2m and Airband Radio

[bholleran]

Hi,

I am looking to get a new radio, and I was thinking that it might be useful to sit my Radio License, and wondered if ther is an radio on the market that either out of the box or needs modding can be made to recieve and transmit on Airband and 2m Frequencies. I suppose PMR frequencies would be nice as well :0

Any suggestions.

Thanks

Barry

[norbertflyer]

I use a Yaesu VXA700 which does both.

Not sure it's still available "in the shops".

Richard

[bholleran]

Thanks very much, exactly what I was looking for.

I have sourced a place that sells them and has them in stock so I will order one on Monday unless there are any alternatives to consider.

I have looked carefully at the spec and out of the box it will only support the 2m range starting at 144mhz, I would like it to go down to 143.875 and from what I have read it can be easily unlocked by unsoldering two jumpers.

Does any one have this radio that can give a quick review, and is it unlocked?

After a bit of investigation I also recon I need a ct-91 cable to work with the micro avionics headset.

Thanks again

[bholleran]

I have also found the yaesu vx-7r which I think will also do the job. And I made a mistake earlier. It is this model I can get.

Do you think this will compare well to the vx a-700

[alan_k]

Hi Barry,

Unfortunately the VX-7R does not work on AM on the airband frequencies,

see viewtopic.php?f=45&t=3539.

Cheers, Alan

[bholleran]

Thanks Alan,

I had just about worked all that out from elsewhere on the web.

The way I see it now is. If I can get a VXA700 from somewhere this will allow me to tx and rx on air band and will also allow me to tx and rx on the 144 mhz range. However this radio can not rx or tx on the 143.875 frequency I normally use without unlocking. This radio can only be software unlocked if I understand it correctly by the factory if you can prove you are mars or cap registered - which I am not. So this radio is almost perfect but I would need to convinec the other that I fly with to change frequency

or

If I go for one of the many tri / quad band radios like the vx-7r then it cannot transmit on the 143.875 frequency out of the box but it can eaasily be made to do so by unsoldering a few jumpers. This would allow me to rx on air band but no tx. And would additionally allow me to rx and tx on pmr frequencies if it was unlocked.

So all in all neither solution is perfect, I dont want to carry two radios and I think the number of times I would have used the airband would have been limited but I would have like to have the ability to, alsoif I am going to buy a decent radio I would have liked to have got one that did everything so as not to have to keep lots of things charged.

So unless some one has a VXA700 for sale or know where to source one?

I think I am going to have to compromise and loose the tx on airband. I currently have the microavionics headset with I think has an icom connector on it.

So if I was now looking for a radio that had: rx on air band, rx and tx on 143.875/144 range and rx and tx on the PMR ranges, would the general recomendation still be the vx-7r or are there any other alternatives I should be looking at.

Thanks

[8086]

Hi Barry

Take a look at the Icom IC-E90 if you can get hold of one.

It does rx on air band, rx and tx on 143.875/144 range and rx and tx on the PMR ranges as requested.

Programmable via a PC, can be tweaked.

Only downside is that in sub-zero temperatures it switches to half power to save the battery.

Paul