So inspired by all the hurricane craziness this year, which missed my AO, but which could very well have hit us, I have been trying to get my house in order on emergency communications.  I have a Yaesu Ft-1802 set up as a base station in my shack.  I have a lead acid battery and float charger that I can run it on if line power goes down, and I have a portable generator with a transfer switch that will run essential functions at the house, including charging said battery.  I also now have a Yaesu FT-450D set up in the shack, which I am learning to use.  My HF skills are weak, but I am working on it.  In a pinch I can run the 450D off the same battery system, albeit probably at reduced power.

I also have a Yaesu VX-7R, that I have owned for 10+ years.  It works great and it is all set up for the local repeaters as well as monitoring various other frequencies such as MURS, GMRS, FRS, Marine VHF, etc.  I bought a Baofeng UV-5R on a lark, and it does seem to work, but I am not sure I would want to reply on it in a real emergency.

I am thinking of adding an additional HT to carry in my vehicle as an EDC radio.  There is a D-Star repeater very close to my home and office, so I am considering the Icom ID-51a Plus, but it is awfully expensive.  It might be fun to have for travel, but it is a big incremental expense for the digital functionality.  I am also cognizant that there are several competing digital standards out there for VHF/UHF, so buying a D-Star radio now might not be the best investment.

It might makes sense just to buy a regular FM VHF/UHF HT, with appropriate accessories, and not worry about the digital.  Factors to consider are size, transmit power, battery life and cost, ability to transmit while running on external power (i.e. plugged into a car or wall transformer), and of course reliability and durability.

What does the Ham Radio forum think?

I've been rocking a VX-8 for a while and its my current goto radio. Its well traveled.

That said I put heavy consideration into a Kenwood TH-D74A.

Check your IM inbox.

I have several HT’s including the Kenwood TH-D74A.

In my opinion it depends on your area. No sense having a DStar radio if everyone uses DMR in your region. The best radio for Emcomm is the one you have programmed and charged when it hits the fan.

I personally love the Kenwood and ICOM HT’s. No experience w Yaesu’s but hear the FT-60 is a workhorse.

Just make sure you can program it from the keypad easily.

Any Ht you have is the best.  The higher end VX- series are water resistant which is nice..  But it doesnt take long before you forget how to manually program a HT..   I wouldnt get to deep with a HT as its nice to have but rarely used..   I would say go with a proven durable ht like the  FT-60, FT-65..    I have a vx-3, vx-5, and a vx-7..   I like the vx-3 the best because it uses camera batteries which are 3 for 12 bucks online and rechargable lion..    Think they discontinued the model but you can still find them.   I primarily listen so it works the best for me.  But programming the little booger gets confusing if you dont keep a cheat sheet nearby..

Good luck..

Prosise

I'm really wanting the ID51 in the EE right now, alas-it's not all about 'me' and her 40th Bday is in a few weeks, besides I have a freakin' slew of HTs.


I personally LOVE my Kenwood 2m HT, matter of fact I spent about $100 to repair a broken SMA connector last month (on a $130 HT).  only prob is, it's only 1 band and I dig a dual-bander!
I also want/need/desire to be able to monitor 2 freqs at the same time across the 2 bands.

My Wouxun (the original cheap-chicom @ $120) is still my go-to when I need a Dual-Band HT.  
I sincerely wish that one of the Big 3 or 4 would produce a comparable rig for under $300. (alinco gets close but don't think it can do the dual monitor)

that said, and with NO DStar anywhere near me, I'd still look hard at a used ID51a.  good luck

My HTs all sit unused for the most part - I guess I'm one of those "anti-social" hams.

That being said, I REALLY like an HT which will do the 220 mHz band. It's all but unused, so you get very private comms if you need that function. My Yeasu VX-6R is compact and VERY rugged. The Kenwood TH-F6A is a bit more versatile, but feels much more fragile. The Kenwood is discontinued now, but they are still common.

Jim...

look at the options for the area..

I suspect a duel band analog will be most useful.

My current HT's FT1D and ID51+. extra batteries for both.

I like the idea of extended receive so as to monitor other types of traffic.

I'm rocking a first generation Icom ID-51a (with an aftermarket extended battery) and love it. As sold stock the shortfall is the battery. New and playing with it quite a bit I quickly found the battery lasting about 4-5 hours. The extended pack gets me an all day.
Most of the time out and about that radio does analog, or analog on one side with a local d-star on the other.
A huge plus goes to it being dual VFO. I do use that quite a bit sitting on 1 frequency with 1 VFO, and scanning with the other. It does FM broadcast band receive, AM air band receive. FM broadcast doesnt take a VFO slot, but the AM air band will.
Minor shortcoming is squelch is in a menu, not a knob. Quite honestly I haven't ran into this as an issue.
Other plusses would be the GPS onboard, and ease of dropping a frequency on the fly along with a PL if needed. If you have the time and want to, you can put GPS coordinates with analog repeaters in memory and let the gps decide which one is closest.

I like a Kenwood TH-F6A for it's portability, features, long battery life, 3 bands and it can receive HF bands (Including SSB modulation).
If you travel around the country a lot, an Icom ID-51a is hard to beat. You can simply load repeater information for the whole US and it will find nearby repeaters based on GPS readings. Also, when talking to another ID-51 (or similar) you can see how far that station is from you and it's azimuth. Also, D-star peer to peer offers some privacy. A person with an average scanner can't decode your conversation. There are tons of other features.

Of course, it's hard to beat a good-ole Yeasu FT-60. It's simple, reliable and works very well.
Obviously, radios mentioned by others in this thread are worth looking into.

Another thing to consider is buying 3-4 Baofengs. I personally like the UV-82 model. Battery life is great, batteries are "dirt cheap" and I like the form factor. Yes, It's a cheaply built radio and not the best performer BUTT........ it can be invaluable, unless you can afford to buy several spare $350+ radios. A cheap Baofeng can be quickly programmed,locked and given to friends or other family members.  It's cheap enough not to worry about being stolen or lost. It can also be programmed to operate on FRS/GMRS and MURS channels if you need to establish comms with other people who don't have ham radios.
I was reading an article about guys trying to make it in occupied territory in Ukraine. Most carried cheap Baofengs simply because they could covertly throw it away of stash it somewhere if they see a military checkpoint along their route. Throwing away a $400 radio is a hard choice to make. Having a radio on you or in your bag may look to them like you are an enemy collaborator. At best, you may be beaten and detained. Something like this happening here is very unlikely but it's something to think about. Either way, having a few cheap radios can be very beneficial.