Yaesu FT-60R 5W Dual Band VHF/UHF Handheld Amateur Radio Transceiver - Portable Two-Way Radio for Hiking, Camping & Emergency Communication

The FT-60R is a great general-purpose dual-band (2m/70cm) ham transceiver. I've used this radio in the field as a volunteer search & rescue operator, and it has performed admirably in all sorts of conditions. For the price, it can't be beat.First the physical qualities: It's built solidly! Its body is cast aluminum, not plastic. It's not waterproof, but it is water resistant. I've been out in the rain with it and never had an issue. It's also taken a few drops onto hard surfaces without a hitch. The battery pack fits in real tight and never wiggles out of place. BTW, I highly recommend getting the FBA-25 battery pack that takes six standard AA cells as a backup if the rechargeable pack (included) dies.Programming the radio: This is a professional piece of equipment, and as such it is more complex to program than a regular walkie-talkie. As compact user interfaces go, this one's pretty good, but you'll get tired of programming lots of frequencies, so I recommend buying the USB programming cable and software.Operating the radio: This unit transmits with 5W of power; pretty common for this type of device. It's very good at pulling in weak signals. Voice is clear and stable, even when range becomes an issue. I like that the squelch is an analog dial and not a pair of up/down buttons. It has a control lock feature that prevents accidental button presses from detuning the radio unintentionally. It also has a scanning feature that can scan either stored channels in memory, or run sequentially up the dial.