$49 Special
When we first heard that Radio Shack was clearing out a small portable unit, we didn't pay a lot of attention--it was too small for the use we envisioned, and the dual band variation did not have extended receive range. But when the "other half" took an interest in getting her license, and people talked about its possibilities for APRS, we took another look. This is a nice, small, 2 meter-only unit with extended receive range. It uses 2 "AA" cells, and I just happened to have 2 Ni-MH's left from another project (it runs for 24 to 30 hours with these). It's great to have around just to listen to (or to monitor the westward Skywarn frequencies during a storm), but you can guess that since we can't get out well at home with 5 watts on the FT50, we don't get far at all with its 200 mw. It does work well when we're in the car with a roof-mounted antenna.
There's no keyboard on this thing, so you have to go through a series of button strokes to enter a frequency and save it, and the same for tone squelch and most other functions. It isn't terribly convenient, but it's not impossible, although I always keep the manual nearby while entering something new. It's not as smart as the FT50--you'll have to tell it if repeater offset is + or -, for one. On the other hand, it uses a standard earphone, so it's great to stick in a pocket and take along.
We also bought one of the adapters described on WA3HRL's page for this radio, as we had for the FT50. Steve, KC2BHO, makes these adapters that screw onto the SMA terminal like an antenna. They have a rubber boot which protects their innards and provides support. They are easily left in place, but you can remove them with no trouble if you wish. There is one caution with this unit: the cover for the earphone/microphone jack loops around the antenna base, so you need to use tweezers or small pliers to hold it place while installing the adapter. We haven't decided on an antenna yet; part of the idea of this one is its size, and those 17" ones seem to be overdoing it.
In the future for this unit is an external power supply. When supplied with 9 volts, it puts out 2 watts. We're looking at an AC supply, a DC supply for the car, and a battery pack.
HTX-200 Resources