The Yaesu FT-1900R, a great radio for amateur radio newbie or veteran

The Yaesu FT-1900R is a 2 Meter FM Transceiver that is capable of up to 55 Watts transmit power. This radio is setup for mobile use and requires 12 Volts 11 Amps to power it. With the addition of a bench DC (Direct Current) power supply, this transceiver would be at home in any Ham Shack.

I myself am a newbie and I ordered the Yaesu FT -1900R from Amazon as my very first radio once I got my Technicians License. Once ordered, the radio showed up two days later as I am subscribed to Amazon Prime and get automatically upgraded to two day shipping.
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Upon opening the package, I was immediately impressed with FT-1900R. The body of the radio is one massive heat-sink eliminating the need for a noisy fan to keep it cool. There is a minimal number of switches on the front, this was accomplished by using menus to change different parameters of the radio that are not accessed often. I immediately attached the radio to a DC bench power supply and to an Arrow J Pole antenna I mounted in our attic and was able to pick up multiple transmissions.

The manual was easy to understand, it took me about five minutes to set the PL Tone and to save my first repeater frequency into memory. I then proceeded to store a couple of other repeater frequencies. You can store up to 200 frequencies in memory. One of the great features of the FT-1900R is that you can scale back on the transmit power, by default it transmits at 55 Watts. I can see that it would be important to scale back transmit power if you are running off of a battery in an EMCOM (Emergency Communications) situation and need to get the maximum battery life.

The buttons on the front of the FT-1900R and on the microphone are illuminated for easy nighttime use. You can also recall frequencies in memory from the illuminated keypad on the microphone which would be ideal for mobile operation. On an hour long rag-chew, transmitting at 55 Watts, the case of the FT-1900R does get hot to the touch. I believe the aluminum chassis was designed this way to dissipate heat. The receive audio is very clear audio and all repeater contacts indicate that they can hear me clearly.

There are some features, such as WiRES-II, which would appeal to the more seasoned Amateur Radio Operators. WiRES-II allows you to communicate by Amateur Radio and the Internet.
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The FT-1900R was a great purchase and I definitely recommend this radio to any amateur radio enthusiast.

Video of Amateur Radio operator using his FT-1900R to listen to transmissions from the International Space Station as it hurtles by overhead!