Come on all you new hams. The Ham band is roughly 144-148 MHZ. So the radio he is considering covers 136-174. So the Icom covers the ham band. The fact that it also covers other spectrum users such as SAR, Taxi Co's and other types of public service is a plus.
Go look at the specs on your Yaesus. I'll bet money they will all receive nearly the same as the Icom he plans to purchase.
I can send you to a web that will show you how easy it is to mod the radio for out of HAM band Xmitting. have a legal reason to transmit? No problem. No reason = Trouble. But for example all Calstar helocopters use a frequency in the 154MHZ range. It might be necessary to talk to the helo some day. How about CHP, same deal 154.xxx. I have talked to them many times, legally.
I doubt if the Icom will transmit out of the box on the out of band freq's.
Virtually all the radios you guys have recently purchased will TRANSMIT out of band with a simple mod. The radios are not FCC compliant to do so but in a pinch who cares.
73's de N6KML
Jim-I understand all of that. The issue is that that radio he originally referenced is not targeted at a ham audience. Why would you want to just specify a few "channels". It looks like a radio targeted to a specific club or whatever. Or like a marine radio targeted at specific frequencies. Look at the channel steps--12.5 kHz. That not standard at all, either 5 or numbers divisable by 15 would be more standard. I didn't see anything about built in repeater offsets and the like. So while it uses ham frequencies, it isn't the radio most hams would want. The Icom V8000 on the other hand is.
BTW-Not all Yaesu's use the menu squelch thing. The HTs do, but to my knowledge the mobile units still have a squelch knob. I agree, knobs are much better and more intuitive.
This is from Icom's site, regarding the "land Mobile" radios that PAFJ was referencing:
Land Mobile Products
Land Mobile products are designed for government, industry, and business use. They provide two-way radio communications for police, fire, and other public safety agencies, as well as for security, construction, retail, manufacturing, and other industries. Products range from small hand-held radios, to vehicle-mounted mobile radios, base station equipment, and complete communications systems.
PAFJ wants instead a radio from the "Amateur" group from Icom (or any other manufacturer). It is a much more satisfactory radio for ham use like we are talking about here. Regarding "opening up" a radio to extend the transmit frequencies. For me, I don't see a pressing need for that at this time, but obviously it's something you can do.
I want to get this radio from Icom (IC-121 VHF/FM)... 
The antenna will be mounted on my 60. How about this one: