8 Underrated USED Ham Radios YOU CAN STILL BUY!

What radio (ham rig) should you start off with when you get your ham radio ticket?

There's still plenty of good radios on the used market. I have owned all the radios in this list and I go through some of my favorite radios that I have owned over the years.

⏱️Chapters⏱️
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► Ham Mail: Hayden Honeywood - P.O Box 5071, Sandy Bay Tasmania 7005 Australia

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[thebugg]

Most used rigs I've looked up unless at a HAM fest (and even at those) are being sold at new prices. Just about everyone wants to sell for a profit and not at a used price. When a new rig is 20-100 dollars more than a used thats over 5-10 years old, I spend just a little more to get a new rig with a warranty.

[spankedbywife]

frankly the best deal for the money still today is the 706mk2G is my vote for the best rig still for 10 years going. i have owned a couple of these and they are a great radio and solid build coupled with a icom AT its great rig.

[mmcnew]

Another feature to the Kenwood TM-D710 (and it’s precursor the 700) beyond it’s APRS and GPS features is Kenwood’s ‘Sky Command’ operation. This allows you to remotely operate some Kenwood HF rigs remotely, such as the TS-2000 (and some newer rigs like the 590 and 990 series and others also). So as long as you are in range of UHF and VHF to your base HF station, you can have QSO’s on HF. Its more than simple cross band repeating because you can control settings on the HF rig, such as change frequencies, modes and more. I have recently begun using this feature with a Kenwood TH-D72 handheld. It’s quite nice to sit outside in the patio area on a hot summer evening instead of upstairs in my shack and use HF on a handheld. It works quite well. I look forward to experimenting mobile use next with a TM-D700 I have on hand.

[Levyo]

Aaaaye I have a Kenwood TM-D710A and I love it! I soldered in a GPS puck to it following instructions found online, and it works for APRS flawlessly.

[WaynesWorld]

Glad to hear you're recovering dude. When I inherited Dad's car he had the FT-7800 in it. The radios I inherited were the Kenwood TS-50 and TS-680s. Old but still working great. Also an Icon IC-T90a handheld.

[pasjeihobby]

Great video! I'm kind of new ham wannabe so tbh I didn't know mamy of those radios. Excellent rigs.

[rayharkins]

Sorry to hear your ill. Get well quickly so I can see you on FT8. Thanks 4 everything..Ray

[phils]

Filters for the FT897 are still readily available. 897D, 891, 8900R and FTM400 owner here. I have no allegiance to any particular brand, I just liked the spec, performance and form factor of the radios, especially the 897D. More up to date radios do have superior performance but there are some great used buys out there.👍

[MNMCAmateurRadioStation]

All very nice radios. The 706 is a very useful bit of kit being a small shack in the box and relatively cheap. shame it doesn't have a built in tuner, but you can't have everything. Nice video.

[vumes]

I recently purchased a 22 years old Kenwood ts850. Perfectly happy with it's performance and good audio reports. My 7300 is now stand by rig.

[stewpot]

Use a 7800 in the shack for chatting on my local repeaters as well as listening to the air band (one of it's great features). A great rig that I got for free from a friend.

[chriswoods]

My first radio when i first got my Foundation was the Icom IC-9100, it was a shack in the box and allowed me to do 70cm 2m & HF with one unit and 3 antennas, A Diamond CP62 for 6m, a BB7V & a LDG AT-200PRO II tuner for 10m to 80m and a X510 with a duplexer for 2m & 70cm . I have since upgraded but still have the 9100 and BB7V on a trippod setup in my shed with the in the back yard so i can listen to what is going on when i am working out there

[Dusty_Ham]

Great video Hayden, some great radios there especially if you can find a good deal on them. 73

[stargazer]

I’d put the Kenwood TS-2000 on this list. What an awesome, capable radio.

[aeron-mwofs]

My main radio is the 7300 but I also have a 706mk2g which I listen to VHF/UHF and as a general receiver 👍

[KYVY]

Still got a FT-7800 in the shack, stays on all the time. Good video Hayden, cheers.

[alvinnorris]

What I really liked about my icom 7000 was being able to plug a monitor into it. I did this both as a shack rig and mobile.

[ralfbuschner]

I'm still totally addicted to old Kenwood radios - TS-850s in the shack and 2 TS-50s for portable. Did replace the SMD electrolytics on the 850 and all electrolytics on both of the TS-50s. Both 50s also got a simple DSB clipper (1 cap and 2 diodes) (origin: PA0FRI), and they work like a charm and I'm getting very good audio reports pretty often. Maybe a IC-7300 is a newer and (on the data sheet) better radio, BUT I'm convinced, that I couldn't work stations with a 7300, that I can't work with a TS-50!

[DominicMazoch]

I have the 706 little brother, the 703+. 10w 180-6. Tuner. 10w. Plays nice with my Roma amp. Sips power on receive, like 0.5 W. Good for QRP and Foundation License.

[brentjohnson]

G’Day Hayden! Another great video. Biggest concern of used radios for me is will they work without a lot of work. All the best, 73 de KI5HXM!