Railfan Technology > VX-170 replacement?? or replacement batteries

I’m potentially looking for a replacement for my venerable Yaesu VX-170 and VX-150. The batteries have outlived their useful lives and looking for OEM batteries has not been very productive

Looking at another thread the Icom IC-F3261D portable or the Kenwood NX-210 portable were recommended as potential replacements. I’d like features similar to what my VX-170 has with programmable banks for scanning. I’ve tried to look at the online brochures and manuals are Greek to me meaning that banks on the VX-170 seem to be similar to the zones on the Icom or the Kenwood and other things that don’t make any sense
 
Thanks
 
CB
 

Batteries for Yeasu gear are pretty easy to find.
 
Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/HQRP-Two-way-Battery-1500mAh-Replacement/dp/B002DF7AK8

HRO
http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-007324

Of course if you are looking for an excuse for a new radio, I fully understand.

Scott Schifer
Torrance, CA
TinyTrains Website

With the change over to narrow band and other things, not looking for Full priced batteries and remembering from the past that aftermarket batteries caused some fit problems. And "OEM" batteries on Fleabay aren't!

So you're probably correct <G>

CB

tinytrains Wrote:
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> Batteries for Yeasu gear are pretty easy to find.
>  
> Amazon
> http://www.amazon.com/HQRP-Two-way-Battery-1500mAh
> -Replacement/dp/B002DF7AK8
>
> HRO
> http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-007324
>
> Of course if you are looking for an excuse for a
> new radio, I fully understand.

The FNB-83 battery is available at HRO for $35.95.  You can still use the VX-170 with narrowband, just turn the volume up slightly.  The railroads are taking their time to convert to NBFM and to NXDN digital and at this time no consumer grade scanner has NXDN capabilities.  The VX-170 is about as good as anything out there today.  The new models just have a few more bells and whistles or options that you don't need for listening to railroad communications.  If you're a ham you might find them handy.

HRO   http://hamradio.com
FNB-83 battery  http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-007324

That's just the first place I looked.  Here's a few more, in no particular order.
AES   http://aesham.com is another source
Universal Radio  http;//universal-radio.com
R and L   http;//www.randl.com
The Ham Station is a small guy but has given me good service over the years   http://www.hamstation.com

John

I'd go for the batteries until they sort out the Digital stuff. Also improve the re-sale value to the HAM market.
$0.02.

wa4umr Wrote:
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> The railroads
> are taking their time to convert to NBFM  . .  .

That statement is blatantly inaccurate.  The railroads (and all other business band radio users) were REQUIRED to convert to narrow-band radio operation on January 1, 2013.  Any equipment transmitting in wide band in the business radio spectrum is in violation of FCC rules since then.  What is true is that the railroads have been slow to begin using the "splinter" frequencies that narrow-banding made available within the RR frequency spectrum (and that most amateur radios will not tune to).  There are also railroads that are beginning to use the NXDN digital radio protocol, though it certainly is not yet common.

The Yaesu FBA-25 is also an option --- it holds 6 AA cells.

I have to admit that I was in error about converting to narrowband.  I knew there was a deadline for the conversion but for some reason I was thinking it was the end of this year.  WW reminded me of the actual date.  Thinking back about it, I seem to remember it now.  Thanks for the correction.  Not dealing with it on a daily basis makes it easy to forget.  Thanks for the correction.  My error.  
I will say that I use my VX-170 and a Baofeng UV-5R (good receiver but not very good for a scanner... too slow) and I receive railroad communications quite well.  I just have to turn the volume up a little more.

n5dhg Wrote:
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> The Yaesu FBA-25 is also an option --- it holds 6
> AA cells.

This could be a great choice in some situations.  You can purchase alkaline batteries just about anywhere so if your batteries run down, a quick stop at a drug store, gas station, Wally*world, or zillions of other places would put you back in business.  I haven't tried it but I don't see any reason that you couldn't use rechargable AA cells.  You could have 2 or 3 sets if you ever intend to be out for an extended day or two.  You would have to charge the batteries outside of the radio in a separate charger.  If you go that route I would suggest a charger that charges cells individually.  By that I mean a charger that has a charging and monitoring circuit for each slot in the charger.  If some cells are at a 10% charge and others have 30% charge, it charges them each until each reaches 100%.  Some simple chargers require you charge cells in combinations of 2 or 4 cells and you should keep those batteries in a set, otherwise, the batteries don't charge equally.   A quick search on Amazon showed the Tenergy TN-162 as an example .  No recommendations here, just using this as an example.  It will recharge 1 cell or 8 or anything in between at one time.   I have a similar one made by Maha that cost about twice as much but it has some other features also.   I've had it for over 5 years and it works great.  I haven't compared the capacity of Alkaline batteries and the various rechargables.  It used to be that the alkaline cells far outpaced rechargables but advancements  in chemistry has improved them greatly in the past few years.  Cost has come down also.  

Aftermarket products can be questionable but if you want to investigate them I would suggest "Batteries America."  I've purchased their products in the past and they have been around for probably 20 years or more.  

Again, sorry for the error on the dates.  

John

 

I use the Yaesu FT-270. It uses the same batteries as the VX-150. I have a VX 150 the FT-270 has a similar programming, if you can program a 150 you will have no problem with a 270. The only thing I don't like about the 270 is it doesn't have a squelch knob.

Posted from iPhone

I heartily recommend using top quality NiMH cells in the alkaline battery packs.  The Sanyo Eneloop NiMH cells hold their charge very well and you don't have to worry about finding OEM or aftermarket rechargeable packs.  A good charger is needed, of course, that can be used for all your rechargeables, so it takes a few minutes to pull out batteries and put in new ones, but first quality individual NiMHs seem to last for hours longer than most OEM NiMH battery packs.  Have switched over almost all my radios to using this method and dead batteries in the field are now a thing of the past.

John,

No worries about the FCC dates.  I know that there is still a lot of confusion out there about the whole narrow-banding issue.  I also am not bad-mouthing the Yaesu 150/250 and 170/270 radios.  They are very good amateur radios and I used my VX-150 and VX-170 for railfanning for years with few complaints.  That said, I would be reluctant to buy one now for the reason that they will not do those splinter frequencies and, of course, they don't do NXDN.

To the battery issue, I always buy a battery holder (usually takes AA's)  for any radio that I regularly use and I carry it my pack just in case the rechargeable battery pack goes dead where I can't recharge it.  I also invest in a 12V cigarette lighter plug charger, so that I can recharge portable radios in the vehicle, too.  The other item I always carry in my vehicle pack is a 12V DC to 110 V AC adaptor.  That "completes the loop" if I have to charge batteries with a 110V AC charger.  None of that stuff is hugely expensive and I've used all of it at one time or another.

My suggestion is to keep the VX-170, go back to the box it came in, and get out that little battery holder and put in some AA batteries, and go have fun!  With the replacement cost of a rechargeable battery pack, you can buy a lot of AAs.....that should last you a couple of years until the next big thing in RR communications comes out.

HRGXguy,
JMHO, of course.