Vertex Handhelds

About 6 months ago, I had to make a corporate decision as to whether to carry
Vertex/Yaesu or Icom handhelds in the product line. After a hell of a lot of
work and research, I settled on Vertex. THe reasons would take me an hour to
lay out, so I won't.

Yaesu/Vertex is my choice.

Jim




"Jeff Franks"
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom:

-Just wondering if anyone here had experience (good or bad) with Vertex
-handheld transceivers. I'm about to buy SOMETHING, but I'm not sure whether
-or not I'm gonna stick with the standard ICOM.
-
-thanks for any opinions.
-
-jf
-
-

Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

"Jim Weir" wrote:
About 6 months ago, I had to make a corporate decision as to
whether to carry
Vertex/Yaesu or Icom handhelds in the product line. After a hell of
a lot of
work and research, I settled on Vertex. THe reasons would take me
an hour to
lay out, so I won't.

Yaesu/Vertex is my choice.

I like my Yaesu also, but mainly due to its compactness. But its
compactness means a tiny speaker for less audio capability, and its
almost "5W of peak envelope power" for transmit is misleading. A
battered old Narco, brick-sized handheld I have (HT-8xx series, and
with more battery power) has nice, loud audio, and though spec'd at
minimum 1.5W of carrier transmit power, mine measures almost twice
that on most of the band, and significantly more than the carrier
power of the Yaesu. It's the one I prefer to toss in the airplane for
backup, whereas the Yaesu is just fine for airport bumming to
eavesdrop on communications and occasionally needling certain people
on unicom.

Fred F.

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 18:11:12 -0800, Jim Weir wrote:

After a hell of a lot of
work and research, I settled on Vertex. THe reasons would take me an hour to
lay out, so I won't.

I would one would appreciate hearing any of them that related to the
units' performance, durability, etc (as opposed to business reasons).


all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
Piper Cub Forum www.pipercubforum.com
the blog www.danford.net

The nice thing about being on the engineering side of the house (as opposed to
the business side) is that my decisions are based on the quality and technical
superiority of one product over another. Business reasons played very little in
my decision.

I considered the Vertex superior in terms of mechanical design and the resultant
reliability. As was pointed out elsewhere, that chicken$#!t advertising 5 watts
RF output (and then in small letters "PEP") isn't far from deceptive
advertising, but that's the way some other companies are doing it and I guess to
be competitive you have to play the game.

Actually, you can't really go wrong with either Vertex or Icom. What I wish
Vertex would do is come out with a permanent panel mount flatpack like the Icom
and then I'd REALLY be happy.

Jim



Cub Driver
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom:

-On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 18:11:12 -0800, Jim Weir wrote:
-
-After a hell of a lot of
-work and research, I settled on Vertex. THe reasons would take me an hour to
-lay out, so I won't.
-
-I would one would appreciate hearing any of them that related to the
-units' performance, durability, etc (as opposed to business reasons).


Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

Jim Weir wrote in message . ..
As was pointed out elsewhere, that chicken$#!t advertising 5 watts
RF output (and then in small letters "PEP") isn't far from deceptive
advertising, but that's the way some other companies are doing it and I guess to
be competitive you have to play the game.


I think it is deceptive. More than once I've heard somebody saying
that they bought X handheld because it had a 5 watt transmitter.
Several of the companies that sell handhelds are using the gimmick.

Transmit power on most handhelds is about 1.5 watts. The funny part
is that this is plenty of power for the task. You can transmit to the
horizon from jet altitudes with 1.5 watts. When I used a handheld as
a primary radio (1.5 watt w/ external antenna), I had no problem
conversing clearly with Approach when I was 30 miles out. All in all,
transmit power is not a big deal for aviation handhelds.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

You can transmit to the
horizon from jet altitudes with 1.5 watts. [...]
...transmit power is not a big deal for aviation handhelds.

One of the uses of a handheld is to get weather, clearances and such on the ground in winter before starting the hobbs meter. I suspect that this is
where the extra power comes in handy.

Jose
--
Freedom. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Please stop me, Dear Lord, before I answer him in a tone unbecoming of a
Thanksgiving weekend...

{;-)


Jim



Jose
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom:


-
-One of the uses of a handheld is to get weather, clearances and such on the
ground in winter before starting the hobbs meter. I suspect that this is
-where the extra power comes in handy.
-
-Jose

Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

- One of the uses of a handheld is to get weather, clearances and such on the
- ground in winter before starting the hobbs meter. I suspect that this is
- where the extra power comes in handy.

Please stop me, Dear Lord, before I answer him in a tone unbecoming of a
Thanksgiving weekend...

Bearing in mind that the sites one might need to reach from the ground might not be located on the same field (in which case a tin can and a string
would work), and there could be hills and such in the way, what is wrong with my thinking?

Jose
--
Freedom. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Jim Weir wrote:
Please stop me, Dear Lord, before I answer him in a tone unbecoming of a
Thanksgiving weekend...

Wow, such restraint? An early New Year's resolution perhaps?
Impressive! :-)

--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL, soon-2-B-IA Student, airplane partnership student

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)