New from Yaesu

Uninspired, Baofeng-looking HTs. Two of them, to be exact. A 2m only and a dual band model, that (at least from what they say) are rugged. Well, who knows. No wideband RX is an issue for me, and the styling makes me think they outsourced production to the same place that builds Wouxons. Maybe I’m wrong.

That being said, this is yet another (at least in my opinion) a big misstep by Yaesu. The 991, 891, and now these are all steps in the wrong direction, at the cost of the great radios they replaced (or are replacing). The VX-3R has been discontinued, signaling that Yaesu likely has plans to retire many other older models, including the venerable FT-60 and one of my top pics for a general purpose Survivalist radio, the VX-6R.

Having general purpose RX capability is a huge asset in a handheld package, really setting the Yaesu models apart from their cheap imitations and making the price of admission definitely much more than worth it. Listening to everything from SW to Airband to all our two way needs are worth it. If you’ve been on the fence about stepping up in quality, gaining much in capability as well as durability, do not wait.