Bought My First Radio

Well I just had to have some major work done on my transmission (the car kind not the RF kind) and wasn't sure if I should try to buy an HT radio or not. But impatience won out. I decided if I got my call sign and had no radio it would be pretty frustrating.

I decided on a Yaesu VX-6R for its durability and entry level price. We get a lot of rain here in the Pacific Northwest, so I wanted a handheld that I could take with me year round without having to worry about the weather. I looked at a couple of Kenwoods including a model that had GPS built in. I would like to do more geocaching so getting a built in GPS was a nice idea but it was costly and didn't have the weather proofing I was looking for.

I also bought a Diamond SRH320a antenna to go with my VX-6R.

Both items had good reviews on eHam and my brother Randy, KC7AVA, has the same HT and likes it. In fact on the 4th of July he dropped it in salt water at our parents' house. A quick rinse with freshwater and after a bit of time to let it dry out it was working just fine.