Worst radio you own?

[Lscott]

10 hours ago, WRTC928 said:

but it would be interesting to see the results when the train and the radio collide.

Make a video and post it on YouTube.

[WRUE951]

1 hour ago, Lscott said:

Make a video and post it on YouTube.

I'd have to drive 50 miles to find the nearest railroad track. , but I can walk 200 yards from my back door and pull out my AR

[Lscott]

34 minutes ago, WRUE951 said:

I'd have to drive 50 miles to find the nearest railroad track. , but I can walk 200 yards from my back door and pull out my AR

You can also just stick it out on a main road and wait for an 18-wheeler to roll by. Place bets on long it lasts.

I remember driving down I-75 north of Toledo years ago. Saw a big crow snacking on some road kill in the middle lane. It would take flight when a vehicle got close. I guess it was really hungry and waited a couple seconds too long. It ended up close to it's former meal. Oops.

[MarkInTampa]

On 10/20/2025 at 1:51 PM, Lscott said:

That's expensive ammo to waste on a CCR. I would tape it to a railroad rail and wait for a train to go by. 

I looked up 50 watt GMRS radios awhile back on Amazon for giggles, the wife saw my history and decided to get me a GMRS-50V2 for my birthday. Installed it to see if it actually did 50 watts (it did 51). I am around 500ft from RR tracks and the trains always radio in to dispatch from right around my house as the next street over is the dividing line between two RR yards/frequencies. When the train keys up on VHF, it wipes out the UHF/GMRS band on the 50V2. Never had a radio do that before. Might have to try your recommendation. 

[jlwilkers]

Uh...my HT's routinely talk 40 miles to a repeater. It then goes out from the repeater but the HT has to walk the 40 miles to the repeater so, yes, HT's will absolutely "go that far."

Yes. Like I said......

Sent from my SM-S911U1 using Tapatalk

[Northcutt114]

9 hours ago, jlwilkers said:

Yes. Like I said......

Sent from my SM-S911U1 using Tapatalk
 

You said that "no HT would go that far unless it goes through a repeater." It has to "go that far" to get to the repeater. So it will, in fact, "go that far."

 

[TNFrank]

Ok, so I'm reprogramming my radios to add some Repeaters and other Channels I want to use and I get to my Yaesu FT65r. It's my most expensive radio(I paid $150 for it a couple years ago and I know they're cheaper now) and it's "Technically" not a "Bad" radio but when it comes time to enter split DPL Tones there's no way to make one Inverted and the other Normal using CHIRP. My UV-5r has the option but NOT the FT-65r. Go figure. So, it's basically useless to me for this Repeater. 

[SteveShannon]

20 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

Ok, so I'm reprogramming my radios to add some Repeaters and other Channels I want to use and I get to my Yaesu FT65r. It's my most expensive radio(I paid $150 for it a couple years ago and I know they're cheaper now) and it's "Technically" not a "Bad" radio but when it comes time to enter split DPL Tones there's no way to make one Inverted and the other Normal using CHIRP. My UV-5r has the option but NOT the FT-65r. Go figure. So, it's basically useless to me for this Repeater. 

Leave the receive side blank and it won’t matter. 
Have you tried the Yaesu software for it?  Maybe it allows you to do that. 
The ft65 is the radio I carry most frequently but I’ve never tried to program split DTCSS. I’ll take a look later. 

[TNFrank]

The factory CPS kept crashing. CHIRP worked but didn't have an option for this radio for inverted PL tones. It's not one of my main radios so it's not a big deal. Just wonder why the UV-5r had inverted tones and the Yaesu didn't.

[WRUE951]

Well, It was my BTech GMRS-V2 but it disappeared after taking a direct hit from a 308 MIA @ 100 yards last Friday during our annual Turkey Shot.  Also tore up a couple ole' Baofengs which weathered the hits better than the V2..  The V2 was placed sideways and literally blew apart with one hit..  At least wit the Baofengs we were able to get a couple more hits with them.. 

[LeoG]

Videos or it didn't happen.

[SteveShannon]

3 hours ago, TNFrank said:

The factory CPS kept crashing. CHIRP worked but didn't have an option for this radio for inverted PL tones. It's not one of my main radios so it's not a big deal. Just wonder why the UV-5r had inverted tones and the Yaesu didn't.

My factory CPS works fine. 
As for inverted DCS, see this post:

https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/inverted-cdcss-dpl-conversion-chart.8261/

I haven’t verified this. 

[SteveShannon]

15 hours ago, TNFrank said:

Just wonder why the UV-5r had inverted tones and the Yaesu didn't.

Until you pointed this out yesterday I didn’t realize the FT65 didn’t directly support inverted DCS codes, but you’re absolutely right.  I read several places online that suggested that inverted tones were mostly used for digital radios and thus were deemed unnecessary on an analog only radio, but I think that’s horseshit of superb purity. Someone at Yaesu doesn’t know what they’re doing.

[LeoG]

They screwed up and came up with an excuse to rationalize it.

[HHD1]

1 hour ago, SteveShannon said:

that’s horseshit of superb purity

I think I just found a new favorite saying.  Do you mind if I use it once in a while?

[LeoG]

And if he says no? 

[SteveShannon]

5 minutes ago, HHD1 said:

I think I just found a new favorite saying.  Do you mind if I use it once in a while?

Of course not, use as needed.  I was originally going to say “horseshit of the serenest ray” but I didn’t know how to explain it.

[SteveShannon]

1 minute ago, LeoG said:

And if he says no? 

Use it anyway; that jerk doesn’t have a patent on the English language!

[HHD1]

1 hour ago, SteveShannon said:

Use it anyway; that jerk doesn’t have a patent on the English language!

Ya, but Michael Buffer had "Let's get ready to rumble." trademarked in 1995.  So it's always good to ask permission...

[HHD1]

1 hour ago, SteveShannon said:

serenest ray

a perfectly calm, smooth, and straight shot?

[TNFrank]

4 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

Until you pointed this out yesterday I didn’t realize the FT65 didn’t directly support inverted DCS codes, but you’re absolutely right.  I read several places online that suggested that inverted tones were mostly used for digital radios and thus were deemed unnecessary on an analog only radio, but I think that’s horseshit of superb purity. Someone at Yaesu doesn’t know what they’re doing.

It had the DCTS codes, just no way that I saw to invert them unless the DCTS>R was a way but you could only do a TX tone if that's the case and not be able to add an RX tone, not that it's really needed.

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, HHD1 said:

a perfectly calm, smooth, and straight shot?

I don’t remember where I first read it, maybe it was something my father said or maybe I read it somewhere 50 or more years ago, certainly nothing recent. Here’s some background from Google. The actual phrase is “purest ray serene” which does seem more like what I remember :

The phrase "ray serene" has two primary meanings: one as 

an adjective describing a calm, peaceful state, originating from Latin serēnus, and the other as a poetic metaphor from Thomas Gray's poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard". In the poem, "purest ray serene" symbolizes the unknown, unacknowledged potential of common people, much like a precious gem buried deep. 

[WRUU653]

3 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

The actual phrase is “purest ray serene”

Horse shit of the purest ray serene. I love this!  

It's a phrase that one might give while on a porch sipping lemonade.  

It would go something like this... "Well mother, that boy said he'd be back by noon to help with the chores but he's off with that Sally girl and I believe his claim to be horse shit of the purest ray serene". To which she would respond "Clem, just drink your lemonade"

[SteveShannon]

2 hours ago, WRUU653 said:

Horse shit of the purest ray serene. I love this!  

It's a phrase that one might give while on a porch sipping lemonade.  

It would go something like this... "Well mother, that boy said he'd be back by noon to help with the chores but he's off with that Sally girl and I believe his claim to be horse shit of the purest ray serene". To which she would respond "Clem, just drink your lemonade"

Now you’re a co-owner of the phrase! Use it wisely!

[WRQI663]

The worst I have owned besides the old midland bubble pack was a Baofeng uv6r

I dropped it once, then the battery connection was intermittent and would shut down when keying the ptt

It finally died and is no longer in production - It was a pleasure throwing it in the trash -- the only good thing about it was receive audio quality was better than the uv-5r (that still works after 12+ years)

Other long term survivors are my Yaesu's -- FT530 and FT 207 -- both are working fine after all these years.