Railfan Technology > My review of the Yaesu FT-65R portable radio and other musings

Better late than never (time flies when you're having fun), here is my review of the Yaesu FT-65R portable amateur radio.  This radio is not a stranger to railfans--it's been around for a few years, a decade or more if memory serves.  Originally, the FT-65r was built in Japan, but my FT-65R was built in China.  For those used to more "old school" radios, this radio fits that bill.  It can be programmed from the keypad (tedious) or via PC software--either CHIRP or by proprietary Yaesu software, both free.  Either software is relatively easy to use and not overly complex.  The FT-65r lacks a lot of more current "bells and whistles," most of which are not applicable to railfanning, anyway.  At a street price of just over $100, it is at the higher end of the "cheap Chinese radio" market and at the lower end of the Japanese amateur radio market.  In actual circuitry, it is a "homodyne" (SOC--system-on-chip) single-conversion radio, not a higher reception quality heterodyne receiver radio.  In this regard the FT-65R is inferior to the Uniden BC-125AT or BCD-160DN portable scanners, but surpasses both in physical quality and, likely, durability and longevity.  The FT-65R is physically more robust than most of the Chinese radio products--the FT-65R is not what I would call a "throw-away" radio.

OK, so how does the FT-65R actually perform?  Out of the box, not great--mostly because it has a pretty "deaf" antenna.  Put a good quality aftermarket antenna on the radio, and it "wakes up" quite a bit.  (More about antennas later in this post.)   For an SOC, radio, the FT-65R performs better than most.  The only overall better performing inexpensive radio is the Quansheng UV-K5(8) portable radio which just continues to amaze me with its performance as a  around $30 radio.  One key to the UV-K5(8)'s very good performance is that its stock antenna is one of the best performing "cheap" antennas one can find, but one pretty has to buy the radio to the get that antenna. On the downside, the UV-K5(8) likely won't last as long as the FT-65R and quality of the K5's isn't always consistent--2 identical K5's can perform markedly differently.  Quality control is likely better on the FT-65R.  The FT-65R has decent, but not outstanding weak signal reception, with equally good, but not outstanding audio output and quality.  The FT-65R's scan speed is not "scanner fast," but it beats most all of the Chinese radios in scan speed--the ubiquitous Baofeng radios notorious for glacial scan speeds.  

So, the FT-65R is a fairly decent radio.  For me, its sticking point is its price.  For (as I write this), one can buy the "freshened"  Wouxun KG-UV9PX+ portable radio for $175--yes, quite a bit more money than the $100 or so 199 channel FT65R--that will get you an outstanding performing superhetordyne 999 channel radio, pre-programmed with all 97 original AAR analog channels, plus the train telemetry channels and a ton of other radio channels and that will outperform just about anything other than a commercial portable radio, and one that uses an excellent performing antenna that doesn't require buying an additional antenna to "wake up" the radio. (This radio is available exclusively at bettersaferadio.com)  The main downsides of the Wouxun KG-UV9PX+  compared to the FT-65R is a display that, though improved in this latest "+" version of the Wouxun, is still harder to read in bright sunlight than the FT-65R and the case of the KG-UV9PX+ is a bit less robust than the FT-65 case.

Now, to change the subject just a bit.  Over the past 2-3 years there has been an absolute "invasion" of cheap Chinese radios and accessories to the U.S. amateur, GMRS and railfan market.  Bluntly, most of it is cheap junk.  More disturbing is the sale of actual "counterfeit" radios and accessories--often even sold on reputable outlets--that are branded as quality Japanese or Taiwanese radio products, but are, in fact, counterfeit garbage.  One might expect this on "gray area" import sites like Aliexpress, but it is happening on ebay and Amazon, as well.   I will use antennas as an illustration.  There are numerous sites selling supposed Nagoya (a decent quality Taiwan antenna manufacturer) antennas for "discount" prices.  Many of those "discount" antennas are, in fact, counterfeit.  Often, the only way to tell is the packaging of the antenna--in this example, the "true" Nagoya antennas come in a distinctive sealed plastic package with "Made In Taiwan" on the package.  Radio programming cables are another area where cheap Chinese counterfeit cables have proliferated.  For my programming cables, I have about 3 trusted sources that I use--all located here in the U.S.  Finally, I will use a radio example:  Going on 20 years ago, Kenwood produced an excellent quality VHF amateur mobile  radio, the TM-281A.  I owned one of these and it was an outstanding performer for railfanning.  Sadly, Kenwood discontinued it several years ago.  BUT, numerous Chinese sources are advertising the Kenwood TM-281A for sale as new radios with source listed as . . . China.  At best, this is likely a reverse-engineered copy of the "true" Kenwood TM-281A, or it is just a cheap Chinese radio chassis mounted in a well-disguised case and display meant to mimic the real thing.  I'm not willing to risk the $150+ price for this radio from a Chinese source to find out.  Even if the radio is a good copy of the Kenwood TM-281A, I've seen or heard no evidence from a Kenwood source that Kenwood authorized any manufacturer to manufacture and sell this radio with the Kenwood name all over it.  Caveat emptor, folks.  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/25 10:38 by WW.

Thanks for the thoughtful and informative write-up.
I always enjoy learning from the reviews you post.