5W/10W SDR covering HF through 70cm with a built-in sound card, GPS, Wi-Fi, and D-STAR, packaged in a rig you can toss in a go-bag.

I’ve hauled the IC-705 to parks, summits, and field days all year, and it continues to feel like an IC-7300 that shrank into a shoulder bag. The direct-sampling SDR delivers a clean waterfall and IF DSP that makes weak-signal CW or FT8 possible even with a 10W cap. I pair the radio with the LC-192 backpack and a compact end-fed half wave; setup takes minutes thanks to the built-in GPS (for APRS and time sync), Wi-Fi hotspot, and a USB-C battery bank feeding 13.8V. The internal sound card and CI-V control mean WSJT-X, Vara HF, or Winlink sessions are one cable away on my Surface Go. Battery life with the BP-272 hovers around 3 hours at 5W SSB mixed use, but an external Bioenno pack lets me run 10W all afternoon. The chassis runs a little warm during long digital sessions, so I keep a small stand in the kit, and of course the price is steep. Still, for an all-mode shack-in-a-box that handles HF, 6m, 2m, 70cm, D-STAR, GPS logging, and network control, nothing else on the market touches it.

Icom IC-705 All-Mode Portable SDR Transceiver with GPS

Icom IC-705 All-Mode Portable Transceiver

Compact handheld VHF/UHF transceiver with 1.44-inch color LCD, USB-C charging, Bluetooth programming, and multi-band receive capabilities.

I picked up the 2025 refresh of the TD-H3 as a travel HT and it’s impressive for the price. The 1.44-inch color LCD and on-screen menus make it easier to navigate than Baofeng-style radios, Bluetooth programming via Odmaster works with my phone, and USB-C charging means one cable in my go bag. RF performance is solid for 5 W on VHF/UHF, and the wider receive covers air band and NOAA easily. I swapped the stock antenna for a Nagoya NA-771 to stretch range, but for repeaters and simplex it’s perfectly usable. Scan rates are still slow and there’s no native APRS, yet as a sub-$40 Part 97 handheld for emergencies or newcomers, it’s great.

TidRadio TD-H3 VHF/UHF Handheld with Color Display

TidRadio TD-H3

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Icom IC-705 All-Mode Portable Transceiver

TidRadio TD-H3