above because my friends are
everywhere (radio-wise)! 🙄
73, Dave K4EET