Thank you for choosing to download the Ham Radio two point zero audio podcast RIP.
This is the audio taken out of a video or a livestream I did
recently. You can catch all my videos on YouTube Ham Radio two point zero
and catch us live every Sunday night at seven pm Central Standard Time for a
different topic each week. Thank you for the support, and thank you for
being a member of the community. Amazon sells Ham radios, as you might
be aware, sir, What are my top picks on Amazon for actual Ham
radios, both handheld and mobiles. These are the top fourteen ones that I
recommend today. Let's go. First off, I want to say that Amazon,
I am an Amazon affiliate and I can earn qualifying commissions from certain items
on this platform. So if you check the links in the description, blow
you can purchase what you want to and I might earn commissions on that and
those do help to move the channel forward. So thank you very much for
those of you who do that. The second thing I'll say is always check
prices. Always check prices. Sometimes you can find a deal on Amazon,
sometimes not so much, so always check prices. I know Amazon has an
excellent return policy. A lot of you don't have a Ham Radio store close
to your home, so Amazon is a good way to get items fast.
But always check prices. Don't overpay for anything. So let's check out this
list. The Bowfangs are probably some of the most popular ones on Amazon.
As I do with most of these lists, I'm going to start at the
lowest price and go up from there. This is a two pack for thirty
six dollars, which makes them each about eighteen bucks. Okay, Now,
you can get the Quanshang UVK five for about twenty seven and it has a
lot of extra features that you don't get in a bowfang. But the Bowfang
UV five R is a tried and true There's several models of bowfaning today that
I'm going to talk about today. I think bowfangs have a play. I
think they're great for a starter radio. Get your feet wet, get into
Ham radio, keep in your go bag, take out camping. If you
drop it, lose it, falls off the boat, falls in the river,
you lose it in the mud, you run over it with the truck
after it falls off of your hood. No one cares. It's a cheap
radio. It works well for what it is, but it's going to be
a beginner's radio for most people. I've said that on a lot of videos
before, and I've had commenters come by that say, well, I've been
a Ham for like five years and I still use my Balfang. Well,
there's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but you should probably try to expand your
horizons just a little bit because Balfang is a very very basic radio. The
UV five hours, one hundred and twenty eight channels, no extra bells and
whistles, no color screen, no bluetooth, no APRS, no digital,
no nothing. Very basic radio works well for what it is. Two radios
here for thirty six dollars. The next one up is the semi new Kwan
Shang UVK five. Now. I did a video about adding two twenty to
this radio. Hayden at the Ham Radio d X channel has a lot has
a whole series of videos about all kinds of different hacks you can do to
this radio. There's a firmware modification called an IJV firmware, and that's the
one that opens this radio up the most, So check that out. I'm
probably gonna be doing a second video about this radio to where we upgrade to
that firmware, but that one comes in at about twenty eight bucks today.
Now we have a fang UV five R eight WAT a little bit more expensive,
but there's a five percent off coupon at the time of this recording.
Comes with all this extra stuff right here. This is pretty cool. Charging
bock two, an extra battery, so battery times two, programming, cable,
microphone, KENWOODK connector thirty three bucks for that. That is number three
today on the list. Again, UV five R for thirty four dollars.
This is a UV as. This says UV five R Upgrade. UV twenty
one are now. I haven't tried the twenty one. I've done the thirteen
and the seventeen, and both of those are pretty cool because they have one
thousand memory channels and they have of USB C charging. I'm not sure about
programming. I think maybe yeah, I think it's programming both. I think
it's USBC port for programming and charging. I could be wrong about programming.
I have to check that out and see. I think it depends on the
version of the specific models as well as well. They have a seventeen Pro
and seventeen plus, but anything with USB C charging is AOK. In my
book. This is a FANING twenty one ARE new for twenty twenty three.
I believe full kit comes with the cable, two inten is, two chargers,
USB and base, shorter antenna, longer intenna for more range, and
that kind of thing, and ear piece right there. Twenty nine dollars for
that one, so that actually should be back here. That's actually probably a
better price. Let's put that one is number three. That's number three.
The eight watt is number four, although the UV twenty one ARE it has
a lot more features, USBC charging, more memory channels, color screen,
that kind of thing, a little bit heavier duty feeling when you're holding it,
So probably a better radio over overall, the eight UV five R is
going to be number four. Number five is this rad Tail RT eight ninety.
Now this is very similar to the RT four ninety that I just reviewed
a short while back. I'll link that video in here somewhere. This turns
out to be a pretty darn good radio. This did better on the analyzer
than I was expecting it to. You can do two twenty on this radio.
It's a good version if if you're looking for something with the two twenty
band capabilities, that one has that capability. Not sure if the eight ninety
has two twenty or not, but it does advertise am aviation band reception,
full color LCD nine hundred and ninety nine memory channels. So that one comes
in about forty bucks today. I'll probably have to pick that one up and
do another video on that one because I got a lot of good comments on
that Radtel RT four ninety video that I did. You guys seem to like
that one, so thanks for commenting on that video. That's number five.
Number six is this GA five to Tim from Radiodity. Now, again,
like I said in the beginning, I always check website prices most of the
time. I've found that radiotity puts stuff on Amazon for the same price that
they sell it for through their own website. You might be able to get
it a little bit quicker through Amazon, depending on where you live. And
you've got probably a little bit easier return policy with Amazon because you can instead
of having to box it back up and send it back to Radiodity, you
can usually take it to like a UPS store or a Cohal's or a couple
other places that do Amazon return. So there's that right there. Not that
you're gonna want to return it. Hopefully it works just fine for you.
Two twenty two hundred milliamp hour batteries and a ten watt radio. I did
a video about this radio while back, had some pretty good results on it,
so that's another option there. Comes in at fifty dollars, number six
on the list today, number seven on the list. This gsfive B from
Radiodity. This has been out for a while, and this is a really
cool radio because you can program it from an Android phone. I'm not sure
if they ever came out with an iOS app or not. When I did
the first video about this radio, it only had an Android app. Check
the Radiodity website for more information on that. Two thousand milliamp hour battery lasting
two to three days on standby USBC port in the back for USBC charging.
Comes with a really cool looking display. The display on it's nice and colorful,
got that big flashlight on the bottom if you care about such things.
But it is Android programmable, so no need to It connects to your phone
via Bluetooth. No need to worry about a computer cables. Just open up
your Android app, start programming the radio, make changes whatnot and do that
so good dual band dual PTT so you can use the PTT on the top
or the bottom band not have to change the band from top or bottom in
that. So it has a lot of great features like that, and they
still make this. This radio has been around a while. They've done some
recent well maybe about a year ago they did an update to the firm run
it. So this is still in production and still very well received. I
still have mine around here somewhere. I take it to the hunting least sometimes
because it's just a neat radio. If I lose it somewhere. It's orange,
so it's easy to find, much more easier to find than a black
radio that falls off the truck and is sitting in the field somewhere. So
number seven on that one today, Number eight is a b Tech DMR six
x two Pro. Now, the six x two Pro from b Tech is
basically the same radio as the any Tone at eight seven eight UV two,
Plus it's about fifteen dollars cheaper than the UV two, plus it has all
the same features. Plus b Tech has been pretty good about making updates to
the radio a little bit. Two or three new versions of firmware have come
out since this radio was released. It's basically the same radio on the inside.
I'm pretty sure b Tech partnered with any Tone for this radio, but
it has different features in different firmware than the any Tone does, and the
price tags a little bit a little bit lower as well. Right here is
good ten thousand talk groups, four thousand channels, two hundred and fifty customizable
zones, five hundred thousand digital contacts, seven watts of output power, and
four power levels so low, mid, one, mid two, and high
or something like that. So this is the any Tone is one of my
favorite radios. I carry my ANYTNE eight seven eight UV two plus with me
just about everywhere I go. I recently got a high capacity battery for it
with USBC charging, so that makes the radio even more useful in the field
when you're carrying around. I have a pack radio pag on the back of
my backpack, so I'll carry it with me pretty much everywhere I go.
But the b Tech is, like I said, just about the same radio.
And since you can get it for fifteen dollars cheaper than what the any
Tone is sold for in most places, this could be a very good radio
for you to get into DMR and just have all the great features of the
any Tone and the B Tech radios. Before we move on to the next
few radios in the list today, let me tell you about pcbway dot Com.
PCBWA is sponsoring this video. They do professional grade C and C printing,
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be sure to thank them for supporting m Radio two point zero and tell them
that we sent you over there, So thank you to them for supporting the
channel number nine is the first mobile radio, and we're going to get into
mobile radios from this point forward. Now I have this on the list,
but this is actually not one. This is one of the fourteen. This
is not one that I would recommend. I have this on the list because
I wanted to show you guys this. There are several ham Ham radios on
Amazon that claim to be a ten and twelve meter radio. Some of them
just claimed to be a ten meter radio only These can include there's some from
any Tone, some from President, there's some from Striker, Galaxy, Connex.
These are some of the brands. These are meant to be hacked and
used on eleven meters. These are not technically ham radios. They get away
with selling them in the United States calling them ham radios. I don't even
know if they're FCC certified or not. I'm not familiar with this specific model.
The President Lincoln I had a President grant way back in the day that
we used on eleven meters that probably wouldn't originally supposed to be used for that.
So just any time you see a radio that says ten meter only,
check out the types of radios that company is making. Radio Shack used to
make a legit ten meter radio. It was a solid radio. MFJ makes
a legit ten meter radio that's pretty solid. The ten meter radio from any
tone, the AT quad five at five five five to five, or the
AT six six sixty six, those are legit ten meter radios. They can
also be hacked to go on eleven meters, but those are pretty decent ten
meter radios. But just and I'm not telling you not to get one of
these. We as amateurs under Part ninety seven, we have an experimenter's license.
We don't have to have a certified radio to use on the airwaves because
we can hack into our own radios and build our own stuff. Just be
aware of the fact that a lot of these radios that are advertised as ten
meters only or ten to twelve meters aren't actually ham radios. They are sold
that way so that people can buy them, modify them, and use them
on the eleven meter CB band. So this is the president link in two
plus. I'd like to get one of these into my hands and see what
kind of spuryous submissions it may or may not have on the ten and twelve
meter band, but also on eleven meters. In the tiny SA number ten
is in any tone radio, any tone at seven seven eight UV dual band
transceiver. So here's an any tone radio dual band for one hundred and twenty
four dollars. That is a steal. Okay, any dual band radio for
under two hundred dollars is a heck of a price right here. So any
tone seven to seven eight UV mobile is compiled with FCC regulations, complies with
Part fifteen B and Part ninety seven FCC rule gives the fccd ID right here.
VHF is one thirty six to one seventy four. UHF is four hundred
to four ninety twenty five watts is the highest output power. That's one reason
it's a little bit less. A lot of these radios, a lot,
especially the mobile radios, are going to be forty to fifty watts on high
power. This one's only a twenty five watt radio, so it's not as
expensive. But if you put this radio in, it's gonna be smaller than
some of the fifty watt radios as well. If you put this radio in
your small car or your jeep with an external intenna, it's gonna reach out
much much better than just using a handheld radio inside of the car with the
antenna inside the car. So this is a good option, good way to
get your feet wet into the mobile duel band radio, especially one hundred and
twenty five dollars. This one's available for overnight delivery. I could get it
by seven am tomorrow morning from here. So that's number ten on the list
today. One hundred and twenty five dollars Number eleven on the list today,
now I've talked about the THH ninety eight hundred, and the only thing I'll
say about this one is that the last time I did a video on I
included this radio and a video. Right here down at the bottom it said
a frequently returned item. It does not say that on this page, but
just make sure you get it from a seller that has free returns. This
one sold from the TYT store. I ran one of these in my own
vehicle for about a year and a half, and the only problem I had
with it is that the mic was really hot. Other than that it worked
well. It holds nine hundred and ninety nine memory channels. It does two
meters and four to forty FM, but on the left side of the radio
it also does six meters and ten meters FM only, So if you have
a general class license, you can talk on ten meter repeaters, or you
can open up ten meters FM and find you can hit repeaters from several states
away when the ten meter band is up. It's a very fun radio to
use. So the TYT th ninety eight hundred fifty watt crossband mobile car ham
radio, it's a stupid, way stupid name for it. It comes in
at number eleven today still under two hundred bucks, so we can't really complain
about that. Number twelve is the b Tech fifty x two fifty x two
meaning fifty watts at two bands, so fifty by two, so only about
twenty dollars more than the TYT. This is a quad display you'll see right
there. You can display four channels, four frequencies, four repeaters for simplex
frequencies, whatever you want to on the band at the time. This is
the new second generation mobile radio from b Tech. B Tech is a US
company. They are I always forget it's either in North to Voda or South
Dakota. They are in one of the Dakotas. They import radios from China.
They do updates to them. They do they You will sell radios sold
by b Tech that b Tech maaning Bailfang Tech. But you will see b
Tech sell radios that Bailfang does not offer at all. So they have a
lot of their own unique designs, a lot of their own radios, pretty
good reputation, great customer service that you can contact inside of the United States.
So this one comes in for a full powered dual band VHFUHF radio two
meters and seventy centimeters at two hundred and twenty dollars today, that is number
twelve. Number thirteen is the any Tone dual band VHF UHF at five eight
eight eight UV. Now, don't be confused with this one, because I
have done videos in the past about the five eight eight eight UV three,
which is a Triband radio, and it's this radio, but it adds two
hundred and twenty megahertz band. That radio sells for about two point fifty ishit
RNL dot com. He sells out of him pretty quid every time he gets
every time he gets a new shipment in. You may or may not be
able to find one of those at RNL dot com. And if and if
you do, then go go grab that one if you're interested in the two
hundred and twenty megahartz band, but if you don't care about one point twenty
five meters, this radio from any Tone is just about the same radio.
Dual band dual display has the VHF and UCHF on both sides of the band.
Lots of great memory channels in that seven hundred and fifty eight memory channels,
full duplex operation with independent volume and Squotch controls fifty watts of power output
on both on the VHF band and forty watts of power on the UCHF band
crossband repeat multifunction, so you can look at VHF on both sides or UHF
on both sides, or switch them up however you want to. Anytone makes
a great radio. Some of my favorite radios to come out of China.
This one's definitely on the list today as second to last, number thirteen.
The fifth and final one is going to be the most expensive, of course,
because we're going in order of price again, So thank you for thank
you for bearing with me today, thank you for watching this video. I
do ask that you comment below if you have anything that you think I should
have included. But the fifth one today is the Zygu G ninety HF twenty
one QRP radio. Now this is the top Ham radios on Amazon. I
didn't say VHFUHF or HF, I just set Ham radios. This is sold
by the Zygu store on Amazon at the time of this recording, is four
hundred and forty five dollars. If you wait until sales like daytonhamvention sales,
perhaps some holiday sales especially Black Friday sales. You can oftentimes find this radio
for under four hundred dollars, maybe around three seventy five, three eighty five
something like that. I think in the past I've seen it as low as
like three p fifty four to four to fifty is kind of the normal price
when it's not on sale. So it really depends on how badly you want
it. If you want it now, then here it is right here.
Again check prices. It might be cheaper on other websites. I don't know.
Prices fluctuate all the time. We could look at that, but we're
talking about Amazon radios today and Amazon stuff today. This is a great QRP
transceiver if you're getting your feet wet into HF radio. A lot of guys
I know use the G ninety. It works well. It's been out for
a long time. Zigu's pretty good, not great, but pretty good about
doing firmware updates for it. New firmwer came out not too long ago.
A lot of people have this radio and really like it, and it's definitely
on the list today number fourteen, as you're one and only HF radio on
the list from Amazon. So again, what do you think I should have
included. Do you think I missed it? There's a lot more stuff on
Amazon, guys, a lot more stuff on Amazon. There's some Tid radios
on Amazon that I have not tested. There's other Balfang models that I have
not tested. Other brands of radios I've never even heard of. I found
a couple that I ran across today. I'm like, maybe I should grab
that and do a test on it, because I'm not really sure. So
what do you think I should have included in this list? And if you
liked this list and you liked this video, and you think that I have
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And thanks for watching today.