Y23UV-98PLUS

This radio is aimed squarely at Technician and General class operators who want APRS functionality without committing to a flagship price tag. It fits neatly into the budget end of the feature-rich dual-band market, and with 1,024 memory channels, it has enough headroom for serious frequency management.

At 10W on VHF/UHF, output is competitive for a handheld at this price point, and the integrated GPS with APRS support is the headline draw here. Being able to beacon your position and decode APRS packets without a separate module is genuinely useful for SOTA activations, public service events, or simply tracking your own path. The value score is exceptionally strong for what you get on paper.

No IP rating is listed, and the unit is confirmed not water resistant, so keep it out of the rain. Without published weight or battery capacity figures, portability is harder to evaluate than it should be. If you need a budget-conscious APRS-capable radio for dry-weather field use, this is worth a close look; operators who need durability or rely on verified battery runtime data should look at better-documented alternatives.