Radio Reviews

"An informed decision is the best decision."

This page gives newcomers to the hobby the opinions of "real people" (old hands at HAM) that have used a particular radio. No marketing hype here. Most comments here are from e-mail the hams have sent me; some comments are ones I have heard and transcribed.

Notice that the manufacturer names themselves are linked--linked to an opinion page all their own. Those pages are reserved for comments regarding the company or its products in general. For example, click on "Brand X," and you might find a page with the single comment, "Brand X sucks!!!! [sic]" Remember that general statements about a brand may be as accurate as general statements about a political party's membership.

Also, notice the lack of disclaimer--this is a "best effort" project, compiled by an imperfect being from imperfect opinions from imperfect people. Free speech rules here, except for language I deem offensive. If you disagree with a posted opinion, fine, but your opinion holds no more sway here than anybody else's. Contribute if you'd like to (I encourage it)--the more opinions, the more informed decision a newbie can make.

Finally, despite the many negative comments you may read about any particular model, any of these would suit you just fine for most purposes. Every one of these lets you talk both simplex and to a repeater, which is probably 95% of what you'd want to use it for.

Click on a model name below to see opinions of them.

[links to reviews will go here] Sample

IC-T21A (2-meter version of IC-T41A)

Radio Reviews

"An informed decision is the best decision."

Alinco

Icom

Kenwood

Premier

Radio Shack

Standard

Yaesu