Yaesu FT-5DR 5W C4FM/144/430MHz Dual Band Digital Handheld Transceiver
SKU:
ZYS-FT-5DR
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$369.95
$369.95
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Regular Price: $409.95
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Customer Reviews
Overall
1
Not A SOTA Radio!
Review by
Hank Stamper
I bought this radio to use on Summits On The Air (SOTA) activations mainly because of Yaesu's reputation for building rugged HTs. Perhaps that was true of the VX radios, but this radio is a hothouse flower that cannot withstand the rigors of hiking/backpacking. First the radio developed a crack in the case almost immediately near the PTT button. I sent the radio back to Yaesu and they did repair the case under warranty. However the shipping and insurance was expensive on top of the not inconsiderable purchase price. Shortly after that, the crack in the case reappeared. I decided that it wasn't worth paying for another round of shipping and hoped the defect was only cosmetic and no moisture or dirt wold compromise the electronics.
Then another crack developed in the case at the base the base. This caused the battery to fall off at the most inopportune times - like in the middle of a contact! I used the radio for a while with a rubber band around it, but that was too much and I cut my losses and dumped the rig.
In case you think that this was an issue of user misuse/abuse of the radio I still have my Icom IC-T7H purchased as my very first ham radio in 2002 that has gone with me on more trips than the FT-5DR ever did and I've never had any trouble with that radio.
Bottom line: this radio is not very robust and will not take normal use for outdoor activities. I was deeply disappointed in this one.
Then another crack developed in the case at the base the base. This caused the battery to fall off at the most inopportune times - like in the middle of a contact! I used the radio for a while with a rubber band around it, but that was too much and I cut my losses and dumped the rig.
In case you think that this was an issue of user misuse/abuse of the radio I still have my Icom IC-T7H purchased as my very first ham radio in 2002 that has gone with me on more trips than the FT-5DR ever did and I've never had any trouble with that radio.
Bottom line: this radio is not very robust and will not take normal use for outdoor activities. I was deeply disappointed in this one.
Overall
5
Excellent Radio
Review by
Tony Cigars
This radio is by far the best HT I have ever used, I don’t like the price but worth it nonetheless.
Overall
3
Not very impressive.
Review by
Mike
The gps is very slow to get a position and appears to never get gps lock when my Kenwood th-d75a does. The screen layout is not very intuitive. Needs a special cable to program and use digital features. No usb-c. If I had to choose again I would buy another Kenwood d75
Overall
4
Nice display, love wires-x and aprs, quality could be better.
Review by
spectre
I bought this radio last weekend at GigaParts. It has been five days since I purchased it and it is already showing the dreaded hairline case crack near the PTT button. This is common, known issues at this point and has been documented in several places and reviews. Very disappointed with that aspect.
That being said, the display is amazingly bright and vivid, even more so than my Icom 52a which I also purchased from GigaParts. The Wires-x is very nice and I really enjoy using the local repeater and the America Link room. But dang Yaesu, stand behind your products. There is definitely something off with their injection molding process. Quickly becoming a Icom fan, even though I really enjoyed my FT2D and FT-70. The FT2D is outdated but still kicking and the build quality is top notch.
That being said, the display is amazingly bright and vivid, even more so than my Icom 52a which I also purchased from GigaParts. The Wires-x is very nice and I really enjoy using the local repeater and the America Link room. But dang Yaesu, stand behind your products. There is definitely something off with their injection molding process. Quickly becoming a Icom fan, even though I really enjoyed my FT2D and FT-70. The FT2D is outdated but still kicking and the build quality is top notch.
Overall
4
Best HT for the money
Review by
David
I have a few other ht radios but the FT5DR is radio I reach for when I’m in the field or just taking a walk around the neighborhood. The FT5DR is very user friendly and has APRS. The only reason I didn’t give this radio (5) stars is because of the battery life and it would have been nice to have the desktop charger included.
Overall
5
FT-5DR
Review by
KB3UEK
The Display is very nice. It transmit & recives QUITE WELL.. This Radio has a lot of FEATURES.. BUY one you won't be DISAPPOINTED
Overall
4
Great radio marginal battery life
Review by
HighSpdAl
NSD wrote a pretty good review and I will echo most of his thoughts. I really like the radio and all of the features. The CAM and Frequency grouping features are great. The band scope is nice and comes in handy when wanting to manually scan what frequencies are being used. When using APRS and sending messages, the ability to do that is easier than a lot of other radios. In fact, the typing of messages is similar to a lot of the early flip phones making sending messages a snap.
Every once in a while, I would accidentally change a mode or feature on the radio and would have to look up how on earth I changed the feature as it was not very intuitive. Now that I know what I did, using those modes and features is nice and handy!!!
Now to the not as nice. The battery life is not as good as I expected and just like NSD said, you cannot tell how far the battery has charged when plugged directly into the HT because the display is so dim. I don't have a rapid charger, so don't know how well that works, but you cannot listen to the radio when it is directly plugged into the HT. Maybe you can with the rapid charger but I don't know. If you could, that would be a definite reason to get the rapid charger.
I accidentally dropped the radio from about 4ft and the radio acted weird and changed modes on its own for about 2 days. After completely removing the battery, pressing the power button to remove residual energy, replacing the battery and then turning it back on, the radio now works normal again!
Overall, I am very pleased. with the radio. The features, abilities and capabilities of the radio are mostly easy to use with occasionally using the manual to find out a new feature.
FYI, I was able to hit a repeater 24 miles away connected to a magnet mobile antenna on my roof with an adapter on the radio so the radio exceeded my expectations in that regard.
Get an extra batter, you will appreciate it.
Every once in a while, I would accidentally change a mode or feature on the radio and would have to look up how on earth I changed the feature as it was not very intuitive. Now that I know what I did, using those modes and features is nice and handy!!!
Now to the not as nice. The battery life is not as good as I expected and just like NSD said, you cannot tell how far the battery has charged when plugged directly into the HT because the display is so dim. I don't have a rapid charger, so don't know how well that works, but you cannot listen to the radio when it is directly plugged into the HT. Maybe you can with the rapid charger but I don't know. If you could, that would be a definite reason to get the rapid charger.
I accidentally dropped the radio from about 4ft and the radio acted weird and changed modes on its own for about 2 days. After completely removing the battery, pressing the power button to remove residual energy, replacing the battery and then turning it back on, the radio now works normal again!
Overall, I am very pleased. with the radio. The features, abilities and capabilities of the radio are mostly easy to use with occasionally using the manual to find out a new feature.
FYI, I was able to hit a repeater 24 miles away connected to a magnet mobile antenna on my roof with an adapter on the radio so the radio exceeded my expectations in that regard.
Get an extra batter, you will appreciate it.
Overall
4
Mostly good; lotta bugs.
Review by
NSD
The first thing you really need to know about this radio when you first take it out of the box is that the US version gives you absolutely no visible indication of its charging state. The manual will tell you that it's supposed to display a bar graph when the included wall wart is plugged in, and it does, but it doesn't turn the backlight on so you can actually see that bar graph. This will likely lead you to believe that either the radio or the power supply is defective, but this is the way Yaesu apparently believed it should be.
Why they believe that likely has something to do with the fact that they chose to ship a 10.5 volt power supply for a circuit that wants 12-16 volts and there simply isn't enough power coming in to the unit to charge the battery and drive the backlight at the same time. Knowing this, you might be tempted to spend the extra money for the CD-41 "rapid" charger, but there is nothing "rapid" about it as it doesn't come with a less anemic power supply. If you stumble upon one of the clones of the CD-41 you might find on another site whose name begins with the letter 'A' you'll get the exact same circuit plus a 12 volt wall wart that actually charges the battery in a reasonable amount of time for about half the price of the Yaesu. You also won't fry the MOSFET if you simply touch the middle terminal on a windy day to boot.
Functionally, it's a pretty darn good radio with a tremendous amount of flexibility but there are so many state-management related UX bugs in the touch interface that I can't call it "great." Also the Bluetooth feature is basically non-functional with any device made within the last ten years and really just should not have been included at all. I got what I wanted for my money and am happy but I still think Yaesu needs to put a lot more effort into their firmware. Especially the process by which the firmware is updated. Why I have to fiddle with hidden dip switches and arcane Windows-exclusive sorcery instead of just putting a simple file on a simple SD card in 2022 is beyond me.
Why they believe that likely has something to do with the fact that they chose to ship a 10.5 volt power supply for a circuit that wants 12-16 volts and there simply isn't enough power coming in to the unit to charge the battery and drive the backlight at the same time. Knowing this, you might be tempted to spend the extra money for the CD-41 "rapid" charger, but there is nothing "rapid" about it as it doesn't come with a less anemic power supply. If you stumble upon one of the clones of the CD-41 you might find on another site whose name begins with the letter 'A' you'll get the exact same circuit plus a 12 volt wall wart that actually charges the battery in a reasonable amount of time for about half the price of the Yaesu. You also won't fry the MOSFET if you simply touch the middle terminal on a windy day to boot.
Functionally, it's a pretty darn good radio with a tremendous amount of flexibility but there are so many state-management related UX bugs in the touch interface that I can't call it "great." Also the Bluetooth feature is basically non-functional with any device made within the last ten years and really just should not have been included at all. I got what I wanted for my money and am happy but I still think Yaesu needs to put a lot more effort into their firmware. Especially the process by which the firmware is updated. Why I have to fiddle with hidden dip switches and arcane Windows-exclusive sorcery instead of just putting a simple file on a simple SD card in 2022 is beyond me.
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