Yaesu VX-6R | 4+ Year Review

I've had my VX-6 since I first got my Tech license about 1.5 years ago. It was mt very first radio. I initially got it for it's durability, where it has since proven itself to be as close to indestructible as you can feasibly get. It pretty much lives its life attached to the side of any one of my three backpacks. It's been kicked, dropped, slammed into things, tumbled down the side of a mountain, and been submerged twice. It's got some minor scuffs on it, but still functions like it did when I pulled it out of the box. I do however wish it had a bigger battery. If I go out into the wilderness, I tend to take two spare batteries with me. I also primarily use a signal stick for the antenna. I found that it works really well, and its flexibility allows me to cleanly route the antenna through the MOLLE webbing on my pack or plate carrier. I just don't know how waterproof it is. I have had the signal stick on the radio in both heavy rain and snow a few times and it has been fine, but both times it's ended up under water it just happened to have the factory antenna on it. I really like the Signal Stick, I just don't know if I trust it going under water. As far as the parasitic drain on the battery, I noticed that right away. I just don't store it with a battery installed. It just sucks that spare batteries are $80.

Your original videos were THE reason for my VX-6R purchase, and I can’t thank you enough! I also got the Yaesu clip to replace the “hook”, as well as a SignalStick antenna. No noticeable long-term battery drain, here. Looking forward to more videos!

Love your opinions. Glad you followed up on this. thank you!!

Thank you for your videos n this radio. You do and amazing job describing things.

Hi, thanks for this video. I've noticed it too long ago that the battery drains away if unused for weeks. Therefore, when I'm not using the radio I slip a thin paper in the battery terminal, thus making a physical disconnect from the radio. This hack prevents the battery from getting drained. When I want to use the radio I just pull out that paper from battery terminal and there is full charge. Whatever it is, I just love my VX6R. Thanks again for your awesome video. Cheers! New Delhi

I've had my VX-6r for about ten years... I don't use it often. But I've had the opposite experience with the battery on my radio. I can leave it off for months.... many months, and when I turn it on it will still have the same approximate charge. Doesn't seem to lose any, or very little charge if any. AWESOME radio That's always been one factor I look for in quality electronics, whether from Radios, to laptops, to charging bricks and phones

I have had one a couple years now and it's a decent radio. Has a lot of features and can do a lot of things except for digital/APRS or GPS. Of the dozens of things it can do, I really only ever needed to master the basics. Will never need to do more than a few of those things it's capable of. Badness is the slow san speed but it's a 20 year old design so I can forgive that. Scanning is something I do with all my HTs and it's important to me. As an ex-pilot I like to scan the aircraft band and this one is good at it except for the slow scan. It will also do the entire military aircraft band, not just the civilian one. It has a fairly good AM detector. Does HF but not SSB, hard to forgive that. Won't do broadcast AM/MW band without an added antenna, the rubber ducky will only pick up a few of the strongest AM stations. The menu is a s*** show because the arcane abbreviations are hard to remember what they mean so you have to have a manual to remember most of them. On the bright side, to make up for the really low max power on the 220 band it does well with what little wattage it's got. I talked on simplex to a guy on 223.500 over 7 miles away from me one time. But I do live on the side of a hill which helped. Has a decent sound quality too. Programming even simplex on the keyboard is not easy if you want to put things in memory and repeaters are difficult so I recommend software to program it. I can program my new Kenwood TH-D75 with the keypad easily compared to this little Yaesu. Overall though it's a keeper for sure.

My VX-6R battery does drain but it takes about 2 or 3 months after a full charge and even then it will power on but show the low-batt symbol. Trust me this is 100 times better than what i experienced with the FT-70DR. I bought TWO extra 1st party Yaesu batteries with that and all THREE (including the one that came with the radio) discharged while connected to the FT-70DR in about a month or two. It was terrible. I sold it in less then a year and got the VX-6R.

I have had my VX6r for awhile now and I agree the battery life an't the greatest but Despite that I love the Radio I have a neat video you may find interesting I Uploaded a video of me Receiving a Amateur Sat A091 Sat pass using the stock Antenna

Thanks for the update! Do you feel the battery drains when it is left out of the radio? Or only when it is seated in the radio? Do you keep a spare battery on hand?

So which HTs do you recommend for long term battery storage but with rugged durability?

Random question but are in Cleveland, TN?