{"id":30959,"date":"2025-11-16T13:10:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T21:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/offgridsurvival.com\/?p=30959"},"modified":"2026-02-15T13:38:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T21:38:29","slug":"yaesuft65review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/offgridsurvival.com\/yaesuft65review\/","title":{"rendered":"Yaesu FT-65 Review: Dual Band 2 Meter\/70CM Ham Radio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We get a lot of questions on ham radio<\/a> and what people should buy for survival purposes, so we are going to start looking at everything from the basics on up to everything you need to build your own emergency preparedness communications infrastructure to keep you going should things go really bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are\na ton of prepper websites that talk about Ham Radio, but when looking at that\ninformation and the radios that they recommend I want you to really be careful\nwho you listen to. Ham Radio is a complicated subject, and most radios require\na certain amount of knowledge to use them correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, most of what is out there on the internet is just copy and paste stolen from other sites or reviews pulled directly off of Amazon. I\u2019ve been a Ham Radio operator for over 30 years, so whenever I talk about a radio or emergency communication on this site it is coming from my own personal experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radio communication, Antenna Theory, and electronics are complicated subjects \u2013 I will be the first to admit that I don\u2019t know everything, so if you are looking to get into Ham Radio or buying a radio for emergency communication purposes, please take the time to at least understand how the radios work, how to set up antennas, and the basics of ham radio and emergency communication<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Radio for Local,\nState and Nationwide Communication: The Yaesu FT-65R<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Today we are going to look at a radio that is part of our personal setup for short-range local communications, the dual-band Yaesu FT-65R<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I personally use this radio \u2013 it\u2019s actually sitting on my desk monitoring stations as I write this review \u2013 so everything in this review is coming from my own personal experience. That being said, and in the honor of full transparency, I did not buy the radio. I actually won it in a Raffle at the Ham Radio Reception during the NAB Show in Las Vegas. But damn am I glad I won!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Yaesu<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Yaesu FT-65R is a small, handheld, Dual Band Ham radio that covers the 2 Meters (144 MHz to 148 MHz) and 70CM (430 \u2013 450 MHz) radio bands. It comes with a 1950 mAh Li-Ion battery pack that gives you about 8-9 hours of operating time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can usually be found for around $100…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find The Yaesu FT-65R on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now before we jump into the radio review, I\u2019m going to jump off-topic a bit for a moment, because on almost every other prepper site, you are going to see people with very little ham radio knowledge recommending the Baofeng UV-5R<\/a>. I WILL NOT BE DOING THAT! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listen, I own the radio, I use the Radio, and I experiment with the Baofeng radio \u2013 it is part of my Ham Gear, but I own it for the hobby sake of owning it and being able to experiment with a cheap ass radio that I don\u2019t have to worry about killing. If you want to use it to experiment with and learn from, have at it! But from a preparedness standpoint, I am not going to trust my life to some $30 Chinese piece of crap that may or may not be a knock off, depending on where and who you bought it from! Rant over!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Now back to The Yaesu FT-65R<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is one solid little radio; something that I feel I can depend on even if it takes a beating. I have no problems throwing it into a bugout bag, keeping it inside my Truck, or using it during bad weather conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a performance standpoint, at this price point you will be hard-pressed to find a better handheld dual-band radio. Now I’m going to warn you, you are probably going to see some reviews from people who bought radio bitching about reception and transmission — it’s a HANDHELD RADIO not a high-power vehicle mobile rig or a home station that can pump up the power and utilize better antennas. If you understand that, and you have a basic knowledge of setting up antennas, this radio will do the job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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RANT – Most of these people probably are not Hams, many don’t understand how repeater offsets work so they will never be able to send or receive anything on any radio, and I doubt many of them can build their own Antennas – RANT OVER!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Anyways, this is a great little starter radio for those just getting into Ham Radio, one that can also serve as a primary hand-held Emergency Radio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are a couple of the things we liked about the Yaesu FT-65R radio:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n