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There are one or two competing and/or converging standards for texting over ham radios and I find them very interesting…

But as I have said again and again - the handsets are missing.

I’m not going to take a laptop with a serial link to a yaesu into the woods, nor am I going to 9key in my texts on one of the two models that support it.

Where is a teenage engineering for radio handhelds ?

Where is a qwerty ham handheld ?

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Spot on. I don't know why we can't have an HT with a Blackberry-like hardware keyboard to send text. Or maybe something Psion-like (90's micro laptop thing made by Sony). I'd be very satisfied with Blackberry dimensions, as Psion would add bulk.

I'd take a rugged HT with a sleek and intuitive UI. The companies that make ham gear seem obsessed with complex and cryptic UIs. My Yaesu FT-3D is a good radio and isn't that hard to use, but its UI is still pretty clunky and the imprecise resistive touch screen feels like it's stuck in Y2K.

I used my friend's FT-3D a few times. Very good radio feature-wise, but I also shared your views on the UI and the touch screen. My HT is still the FT-60r and I just love the physical buttons.

PicoAPRS, Moblinkd, likely some others I believe will Bluetooth pair to your phone. As will the icom 705 with wifi I think.

I’ve sent messages just fine with the built in pad on a th-d72 and d710g.

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