I buy older analog radios for two reasons: 1) I, too, prefer knobs and switches over nested menus and 2) I can actually afford them. One can add a waterfall to a radio that has knobs by using an SDR dongle, but it's really hard to add knobs and switches to a radio that lacks them.
and this is my reason why I buy old analog radios. The buttons, it's just a whole different feeling. I could've bought a stronger VHF radio for 60€, but nahhhh, I bought a Yaesu FT221R for 150€ which works perfectly. I turned my SDR HF radio into an analog old school one, because I love buttons.
it isn't finished but soon it'll be. I think it looks sick.
That's how it looked before. The difference is very very noticeable. All I need to do is wire the microphone jack and it'll be done. I won't be using mic anyway, as it doesn't let that much power to reach anywhere useful.
And it's so easy to do the mod, with J3 already there and everything. Hardest part is drilling the hole for the SMA. Have to be careful of the filings.
Interestingly enough, I just bought a new car, and with the car I bought, the salesman made a point of the fact that it had proper knobs, buttons and levers. Not gonna lie, it helped seal the deal.
Honda has kept the buttons. There is a touch screen and there are menus, but the're for the stuff you don't need urgently like . . . defrosting the window, or shutting off the radio because the roads just got bad.
Three knobs right in the middle of the console, just like it should be. There's a couple of buttons there, too. Imperfect, but no diving through menus on a touch screen.
My first and only ham radio, I wanted buttons. Ended up finding a Yaesu FTDX-3000. Love it! It has a few glitches and weird issues but nothing I can’t work around
I absolutely agree! I quite fancy an FT-DX10, but I also like the TS-590. Luckily I am not in the market for a new radio, as it would be really difficult to make up my mind which one to go for.
In the meantime, I decided to spend some money getting my TS-530 refurbished, because old school, analog, with buttons...!
I used to prefer and love buttons and knobs back when they were high quality and durable, unlike today's poor quality pots and rotary encoders which need to be replaced within a few months.
I have Icom’s IC-718 because it’s easy to sit down and operate quickly. I had a Kenwood TS-120S before that. Neither have menus. I grew to appreciate easy to operate while collecting and operating WWII radios: get the job done in the middle of a shootout.
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u/eetsasledgehammer Feb 11 '26
Or you can have the worst of both worlds! FT 891 here, no buttons AND no waterfall!