Autocom - Radio choice (Again!)

R1150GS Kid

Guest
Sorry to raise this again, but I'm currently trying to decide what radios to purchase for myself and my brother and I'm finding it compliacated!

The problem is this:

My brother has an "Easi 7-Advance-system" (the cheaper / more basic one) and I have the "Pro-7-Sport"

The options for radios seems to be:

1) My brother can use what autocom describe as a Single PMR446 (£70). Can I also use this with the Pro-7-Sport?? Can these be powered by the bike??

2) He can use a single PMR446, and I use a Kenwood TK3101 - will these be compatible together.

3) We both use Kenwood TK3101's. Can one of these be powered using the Easi 7-Advance-system (what parts do i need)?

What is the advantage (in simple terms please!) of the Kenwood TK3101 over the cheaper "PMR 446".

Finally can these radio's be used abroad (France) legally?

I don't know much about these sort of radios, so any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Andrew
 
Radio choice - Alinco??

OK, I've spoken to Autocom about this, who were quite helpful. However they have not sorted my main problem.

My brother is using the cheaper "Easi 7 advance" which can't power a radio. Any radio he gets will need to be bike powered as we're going on holiday for a couple of weeks, and won't be able to charge any batteries.

What I'm wondering is does anybody know if the Kenwood can be powered from an independent 12V supply - avoiding the Autocom problems?

Otherwise on a previous post "City Slicker" mentioned about a different make of radio - an Alinco PMR446. The power socket on this apparently permits 7-13.8v operation. If this is the case this sounds fine BUT is it compatible with Autocom???

Has anyone got an Alinco, or have any other thoughts?

Thanks,

Andrew
 
Andrew,

For what it's worth, any UK PMR 446 two way radio should be compatible with another, whatever the make. They all have thier own gimmicks and 'sub channels', but stick with a main channel for clarity.

Find out what voltage they need to run on and see if the Autocom outputs are the same.

If the worst comes to the worst, run them on Duracell batteries, the ones especially for hi tech electronics, not the ordinary ones. They should last a week, so if in doubt double up. If it's just for your hols, they'll last out. Or just go for hand signals like we've done for the last century...

Hope this is of some use?

Steve
 
try one of these

469370.jpg


ps.. you need to keep the conecting antenna (the string) properly attuned,, (ie tight)..

just be carefull not to get caught on any cars as you go by..

hope that helps..

pthagonal
 
Re: Radio choice - Alinco??

R1150GS Kid said:
Otherwise on a previous post "City Slicker" mentioned about a different make of radio - an Alinco PMR446. The power socket on this apparently permits 7-13.8v operation. If this is the case this sounds fine BUT is it compatible with Autocom???

Has anyone got an Alinco, or have any other thoughts?

Thanks,

Andrew
Any PMR446 should be compatible with another, at least on the base channels. If you're mixing radios best leave the CTCSS & DTCS codes stuff alone as it all gets a bit messy.

What determines whether any radio is compatible with Autocom is the lead between the radio and autocom control unit and in general if Autocom don't stock the lead they will make you one with the right pin connections for a 'small consideration' ;)

Whatever radio you do go for you can save considerably by NOT buying your radio from Autocom. The guys at Crystal Radio will help you out.
 
Re: Re: Radio choice - Alinco??

judge said:
What determines whether any radio is compatible with Autocom is the lead between the radio and autocom control unit and in general if Autocom don't stock the lead they will make you one with the right pin connections for a 'small consideration' ;)

Whatever radio you do go for you can save considerably by NOT buying your radio from Autocom. The guys at Crystal Radio will help you out.

Andy's 'wink' smilie says it all - Autocom make quality kit, and they are very good at making bits and bobs for your one-off installations (I am using a Pro-7 with bike-to-bike, MP3 player, GPS and mobile phone and they supplied all the necesssary to link it up). But the words small and consideration don't fit in their corporate vocabulary - not in the same sentence anyway!

Crystal Radio are offering the Kenwood 3101 at 135 notes - free delivery. Autocom would charge you £199 for the same. I just wish I'd known about that when I bought my kit!

:rolleyes:

Greg
 
Re: Re: Re: Radio choice - Alinco??

Greg Masters said:
But the words small and consideration don't fit in their corporate vocabulary - not in the same sentence anyway!
But they could... "... in consideration of us providing you with a customised lead, we'll leave you with nothing but small change in your pocket" :D
 
Shop Around.

I also have the Kenwood TK3101, thought I had a bargain at £170 with a spare battery, however, as Greg says it can be found cheaper, it just happens I couldn't find it that cheap at the time. Now I have sorted out the QT and DQT we should have a little more success communicating the next time we meet Andy. As I said on another thread with such large gatherings coming together it would be nice to have a bit better mobile comms when on the move rather than the pathetic semaphore we are currently using. The charger that comes with the Kenwood wires directly to a BM plug once you have junked the transformer, and allows you to charge a spare battery while on the move, alternatively if like Greg you own a Pro 7, Autocom make a power take off lead so you can leave the battery off and wire directly to the Pro 7 unit. The attached may help sorry about the quality.
 

Attachments

  • autocom-kenwood.jpg
    autocom-kenwood.jpg
    27.8 KB · Views: 221
Otherwise on a previous post "City Slicker" mentioned about a different make of radio - an Alinco PMR446. The power socket on this apparently permits 7-13.8v operation. If this is the case this sounds fine BUT is it compatible with Autocom???
Yes, completely compatible - you will need an autocom lead for the Icom range to interface with the radio.

I made my own lead and incorporated power from the 9v pin on the Aux1 so that it is a slick install. Autocom can do this for you if you ask fo a lead to be made up specifically.

Because you can see/program the channels/CTCSS tones using an LCD display it is more compatible with ALL PMRs than the choice offered by Autocom themselves.

The range expands to at least 1/2 mile in urban environments if you do the power mod - beware that you will have to run it on bike power if you want 5W because the battery drain is quite high.
 
PMR's in France & Switz

Just got back from the Alps with a friend of mine. We both have the Kenwood autocom setup hard wired to our bikes. Works a treat in England... get over the channel & do a few miles, you're stopping every hour or so to change the channel. Static around Train Stations biggest problem. Transmission/reception strength reduced in other areas. Some of the frequencies/channels used by local authorities. Worked fine again when we got back to the UK.
Anyone else had this problem?
 
Yes, in Marbella I think that a local-Chinese restaurant was using Kenwood Channel 13 to shout orders (in Chinese) from the restaurant to the kitchen. I politely asked them, in best Noel Coward English, to shut- the- feck up, but they just carried on. So I turned on my music and switched the PTT to permanent transmit!

Bloody foreigners!

:headphone

Greg
 
I think my brother should head down the Alinco radio route (as a Kenwood can't be wired to the bike without going through his autocom) I think I'm right in saying that with the Alinco it sounds like:

1) My brother will be able to hard wire it from the bike's electrics, as its power plug accepts 12V (correct?)(as his autocom is the basic one and won't power a radio)

2) To connect the radio to his autocom he can get a standard lead from Autocom suitable for Icom radio's

If I'm right on the above, my final questiona are

i) With the Alinco when the bike's ignition is switched off, when it is turned on will the radio come back to the channel it was last on or to a default channel? (As if it doesn't it will be annoying if its burried under his seat somewhere etc)

ii) How do you mod the radio to 5W, and does this need an external antenna?

I think I'm finally getting there with these radio's, thanks for all the advice so far! Hopefully if I get the answers to these questions I should be able to finally order these early next week!

Thanks,

Andrew
 


Back
Top Bottom