I am brand new to the hobby and am looking for the following:

Definitely handheld....want something that will operate off batteries and be mobile.

Looking for something that can accept a few different antenna options...

• A telescoping antenna for the unit itself, for handheld use outdoors


• Ability to hook up to a mounted antenna outside my house or up in the attic


• Ability to hook up to a magnet mounted vertical antenna for use in my truck

Looking for dual-band to operate on 2m and 70cm freq's (if I cant get a dual band at a decent price I would settle for dedicated 2m)

Not looking for bargain basement and not looking to break the bank....just a decent unit that I can learn on and grow with for a bit before I get into a serious base station. In a perfect world I'd like a knob to adjust frequency instead of buttons, but I honestly dont have a clue what options are available on the market.

If anyone can recommend some models of radios and antennas, especially links to places I can buy I'd be most appreciative.

Thanks!

Yaesu's VX6R is a good rig.  As long as your assorted antennae have BNC connectors on the end, they should connect right up to it.  It is tri band.  They can be found on that auction site for about $200 - $250 depending upon the seller.  Here is a review of them: eHam review of VX-6R.  I hope this helps.

just a note, the VX6R –– like all modern Yaesu models and most other brand of HT's –– uses an SMA connector for the antenna.

ETA:
the antenna on my VX6R shown below is *not* the stock antenna.  it is a Comet/Maldol brand "micro" antenna.

ar-jedi

I read 6 pages of reviews over at eham and made a snap decision to buy it.
Only 3 watts but everyone seems to think it has great rx / tx so for my first radio I'll hope it does fine.
I picked up a magnet mount antenna for the truck and a high gain one to replace the rubber duck....both SMA
Also scooped up a hand mic for ease of use.

After I get everything I'll probably scoop up a few extra batteries and a pelican case large enough for the whole setup (minue the truck antenna)

I'll hopefully have it by this weekend (and with any luck I'll have my call sign by then)

Looking forward to operating on the freq's you put together AR-jedi - thanks for creating that

?

VX6R power output is 5W on both 2m (146MHz) and 70cm (440MHz).  power output is 1.5W on 1.25m (220MHz)

http://losdos.dyndns.org:8080/public/ham/yaesu-vx6r/VX-6R_Brochure.pdf

http://losdos.dyndns.org:8080/public/ham/yaesu-vx6r/VX-6R_UserManual.pdf

good luck with the new radio –– it's a great little rig and i carry it everywhere in my man-purse laptop/courier bag.

ar-jedi

FT-60R gets my vote.

My good friend and fellow ham, Bob, does this with his Yaesu 170, which has the SMA connector.  He can connect to the coax going to the 2m antennas on his vehicle, or to the coax going to the 2m yagi up on top of his 50' tower.  To do that he uses this:

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/hamantht/4513.html



This cable is very thin and light, about 1/8" diameter, and won't put stress on the SMA antenna socket on the radio.  With this cable connecting his Yaesu handheld to his yagi at home I was able to talk to him 40 miles away via repeater.  I though he had some noise, mentioned it, but it was a window A/C unit blowing in the shack.  He turned it off and had full quieting.  Though he had loss through the long coax up to the antenna on top of the tower, what he lost via cable he more than made up for with antenna height.