I have one of these. Purchased this radio last April. Initial transmission was the GOTA Net on thursday with SARC. Reception was great, antenna needs to be replaced with a better one.
I like the two band displays too.
I had its little brother, the FT4XR. I hated it. Strange inconsistencies in transmit power. People I know with the FT65 never had those issues.
I like the weight of the FT-65.
I will be getting the FT-XR when I go to the Philippines as I have a call sign there too. But regulations dictate that you need a permit to purchase before buying a radio and then report back to the government of what Radio and serial number you have so that the radio will be assigned to your callsign.
Will see how the FT4X works when I get there.
That’s cool. Erika and I have Colombian call signs. We are VA7ZEB and VA7ISI in Canada and HJ1ZEB and HJ1ISI in Colombia. Colombia has no such restriction on purchasing radios thankfully.
I also own a FT-65R and find it to be a very good, simple radio. I like the dual display, allowing me to see the channel name and frequency at once. I switched out the stock rubber duck for a Nagoya NA-701, and I also have the NA-771 for when I’d like some extra gain. A great radio at the price.
I had issues with this radio’s little brother, the FT4XR. I sold mine and won’t be revisiting it because, to me, a radio like this absolutely needs field charging. This would be a great apocalypse radio, and it’s cheap enough that you can keep one everywhere, but without field charging, it is useless. If this thing had a USB port to charge it with, I’d own 8 or 10 of them.
It drives me crazy that if I want USB-C charging, I have to spend $1000 on a Kenwood D75 or $650 on an Icom ID-50, or I’m down to Chinese radios. I know the Japanese are aging but surely they’ve heard of this new USB stuff by now.