Cheapest source for a Yaesu 550 or 750 transceiver in Europe, and does it do 8.33

Ended up buying the 750 from this radio shop in Germany: Neuner.

Good experience so far. Price was 349€ and they offer free shipping within Germany.
Ordered at 10:00 on day A and received it at 10:00 on day B.
They even put some candy into the box! Neat.

I will check out the unit and possibly post a few impressions later on.

A short feedback on the unit. Well, it’s a definite thumbs down, at least on some aspects of it:

-range (with the standard antenna) seems to be very low. Now this does not come as big surprise, but still. 10 miles out from my towered home airport at 4000 feet(!) was already too far out to communicate properly. So, in case of need, one might need to fly overhead the airport in order to make contact. I had the unit wired up with my ANR headset. I don’t know if the competitor units fare any better in this regard, but still.

-the GPS feature is a joke. It has no darabase whatsoever. Hard to imagine that in case of utter need, one would start programming waypoints into the unit. Use your spare ipad /iphone any time.

-I think the VOR/ILS features are also more of a gimmick than anything else. I can hardly think of any real scenario where this might be useful. Of course, reception range is a problem just as for COMMs. Also, consider that you can’t use the unit for radio for communicating whilst using the VOR/ILS feature.

-the general menu and switching logic of the unit is poor

-the buttons are a little bit small and awkward. Could have used the real estate on the unit much better.

-also, could have used the real estate on the display much better.

So, I would say if do you want to go with Yaesu, consider going for the 450 only and save 100 Euros over the 750. Be prepared for a very limited useful range, unless you can hook up the unit with the aircraft antennae, but for most of us, that is not an option.

You might want to read the other lengthy Yaesu 750 thread that we have here.

It is supposed to be waterproof (to some degree) if you keep all the rubber covers on the various ports on the side of the unit. However, if you want to use the headset adaptor cable, that is not possible.

Re battery time, it looks like it depends on whether you keep the GPS function turned on or off. Also, transmitting eats up a lot of juice.

A potential lifesaver.

Then please try to explain the exact case in which this device will save you, where not having it will kill you. I mean aircraft (equipment), type of equipment failure, weather situation, etc. Also, do you really train this exact kind of scenario and the ensuing appraoch often enough to be sure you will not mess up? I doubt it. Who will fly the aircraft whilst you handle the radio, change frequencies on the device, etc.