Yaesu VR-500, does it stink?

[safetyobc]

I see lots of these VR500's for sale everywhere. Do they stink that bad? Or maybe people are expecting too much out of them. I am slightly considering getting one but am unsure. Any comments on this receiver or on the VR-120?

Thanks

Matt

 

[trap5858]

I had one for a while. My observations were that for conventional non-digital, non trunking scanning it was fine. Volume level was very low, the speaker is quite small. I did not have much success with it on SSB. Another factor to consider is that you cannot lock out individual channels.

One plus is the size, a little larger than a pack of cigarettes!

All in all, it is a good radio.

 

[maalox]

verynice radio. just wondered they never added ctcss to it.

 

[eorange]

It's a very good radio. Pluses: 1000 channels, excellent UHF (mil air) sensitivity and very good overall sensitivity, any modes on any freq (am/wfm/nfm/usb/lsb/cw), decent performing HF.

Minuses: HF can easily overload (use short antennas), slow scan (12 ch/sec), and channel lockout not available (you define your priority channels in a bank and scan those; turning off priority enabled all the other channels in the bank).

I really like mine. Biggest drawback for me is the slow scan speed.

What's the selling price?

Erik
KA3FYU

 

[MarkWestin]

Hello,

I still have one of these. It is a good receiver, but a terrible scanner. Would I buy one again? Probably not. Will I keep mine? Definitely yes. The only problem that I have had is that I dropped mine and cracked (broke) the BNC connector. I want to replace the connector, but haven't been able to take the radio apart yet (it wasn't designed for the owner to take it apart). The only thing you should know is that many frequencies are blocked on the USA model so that it will conform to the "Cell Block" regulations. The non USA model doesn't have these problems, from what I have heard.

Mark