Looking to get involved in SOTA and want to upgrade my HT from my Baofeng and start with that. After a few days of research I had settled on the VX-6R, but then I just found a thread on here that said it performed poorly on peaks with towers as it has a wide-band receiver. I’m in Southern California and I’d be willing to bet more peaks have towers than not. My plan is to get an HT and do the local summits, then if I decide SOTA is for me invest in a mobile HF setup. I already use my HT all the time, so I’m not worried about spending money on an upgrade as I know I’ll easily get my moneys worth out of it.
So, which HT would you recommend? Are there pros and cons I should consider? Most of the past threads I’ve found seem to veer towards the “best deals,” but I’m not personally overly concerned with that. What would be your ideal HT?
Hello Steven, welcome to the fraternity.
About the VX-6R, it can be used for contact with the ISS. See this video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idiWEdRLED
The video shows how to Work FM Satellites Portable.
Enjoy the fun of your new hobby
As a newb, I wanted the lightest weight HT I could find… a Kenwood TH-K20A. I really liked it, but I then learned that other activators were using HTs that were APRS capable, and would allow chasers to track their progress up a mountain. Ooooh, I wanted to be able to do that, so I got a Yaesu VX-8G. In both cases, I think my HTs perform well on peaks with towers. Then, I decided to treat myself to the insanely expensive Kenwood TH-D75… probably the best (most capable and easiest to use) APRS HT available. But it’s heavy and I find myself using the others more often than not. By the way, after activating many summits with towers, I’m just not that interested in doing them anymore, even if they are drive-ups. Even if there’s little to no RF noise, I find the towers detract from the SOTA experience. No matter what HT you get I would highly recommend replacing the rubber duck antenna with … a flexible antenna with a tiger tail added (good) … or a telescoping 1/2 wave whip (better) … or a hand held, 3-element Yagi (best). Have fun!
Hi Steven,
Presuming you are looking to operate on 2 metres from the summits, the addition of one of these SotaBeams filters (available either direct or through DX Engineering in the US I believe) added to your VX-6R should address the interference on summits problem:
Nice, I’ll have to add the filter to my list. Planning on buying a Diamond RH770 with the radio to get me going. And besides SOTA, the one other thing I’ve been gravitating towards is satellites. Though I’ll start that adventure once I get a hang of this one.
So if I’m reading everything right, sounds like the VX-6R might still be the way to go? I get that a huge chunk of this comes down to personal preference and I can only get so close to figuring out mine while surfing the web away from any summits.
VX-6R, SOTA Beams 2m band pass filter, and a Diamond RH770 should be a good start?
Hi Steven,
When ordering the bandpass filter, make sure you get the correct gender SMA connectors (or is the Yaesu BNC?) in any case, avoid having to buy adapters after you have made the purchase to make it fit.
As for Yaesu VX-6R vs other HTs - I can’t comment, except if you plan to go on to Satellite work, get one with Dual receivers, so that you can listen on 2m & 70cm at the same time. The cheaper Chinese HTs can’t normally do this.
Most shops in Europe have it listed as not available so I guess there is still some old stock around in the US. Maybe some strategic sales plan by Yaesu? But I would not buy a HT without APRS so I don’t mind not being able to buy one - hi.
Well I echo this, I love my FT65 & use it for 2m either with a hb Slim Jim for a longer activation or a RH770 for a quicker activation. Good luck whatever you choose! 73 John G0MHF.
I am delighted with my Kenwood TH-K20 and highly recommend this radio if you can find one. It scores highest on adjacent channel rejection on https://qrpblog.com/vhf-uhf-handheld-performance-comparison/ and performs really well on noisy summits.
Seems like FT-65R is a crowd favorite. For those that went with the FT-65R what makes it stand out besides price? And if price wasn’t part of the equation, would you stick with it or go with a different HT?
From the past week of searching and reading on here the recommendations always seem to gravitate towards the FT-65, FT-60, & the FT-70. The reasoning usually though came to be budget focused and getting the most bang for your buck. If spending another couple hundred wasn’t a worry for y’all, would those models still be the go to?
@MW0KXN Thanks for the link. It says that “3rd DR wide” column is the most important for radio tower interference, which of the radios I’m familiar with on the list the FT-60R wins out. As for the Kenwood TH-K20, think that’s the first radio I can’t find a single one on eBay or any of the forum classifieds, lol so it’s probably a pretty solid radio for its use.
