Ham Radio Gear Roundups and Reviews
Roundups picked by what you are trying to do, and single product reviews for when you have already decided.
The short answer
Spend on the antenna and the feedline before the radio. A modest HF rig on a well built wire antenna will outperform an expensive rig on a compromise antenna, and that ordering holds at every budget in the hobby.
Everything here is researched from published specifications, manufacturer documentation and verified owner reports rather than personal testing, and every page says so. Where a cheaper option is genuinely the right answer it is named as the pick, which happens more often in this hobby than in most.
One ordering principle runs through all of it. Antenna and feedline before the radio. Receivers have been good for twenty years, while a compromise antenna is a permanent tax on every contact you try to make.
Starting out on VHF and UHF
What a new Technician actually needs, in the order it makes a difference.
- Best handheld ham radios The first radio for most new Technicians, and the ones worth more than the cheapest default.
- Best handheld antennas The cheapest real upgrade in the hobby. The stock rubber duck is the weakest part of any handheld.
- Best DMR and digital handhelds Which digital ecosystem to buy into, and what a code plug actually involves.
- Best mobile ham radios More power, a real antenna and a proper speaker, for the car or as a first base rig.
- Best VHF and UHF base antennas Height first, gain second, radio last. This is the purchase that changes a VHF station.
- Best mobile antennas and mounts On a car the mount is the antenna. The whip is the easy part.
Getting on HF
The radio, the wire and the tuner. Spend on the antenna before the radio.
- Best HF transceivers for beginners The radio a new General buys. Where the money goes, and what a better receiver is worth.
- Best portable HF radios QRP and low power rigs for parks, summits and a rucksack station.
- Best HF wire antennas The part that decides whether anyone hears you, and the cheapest place to spend well.
- Best HF vertical antennas A vertical trades a radial field for a small footprint and a low takeoff angle.
- Best HF amplifiers Four times the power for one S-unit. Read that before you buy.
- Best portable power for field operation Quiet matters more than capacity. A generator you can hear is a generator you can also hear on receive.
Feedline, power and the shack
The parts nobody photographs and everybody eventually replaces.
- Best SWR and power meters The instrument that stays in the feedline and tells you the station is behaving.
- Best coax for ham radio The part of the station nobody photographs and everybody under-buys.
- Best power supplies for ham radio Size it for the transmit peak, not the average, and buy quiet.
- Best baluns and common-mode chokes If the SWR changes when you touch the radio, you need a choke.
- Best LiFePO4 batteries for ham radio Flat voltage under load is the whole reason, not the weight saving.
- Best SDR receivers Twenty-five dollars buys a spectrum display. That is the real value.
- Best ham radio headsets and microphones Most audio complaints are gain and placement, not the microphone.
More gear
Everything else worth a considered opinion.
- Best antenna analysers for ham radio A meter tells you there is a problem. An analyser tells you what it is.
- Best ham radio books Buy the manual for the exam you are taking. Buy the Antenna Book after you pass.
Single product reviews
A roundup asks which one of several. A review asks whether to buy one specific thing, and it is written for the moment after you have already decided, which is when the weaknesses matter most. Every one of these names the honest limitation in its own section, because that is the part worth reading.
HF transceivers, reviewed one at a time
The radio a new General buys, and the three tiers above it. Read the weaknesses section first.
- Icom IC-7300 review The default first HF radio, and the internal tuner nobody reads the specification for.
- Yaesu FT-891 review 100 watts in a body that fits under a car seat. No scope, no tuner, excellent receiver.
- Yaesu FT-710 AESS review The modern middle of the market, and what the AESS speaker does and does not do.
- Yaesu FTDX-10 review Bought for one thing: hearing a weak signal beside a loud one.
- Yaesu FT-991A review 160 metres through 70 centimetres in one box, with the compromises that implies.
- Icom IC-7610 review Two independent receivers, and the honest case for spending the money on an antenna instead.
Portable, low power and field gear
Radios and antennas that go in a bag. The antenna decides the outcome more than the watts do.
- Icom IC-705 review A base station receiver you can carry, at a price that starts arguments.
- Xiegu G90 review Twenty watts, and a wide range tuner that will load almost any wire you can string up.
- Xiegu X6100 review Battery, tuner, waterfall and radio in one box, with a receiver that shows the price.
- Xiegu GPA100 amplifier review Taking a QRP radio to 100 watts, and what 13 dB is really worth.
- Chameleon MPAS 2.0 review One modular kit that deploys several ways, for sites you cannot survey in advance.
VHF, UHF and handhelds
Height beats gain and gain beats power, in that order, on every one of these.
- Yaesu FTM-150R review A plain analogue FM mobile for people who want repeaters to work, not a project.
- AnyTone AT-D878UVII Plus review The DMR handheld people recommend, and the code plug homework that comes with it.
- Diamond X300A review Real gain on both bands, if your mast can carry it and your coax does not eat it.
Antennas, tuners and the shack
The parts that decide whether anyone hears you, plus the boxes that keep the station honest.
- Hustler 6-BTV review A resonant trap vertical, and the radial field that decides whether it was worth buying.
- Comet CHA-250B review No radials, no tuning, 80 through 6 metres. Low SWR is not the same as efficiency.
- Comet CAT-300 tuner review A manual tuner with real meters, and when an automatic one saves you more than it costs.
- Astron RS-35M-AP supply review Twenty five amps continuous, no fan, and no switching hash in the receiver.
- RigExpert AA-650 Zoom review What a real analyser buys over a NanoVNA, and when it does not.
- Yaesu G-450ADC rotator review Ten square feet of wind load, and the control cable nobody budgets for.
Related
- Station builds, which put this gear together at four budgets
- Comparisons for the decisions that come before a roundup
- Calculators to size an antenna, a supply or a battery
- Licence classes, since what you may transmit shapes what to buy
Keeping your own cut lengths, SWR sweeps and exposure record? The Station Build & Antenna Planner is the paid version of these pages: 8 printable worksheets you fill in with your own numbers, plus the full PDF, $29.
Disclaimer Researched guidance for planning purposes, not professional engineering, electrical or legal advice. Antenna work, RF exposure, mast and tower work, grounding and battery handling all carry real risk that depends on your specific site and installation. Verify anything safety-critical against current FCC rules, the National Electrical Code and the manufacturer's own documentation, and hire a professional where the job calls for one. We research equipment from published specifications, regulatory documents and verified owner reviews rather than claiming hands-on testing we have not done.