HT for a newbie.

[D00D]

Don't let mic fright hold you back! Key that sucker and start talking!

As long as you can find in the manual how to set the tones (if necessary) and the repeater shift (if it doesn't do it for you automatically) you should be fine. In other words, get on the air. ;-)

 

[KD0LWU]

Some of it's mic fright, most of it is I still can't pronounce my call sign!

 

[D00D]

Sounds like you need a vanity call.

Or maybe you just need to come up with a good acronym for the LWU. Let's see...

Like Whipping Unicorns?
Lost Without Underwear?
Little Women Unite?

Something like that. I won't charge for those suggestions either.

 

[KD0LWU]

Thanks for the freebies LOL! I came up with "long winded unit", but even then I still want to say KD0WLU for some reason, it's a real tongue twister if you try to say it, at least for me!

 

[D00D]

I hate to say it but I actually like yours. I'm still fond of the unicorn one, though. I feel your pain. I got a sucky call and I got so sick of repeating it I gave up and went the vanity route.

 

[KD0LWU]

Man am I feeling like an idiot! The VX-7R isn't for a newbie! I managed to set the clock, took me twenty min. Set the "Home channel" that took another ten min. still haven't figured out how to input memories and not sure I want to even try labeling them without the software!
This thing is SO much smarter than I am it's ridiculous! But I will prevail!

 

[canav844]

Don't worry about it, it's just your learning Yaesu speak, it takes a little while to learn but once you've got it down it's a piece of cake. Pretty soon you'll be able to navigate many Yaesu radios without even having to touch a manual.

 

[KD0LWU]

What I've learned in my short time as a Ham so far:

If I hadn't gotten the VX-7R for a good buy, I would have been a fool to have bought one! It is a VERY nice rig, but it's over complicated and without a lot of time spent reading the manual and using it, it would SUCK as a survival radio! It's a great little unit, but all the bells and whistles make it hard to use in a simple fashion.

Around here, 2m isn't a viable option for an emergency radio. With a base antenna I can hit four repeaters, without it, I hit the one that seems to have problems regularly, which I am learning most repeaters do have problems regularly! Also counting on someone being on the air at the time you might need them is also iffy.

I'll keep the VX-7R, but if I were to do it again I'd probably by a simple dual band and a dual band mobile that I could "cross band" with. Let the mobile do the work while talking low power on the HT.

Where I am at now:
I found what I think was a good deal on an original Icom 706 that I've put in my truck set for 2 and 10m right now. I plan this weekend to get my general to have more coverage options and plan to add to the coverage once I figure out where I think I'd like to be. I bought the Hustler mobile antenna that gives me up to four bands at once, and I can change out loads as I need/want to.
I made a J-pole from copper tubbing, neat rig, but I couldn't seem to keep the SO-239 soldered on in the KS winds. I bought a new but returned/opened Comet GP-3 yesterday, that really opened up things with the HT! To do it all over, I might have gotten the Yaesu FT-857D, but it's big for a BOB, and VERY expensive, but afforded the portability I wanted.

Live and learn, but the 706 has opened up more potential for me in the future. I don't regret that I bought an HT because no matter what it's what I want for emergencies, but I feel better knowing it's limitations prior to an emergency,

 

[mrweather]

Very good advice. The VX-7 is a lot of radio in one package. Unless you're really into toys/electronics, I think it's a bit much for a new ham.

I got my VX-7 last fall and really like it. But, I've been in the hobby for over ten years and have owned and/or used my fair share of radios so I knew what I was getting into.

Can't go wrong with a dual-band mobile and handheld. Leaves your options open (use 2M or 70CM) and the crossband repeat feature is useful.

 

[JeremyB]

What I've learned in my short time as a Ham so far:

If I hadn't gotten the VX-7R for a good buy, I would have been a fool to have bought one! It is a VERY nice rig, but it's over complicated and without a lot of time spent reading the manual and using it, it would SUCK as a survival radio! It's a great little unit, but all the bells and whistles make it hard to use in a simple fashion.

Around here, 2m isn't a viable option for an emergency radio. With a base antenna I can hit four repeaters, without it, I hit the one that seems to have problems regularly, which I am learning most repeaters do have problems regularly! Also counting on someone being on the air at the time you might need them is also iffy.

I'll keep the VX-7R, but if I were to do it again I'd probably by a simple dual band and a dual band mobile that I could "cross band" with. Let the mobile do the work while talking low power on the HT.

Where I am at now:
I found what I think was a good deal on an original Icom 706 that I've put in my truck set for 2 and 10m right now. I plan this weekend to get my general to have more coverage options and plan to add to the coverage once I figure out where I think I'd like to be. I bought the Hustler mobile antenna that gives me up to four bands at once, and I can change out loads as I need/want to.
I made a J-pole from copper tubbing, neat rig, but I couldn't seem to keep the SO-239 soldered on in the KS winds. I bought a new but returned/opened Comet GP-3 yesterday, that really opened up things with the HT! To do it all over, I might have gotten the Yaesu FT-857D, but it's big for a BOB, and VERY expensive, but afforded the portability I wanted.

Live and learn, but the 706 has opened up more potential for me in the future. I don't regret that I bought an HT because no matter what it's what I want for emergencies, but I feel better knowing it's limitations prior to an emergency,

If you are upgrading you can get a different callsign just by checking a box on a form. The programming for any HT is usually not the easiest, but for Yaesu its usually involves entering the frequency in VFO mode, then press and hold the F/W key and press the F/W key once again to save. For a repeater frequency you would enter the freq in VFO mode, press the F/W key, then 2(code), rotate dial for PL tone, press 2 again, then press and hold F/W for a second, then press F/W again to save.

There is free software for programming the VX7(Jim Mitchell - KC8UNJ) but you will probably have to make/buy a cable to program it

 

[KD0LWU]

I could do the manual programing, set the offsets up, set the power up, set the squelch, all was good until I saved it. Once I saved it it added the "TSQ" mode to all of my memories automatically, Every one of them. The memories were useless then! I couldn't figure out how to change that anywhere, I did figure out how to take the "TSQ" mode off, but had to do that everytime I would pull up another memory or even when I went back to that same memory.
I've bought the cable and software and have programed everything that way.

I'll probably just keep the call sign, I'm slowly getting used to it, and have it memorized.