it depends.....

A friend of mine who "collects" HTs owns both of these radios, Dave. I have not used either one of these personally, but he gave me several points to consider, so I will pass them on to you. 1. Size...the Yaesu is much smaller than the Icom when antenna size is considered. If you typically add an after-market antenna, this may minimize the difference. However, there are no after-market quad band antennas made at this time, and the after-market tri-band antennas are unsatisfactory so far, or so I have been told.

2. Both of the these radios are more difficult to program, due to the ever-increasing menu of options, bands, etc. He says that the Yaesu is the most difficult HT he has ever had to program, and he owns over 20! He won't even attempt to program it without using the computer software and cable....so if you need to add or change your programming in the field, beware.... The ICOM is also difficult, but not as bad as the Yaesu. He says the silver "flywheel" on the front takes some getting used to, to make sure you actually are on the band you wish to be.

3. Is there any activity on the 1.2 gHz band in your area? There is NONE in our area, and he has found from testing with a few friends that 1 watt is really too small to do any significant work on 1.2 gHz. And 1.2 gHz repeaters are expensive and hard to keep "on the air"---I have found this out personally from talking to technical experts are the ARRL.

4. Battery life-- the Yaesu has a big advantage here.

Actually, from what my friend told me, I decided against BOTH of these radios. The Icom T-8A currently has a $70 off coupon, so its price is down to around 269. I am trying to decide between that and the new Alinco, the DJ V5, which is just a dual bander. Hope this helps.