YAESUOriginal FT-65 FT-65R 144/440 Dual-Band Rugged & Compact Handheld Transceiver, 5W - 3 Year Warranty

Great little HT. Feels sturdy and better made than lesser brands. This one is made in China and not one of the Japanese made radios I was hoping for but still seems very well made. Battery life is surprisingly good, plenty of standby time. Good quality speaker sound. Stock antenna is better than most but I still tend to upgrade all antennas on HT's. It can be unlocked to program some out of band channels for emergencies, i.e., GMRS. No complaints, great little radio especially for new operators, easy to program repeaters.

The reason why I am stating that this radio is the best radio is based on using the following radios1. Yeasu FT3D - Waste of money fancy but reception or transmission is not good.2. Yaesu ft-70dr - Nice but short battery life and reception/transmission was okay3. Baoefeng bf-f8hp - Good but not certified for use in USA.4. Other GMRS radiosNow coming to Yeasu FT-65, the range and the power is outstanding and just to give you an example my son was driving down the road to hill side and I was in our house and there is no line of sight and it is through traffic and flat terrain, we were able to communicate up to 22 miles and it could have been more since my son was driving up the hill the Tesla battery was down but FT65 was still doing good. Transmission and reception is very strong and is very clear. The only challenge is programming this damn things is a pain so I purchased programming cable and now it is a breeze to set this radio up. I have done MARS Mod for emergency use and I was able to communicate with my son on GMRS when hiking with no repeaters. Also applying Mars Mod is simple and through keypad unlike other radios. This proved to be a good radio with my real time test and I don't believe in 5watts, 8 watts and signal test equipment all that stuff. This is real deal.

This radio at first made me think it was a Baofeng in a new case. After about a week with it, I am really impressed and see big improvements over let's say, a UV82 or like. The display for example, is really easy to read with a nice large (and accurate) signal meter similar to the monoband Yaesu radios like the FT-270r. The speaker audio could be a little clearer at high levels but the overall tone and clarity of the audio at medium to lower levels is awesome. The scan is a bit slow but not terrible. The output power and TX audio is fine and delivering what it should. The RX receive is sensitive and has decent quality of adjacent noise rejection although the squelch is a bit too tight even on the lowest setting. Ohh and I can't forget about the amazing whip antenna that comes with the radio. This thing performs equally well on both bands and I really can't find an aftermarket antenna that performs any better! And thank you Yaesu for giving me a normal Motorola style belt clip! For the price, it really is a great radio and I find myself carrying it daily now and love it.

Pro: Able to communicate with repeater 30 miles + from QTH (direct LOS on mountain) with full quieting with factory rubber ducky antenna. All functions tried so far work ok. I did purchase an additional antenna just to ensure contact with distant machine...a half wave from Signal Stuff...which fits and works perfectly. Nice to have Wx and FM Broadcast features.Con: Signal reports of "soft audio". Improved by engaging "compander" (menu item 7) and addition of speaker mike ($40 additional cost)

I have a few of the cheap Baofeng radios, and they are OK, but I wanted a handheld with a better brand name and build quality for times when I need to rely on QUALITY. Yaesu products are very good. I have several Yaesu radios, and I trust them. This radio was a good value for me... Yes, I know they can be purchased at other ham-related stores for less, but they will not let you return it "just because" if you don't like it. I was willing to pay a little more for that option through Amazon.I like the size of the radio. Battery life is fine for me. So much depends on how YOU might use the radio, so keep that in mind. The radio is easy to program and use. It's a keeper.

This radio works great. Fits well in the hands and sounds good.

So far this has been a great radio. Easy to use and well made too.

Great value!