1.25-meter Equipment
Maybe the king of all 220/222 equipment ever made.
The highly collectable and difficult to obtain Icom IC-375A all mode 1.25-meter transceiver. This is a collector's gem!
Although there are several 1.25-meter FM mode amateur radio transceivers currently in production, it is difficult to find one that operates in other modes such as SSB. To join in on one of our weekly Friday night nets, you need only be concerned with having a transceiver capable of operating FM voice with CTCSS/PL capability. If you want to go really hard-core 222 then you might start to long for an all mode transceiver which leaves you with fewer options. You will have to consider a used, out of production model for all mode operation, or perhaps build a transverter kit.
The Robotz.com D.U.C.K. Wiki has a fairly comprehensive review of mobile and base station 1.25-meter amateur radios currently in product or past production. This is the best reference for 1.25-meter equipment online.
The Wiki guide does not cover hand held transceivers. There are a wide variety of HT radios that cover the 1.25-meter band either as a receiver or as a transceiver. Rather than discussing all of them here, we will feature perhaps the latest and most exciting HT available on the market today. This HT has helped bring new people to our band and our Friday night net.
Introducing the Kenwood TH-D74A Super Modern Age All Purpose HT that will get you talking on a number of bands, in modes including FM and digital, and wash your car!
Kenwood describes the TH-D74A as, "Our new 144/220/430 MHz TRIBANDER. Triband Amateur radio packed with convenient features and the advantage of a digital transceiver with D-STAR, and APRS support. Featuring a color transflective TFT display that offers excellent visibility during the day or at night. Built-in GPS and Bluetooth support, as well as Micro USB and microSD/ SDHC. This radio is ready to harness the exciting developments in radio communications.
Current best price (2/19/2019): $509.95 + aprox $36.00 shipping = $545.95 from DX Engineering.
Thanks to manufacturers like Kenwood, people have more reasons to start getting excited about the 1.25-meter band. Hopefully other manufacturers will stop leaving 1.25-meter out of their so called “all mode, all band” radios. For example, the Yaesu ft-817 is a fun little radio that gets me on HF, VHF, and UHF in all modes of operation, except they skipped 1.25-meters. I have to pair it with a transverter to get that job done. Let this be a wakeup call to Icom and Yaesu! Time to get on board the 1.25-meter train!