My first radio as a licensed Amateure Radio operator.

Why get a basic radio such as v-86 from iCOM? For me it was two things, 1 the water resting rating of IP54 and that it can transmit in Extra High Power mode (EXH). This would allow me to use this in almost any backcountry analog communication situation I could throw my self into. I will not now that this is a VHF only radio.

So lets start about the basics of this hand held radio. It holds a MIL-STD-810G which is a US military specification that guarantees a level of durability for a piece of technology. Specifically, it means the equipment has gone through a series of 29 tests. These put the phone up against shock, vibration, heat, cold, gunfire shock, humidity, and more. So taking this radio out on hikes and onto Mountian tops was what it was designed for. Do not that the phone is not water proof as it has a IP56 rating which can take splashes and quick drops in water. But it will not survive if it is submersed for any amount of time.

The iCom V86 has 4 transmit modes 0.5/2.5/5.5/7.0 Watts. While in the mountains I find the EXH mode at 7 watts to give me crystal clear audio into repeaters or other handheld radios I might be in contact with. This was a huge deal to have clear communications as well as the power to do VHF summit too summit activations for SOTA.

Antenna connection is done through a BNC connector, which is my prefered connector out in the feild. This works great with all of my 2m homebrew antennas.

This radio comes with a 2250mAh Li-Ion battery pack that punches a ton of call time out of this radio. I personally also carry the AA battery cover incase I am in need of some extra power. The radio has 200 programmable channels, 1 call channel and 6 scan edges.

With using this radio for 9+ months now I give this radio 4/5 stars. It has never let me down, always makes the contacts I need and to this date has never ran out of battery. Only complaint, which is a small one. The screen only allows 5 characters for the callsign. This makes life a little difficult if you have two similar named repeaters. An example of this is VE6RYC and VE6RY they both display as VE6RY. Small complaint which can be rectified by naming VE6RYC as RYC.

You can find this radio in Canada at GPS Central on sale $200

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