Yaesu VX-8GR APRS Backpack Portable Performance

At the 2013 Hamvention I picked up a Yaesu VX-8GR which unfortunately Yaesu discontinued when they released the FT-1DR for their System Fusion concept. In 2015 I still own the VX-8GR and I decided to use it for my Saturday trip. My primary HT is a Kenwood TH-F6A and to keeps things simple I decided to make my APRS backpack portable. This was a simple build consisting of a backpack, a 3 foot extension cable SMA male to BNC male, BNC female to SMA female adaptor, and tie wraps.

Yaesu VX8-GR backpack portable

I attached the stock antenna to the backpack and ran the extension cable to the side pocket. A nice quick "build" so to speak. With all of the APRS traffic at Hamvention I was not entirely sure how well this was going to work. I set the HT to transmit at 3 minute intervals and let it go for the day. From 9 AM until about 2 PM 39 packets were picked up and available to map in APRS-IS.

aprs.fi map of VX-8gr at Hamvention 2015

Yet again, I am impressed with how well this little radio performs in a crowded environment. The GPS has sufficient sensitivity to provide some position packets from within Hara Arena. As you can see, we did a decent job making our way through the flea market on Saturday.

So, if you are looking for a good HT with great APRS battery performance (blows the Kenwood TH-D72A away on battery life) I still highly recommend the VX-8GR. These radios are no longer in production so you'd have to pick it up on Ebay or in a flea market. If you do buy one I don't think you will be disappointed.

73's K8ESR

Yaesu VX-8GR APRS use while sailing

Recently we went on a bareboat sailing charter and along with my other sailing essentials I packed the Yaesu VX-8GR that I received as an early birthday gift from my family while at

Yaesu VX-8GR along side my Garmin GPS

Hamvention in 2013. I have used the APRS capabilities a few times on his HT but I was not sure how it would function while sailing. I forgot the battery charger but as I learned with this experiment that wasn't an issue.

Radio setup:
Call sign: k8esr-8
Single frequency receive
Transmit an APRS packet every 10 minutes
Battery : FNB-102LI (extended battery)
Transmit power: 5 watts

Over the course of the week I ran the radio for 10 hours:
Monday: 1 hour
Tuesday: 2 hours
Wednesday: 3.5 hours
Thursday: 1.5 hours
Friday: 2.5 hours

I was very impressed with how well the radio worked while sailing. After the week of use I was only down to half of the bars of battery remaining. To get an idea of the battery usage running APRS I chose to not use the radio for voice communications.

Map of the received packets from aprs.fi 

After sailing on Wednesday I pulled up the data on aprs.fi and took a screen shot. In areas of the bay there were fewer points plotted but packets in other area were still well received. That said, the performance is not totally based on the transmitter but also on the location and height of the receiving digipeter or I-gate.

Overall I was very happy with the performance of the HT considering it is transmitting at 5 watts. The antenna was attached to the radio but had I mounted the antenna higher I probably would have had even better results. The VX-8GR has been discontinued by Yaesu but the performance characteristics may be similar on the other Yaesu radios like the FT1DR.

Yaesu VX-8GR

At the 2013 Hamvention in Dayton I picked up a Yaesu VX-8GR for the APRS capabilities. According to the Yaesu representatives at Dayton the VX-8GR along with the submersible VX-7R are both soon to be discontinued (neither radio was on their HT display but still in their brochures). The VX-8GR will be replaced by FT-1DR which includes 12.5 kHz C4FM FDMA for about $210 more. This made my decision to purchase the VX-8GR critical as I do not wish to pay $200+ more for capabilities I don't need. So while at Dayton I played with the FT-1DR and the APRS capability has not appeared to have changed much from the VX-8GR. The FT-1DR doesn't allow appear to allow automatic decay, no shortcut to turn the GPS or TNC on/off, etc. I changed the Internet Key shortcut to the GPS Power setting and it makes it easier to toggle the GPS on and off.

I have read a few reports saying the VX-8GR doesn't pick up the GPS signal while inside of a house - well, neither does my Garmin eTrex Legend HCx, Garmin 60Cx, or my cell phone. It doesn't work as a full featured TNC, does not support QSY in beacons, etc. What it does to is APRS and it does it fairly well. As an example, on my trip from Ohio to Maryland I had both a OT2m tracker running with my Kenwood FT-V71a running 25 watts and the VX-8GR running 5 watts sitting on the dash. The results were about what I expected:

k8esr-7 (vx-8gr): 31 packets received

k8esr-9 (OT2m with TM-v71a): 62 packets received

I had low expectations for the handheld and I didn't think I would even get half of the received packets using the VX-8GR without and outside antenna and more power.

If you are looking for a good HT for APRS check out the Yaesu VX-8GR especially if you do not wish to pay $200+ more for the newer Yaesu FT-1DR.

This was not meant to be a review of the VX-8GR because there are already many reviews that you can google as well as a few un-boxings and reviews on YouTube.

If you are looking for a comparison of APRS HTs take a look one of these links
Review: Amateur Radio Handhelds (HTs), APRS, and Battery Tuning Tips
APRS Handies head to head

Both sites do a fairly good head to head comparison of the Yaesu VX-8GR and the Kenwood TH-72A.

Erik, K8ESR