[Yaesu] HT decisions

[Bob Burns N9KRS]

Folks, I've got some money burning a whole in my pocket and I want to buy a
new handheld.

First, let me give you some background. I've owned several handhelds and
still have the Yaesu FT-23R that I bought 8 years ago. It works just fine.
Since that first FT-23, I've owned an FT-470, another FT-23, an FT-33, an
FT-73, an FT-530, and a Kenwood TH-78A.

The TH-78 soured me on Kenwood handhelds because of the user interface and
the really lousy receiver.

I really liked my FT-530. It had lots of features and was easy to use. Some
low-life must have decided that it looked like a cellular phone as it was
stolen one night when my car was broken into at the office. Anyway, the
only negative comment I can make about the FT-530 was lack of memories,
lack of memory naming, and size. Other than that, I was really happy with
that radio.

I've been looking at the current crop of Yaesu handhelds. The VX-1 is, in
my opinion, a toy. I use my handheld for public service work and want a
radio with 5 watts output. The FT-51 looks pretty nice. Lots of features, 5
watts out, lots of memories, 8-character memory naming, dual in-band
receive, PC programmable, and decent size. But the FT-51 seems like a dead
end in the Yaesu product line and the price is kinda high. I've also looked
at the FT-50. Not quite as many features as the FT-51, 5 watts, not as many
characters in the memory names, PC programmable, small size. Given that
Yaesu has developed business band radios based on the same form factor as
the FT-50, it seems like the FT-50 may be with us for a while. Note that
the super wideband frequency coverage of the FT-50 is not an issue with me.
I don't need another scanner.

So, what am I missing? What issues surrounding these two radios am I not
considering? What radios from other manufacturers should I consider?

Thanks for you help!

Bob...



--
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.qsl.net/k7on/yaesu.html
Submissions:              yaesu@contesting.com
Administrative requests:  yaesu-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-yaesu@contesting.com
Search:                   http://www.contesting.com/km9p/search.htm