Looking for the ultimate Hiking Radio with support for 2m,70cm,GMRS,MURS

[pcradio]

P.S.

Thanks for the comments. It's helping to clarify what I truly need.

[BKmetzWRKZ843]

4 hours ago, Lscott said:

The only negative is the battery pack capacity, it doesn’t last that long.

I have two 1800mAh batteries and I would rate the battery life as 'adequate' at best. Yeah, there are a lot of radios out there that the batteries will last longer. I think the reason the D74A battery life is what it is, is 1, is that there is so much going on inside of it and 2, it's an average capacity battery by today's expextations. My Wouxun KG-935 has a 3200mAh rated battery. Every new generation of HTs have batteries with considerably larger capacity. Whenever Kenwood brings the next generation of HTs to market, they too will have higher capacity batteries. technology marches on.

Back to the OP in his search for his ultimate radio. 

[BoxCar]

Receiver sensitivity is important in all instances as it is the ability of the radio to receive WEAK signals and not necessarily to discriminate against noise.

[tweiss3]

Look used. QRZ has tons of decent deals. There are 3 FT3DRs for sale a day with the new FT5DR on sale. I will amend my previous statement, you can get coordinates displayed, but it's not as nice as the D74 for GPS usage at all. 

To be honest, if you are just looking for coordinates, and not for using it within the radio (APRS) then you are better off with a standalone (hiking GPS or activity watch).

Unless you are completely set on new with warranty, I do suggest looking used. Make your list of radios, check eHam and QRZ a few times a day, and grab the one you find the best deal on. I stopped hiking with the D74, while it may be water resistant, the antenna I have in it is huge and it's doesn't seem near as resilient as others. I do hike with my FT3DR and my VX7R, my current favorite being the VX7R for the inclusion of 220 and 6meters. 

Honestly, you list of possible radios is pretty large if you remove the GPS requirement, and many have full submersible ratings instead of just resistant. 

[pcradio]

2 hours ago, tweiss3 said:

Honestly, your list of possible radios is pretty large if you remove the GPS requirement, and many have full submersible ratings instead of just resistant.

Yeah, with a lot of models to pick through, it makes the decision harder. I try to research enough so I don't have to buy, physically test, then return. But, virtual testing only gets you so far.

[Doctnj]

There are radios that fit the bill but only a ccr will probably be part 95 etc etc. As an example only because I have read up on them, Motorola xts5000 model 3 fpp looks like it would be pretty perfect and programmable making it close to 95 Yada Yada. And can take weather and keep working.  The best part is all the accessories still available for these HTs. Like I said back when I started the ccr thread, I don't like supporting the capital c in that title,... well it gets difficult to not do that and stay compliant 

[pcradio]

I met with a friend tonight who uses a Motorola APX 6000 for work. Wow ... that is a nice radio. I have a lot to learn.

[Lscott]

11 hours ago, tweiss3 said:

I do hike with my FT3DR and my VX7R, my current favorite being the VX7R for the inclusion of 220 and 6meters. 

The antenna efficiency of an rubber duck 6M antenna on an HT is going to be really poor. Unless you plan on using an external 1/4 wave antenna with a ground plane it’s more of a marketing gimmick. The 2M VHF rubber duck antennas I’ve seen where it was stated as a negative 5 db gain in some cases too. 

A 1/4 wave UHF antenna for Ham 70cm and GMRS is about 6 inches long. That’s small enough to fit on an HT where the body of the radio is just about big enough to make a reasonable ground plane. Even better when holding it.

I made a 1/4 ground plane antenna, with radials, using some heavy buss wire and a PCB BNC socket. The measured 2:1 bandwidth covered almost the 430 to 470 MHz range with a nearly perfect match around 448MHz. Good enough for Ham and GMRS.

I used the antenna zip-tied to a baseball cap while walking around the Dayton Hamvention a couple of years. That let me hang the radio on the belt using a short jumper cable and speaker mic. I only needed about 1 watt for good communications with the antenna up in the clear. I might have looked like a nerd but I wanted something that worked, cheap and simple to build.

[axorlov]

I'd go with Alinco DJ-MD5, that was mentioned above. Being legit (almost, it's Part 90) worth something, no?

[tweiss3]

9 hours ago, Lscott said:

The antenna efficiency of an rubber duck 6M antenna on an HT is going to be really poor. Unless you plan on using an external 1/4 wave antenna with a ground plane it’s more of a marketing gimmick. The 2M VHF rubber duck antennas I’ve seen where it was stated as a negative 5 db gain in some cases too. 

Actually, it works quite well with the rubber duck on 6m, exactly like the 818/817 does.

8 hours ago, axorlov said:

I'd go with Alinco DJ-MD5, that was mentioned above. Being legit (almost, it's Part 90) worth something, no?

This is a good option, will work in GMRS/MURS frequencies without a modification, but it is a DMR radio, and I can't find anything on the water resistant rating.

[wrci350]

1 hour ago, tweiss3 said:

This is a good option, will work in GMRS/MURS frequencies without a modification, but it is a DMR radio, and I can't find anything on the water resistant rating.

The DJ-MD5 is a DMR radio, but it works just fine as an analog radio too.  However, I see "IP54" on several websites where you can buy one, yet the owner's manual states: "We don't guarantee any IP grade of this product."  So perhaps that's a disqualifier.  My apologies. 

Another option would be the Alinco DJ-500TB, which has the same form factor as the MD5 (same batteries, etc.) but is analog-only.  It also really IS IP54; even says so in the manual.  I didn't recommend it originally since it's harder to find.  I got mine from HRO and it was a special-order item.  They still have it on their website so my guess is that it is still available.

https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-016057

This is a Part 90 radio, which is what you would need.  There is also another version of the DJ-500T that is amateur bands only, which would not meet your requirements.

[Lscott]

1 hour ago, tweiss3 said:

Actually, it works quite well with the rubber duck on 6m, exactly like the 818/817 does.

I have an FT-817 and the included 6M antenna sucks. You realize for a 1/4 wave 6M antenna the required ground plane radials need to be about 60 inches long. The body of the radio is nowhere even close to that. Now holding the radio, well now your whole body might function as a sort of ground plane but the vertical element is still a crappy very short loaded helical design with high losses. Does the antenna radiate, yeah, but poorly. 

There is a reason why you don't see a bunch of HT's with the 6M band included. Most 6M activity is during band openings and then it's typically on sideband anyway, not FM. I just check "repeaterbook.com" and there are a total of just 15 6M repeaters listed for the entire state of Michigan for example, it's not that popular for FM, at least around here.

[WRCZ387]

2 hours ago, wrci350 said:

Another option would be the Alinco DJ-500TB, which has the same form factor as the MD5 (same batteries, etc.) but is analog-only.  It also really IS IP54; even says so in the manual.  I didn't recommend it originally since it's harder to find.  I got mine from HRO and it was a special-order item.  They still have it on their website so my guess is that it is still available.

https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-016057

This is a Part 90 radio, which is what you would need.  There is also another version of the DJ-500T that is amateur bands only, which would not meet your requirements.

Per DX Engineering & RemTronix, the DJ-500TB has been discontinued by Alinco

BUT, according to RemTronix, they persuaded Alinco to do another run of the 500TB, & they hope to have them in early December

I was lucky enough to grab one from DX Engineering late last month

I would keep checking DX Engineering, HRO, & Remtronix for the 500TB

[tweiss3]

2 hours ago, Lscott said:

I have an FT-817 and the included 6M antenna sucks. You realize for a 1/4 wave 6M antenna the required ground plane radials need to be about 60 inches long. The body of the radio is nowhere even close to that. Now holding the radio, well now your whole body might function as a sort of ground plane but the vertical element is still a crappy very short loaded helical design with high losses. Does the antenna radiate, yeah, but poorly. 

There is a reason why you don't see a bunch of HT's with the 6M band included. Most 6M activity is during band openings and then it's typically on sideband anyway, not FM. I just check "repeaterbook.com" and there are a total of just 15 6M repeaters listed for the entire state of Michigan for example, it's not that popular for FM, at least around here.

While it is a compromise antenna, it is still the best one available (that carries 4 bands, I use 220 a lot), and is enough for the 6m repeaters in the area (I use 2 regularly) and have been successful with simplex contacts while hiking the local parks network. It doesn't nearly meet my vertical dipole 19' above ground that is powered by my 7300, but it works well overall.

[Lscott]

8 hours ago, tweiss3 said:

While it is a compromise antenna, it is still the best one available (that carries 4 bands, I use 220 a lot), and is enough for the 6m repeaters in the area (I use 2 regularly) and have been successful with simplex contacts while hiking the local parks network. It doesn't nearly meet my vertical dipole 19' above ground that is powered by my 7300, but it works well overall.

If it’s working for you cool. Sounds like you’re one of the few people that utilizes the radio’s full set of features, most don’t.

Myself I would like to see Kenwood come out with a version of the TH-D74A but use DMR in place of D-Star. That would be a killer radio.

I’ve scanned 220 around here by me and it seems basically dead. 
 

I have a cheap TYT TH-350 triband I use as a scanner at home. Mostly used to monitor the local mall security frequency, house keeping along with the neighborhood FRS stuff and the local GMRS repeater. For a CCR it’s an OK radio. 

[IanM]

The Wouxun KG-UV9P was mentioned, and I wanted to echo some of their other offerings. No GPS, but some of their models are pretty rugged for the price with a claimed IP66 rating. the KG-UV8 and 9 series seem to be TOTL from US distributors. the UV9 series also receives AM as well. 

 But what's mostly of use to you is that there is some software floating around out there that unlocks the frequency limits if you do some searching. CHIRP may also, but don't quote me on that—I don't have a sold-as-a-ham-radio Wouxun (but the unlocker could read/write to my 805G, I just don't know what the hardware is capable of). That would give you UHF/VHF/MURS/GMRS capabilities at least.

 

[taco6513]

Alinco DJ-500TB, IP54 rated. Part 90. Take a look for consideration. 

WRCW870

KI5GXD

[WRQW894]

Way late to the party, but the UV-5R does all these.

[MichaelLAX]

I actually prefer my TYT-88UV (a similar clone to the Radioddity GM-30) to my UV-5Rs for this purpose.

Also, my Radioddity RD-5R has all this and DMR, too!

[pcradio]

On 10/2/2021 at 8:27 AM, BKmetzWRKZ843 said:

pcradio,

Good discussion. I'm also of thinking along the same lines you are in my need for a do-it-all HT. Good luck in your search and let us know what you end up buying.

 

For now, I've decided to go with the Wouxun KG-UV9PX. My initial review here. I still want the APX 8000, but will need to strike oil first.

[WROW439]

On 10/7/2021 at 3:11 PM, taco6513 said:

Alinco DJ-500TB, IP54 rated. Part 90. Take a look for consideration. 

WRCW870

KI5GXD

Thanks for making me aware of this radio. I had similar requirements as the OP and this radio checks all my boxes. As a side note the specs also list it as being "MILSPEC vibration and shock compliant". A nice feature for hiking/back country use.

I bought 4 and am considering a couple more for backup.

[pcradio]

10 hours ago, WROW439 said:

I bought 4 and am considering a couple more for backup.

Post a write up in the review section if you can. Thanks. I've made a comparison to the FT3D here.

[pcradio]

Switching my hiking radio now to be the Yaesu VX-6R. In actual use, the Yaesu FT3D & Wouxun KG-UV9PX, while being extremely nice radios, fall short out in the wild. They don't have locking or sealed connections for example. Loud and clear audio is a must and being rugged is more than a feature, it has to be a design goal.

[marcspaz]

@pcradio... that is a great radio.

[nokones]

A good high end radio that will cover all bands is the Motorola APX8000 radio.