VX6R
The VX-6R is a radio that I want to love more than I do. If I’m being honest, I use the Baofengs way more often.
It was my first radio; it was a pretty big deal to be able to afford a radio for me at the time. It’s a solid radio and there’s a lot of things to like about it:
- It works well, which is subjective but the audio is relatively good.
- It’s rugged, can confirm this from many hiking trips.
- It’s tri-band!
- It supports organizing memories into banks, so you can scan only the air bands or VHF repeaters or whatever your pretty little heart desires.
There’s a bunch of things to not like about it, though. As in, the radio could be a lot better than what it is.
- Battery life is pretty bad. You can sort of make up for this by using a USB charging cable, though.
- There’s no dual-watch. That is, you can only receive one frequency at a time.
- The buttons are tiny! (What is this, a radio for ants!?) Specifically, I can’t use it in the Sierras or the Rockies during the winter: there is absolutely no way for me to press the buttons with gloves on.
- You basically need a PhD in the VX-6R to use this radio for anything outside of pre-programmed usage. It’s extremely
complexcapable, but every button does several things. It’s the TI-89 of HT radios.
