best bike to bike radio's ?

PMR446 radios do vary a lot. We started off with a pair of Binatone radios which were OK for "normal" use but very poor audio quality made them useless on bikes.

Bought two Alan 456s which have been used successfully for about three years. Clear audio (via Autocom) at illegal speeds and range is well good enough.

Recently saw the Alan 450 and bought one to try it. This is a real pro radio and I am well impressed with the quality of constuction and audio. Again no problems with range but am using it to talk to one of the 456s anyway. These can be bought at Maplin but are somewhat cheaper at Showcomms (on web). Note that these can be bought with two different batteries, 1100mAh NiMi or 2200 mAh Li-Ion. Maploins catalogue shows that theirs are 1100 but those in local dealers were 2200. Maybe worth checking when buying.

One advantage of the cheaper 456s is they take standard AA rechargables which means dry cells can be used in an emergency. The 450s have dedicated batteries.

One thing we found with all of them is that VOX is not a realistic option. Set to high and one radio would stick on transmit all the time. Set slightly lower and the start of every conversation was missed. It was a pain to remember to start every sentence with "hello Sarah" to get the VOX to kick in - and still found that somnetimes we were talking to ourselves. The answer was an Autocom PTT switch. These sit by left thumb and as well as the PTT button have a switch to set (1) lock on transmit (2) VOX and (3) PTT. Normally use PTT but its useful to use lock on transmit when needing a long tranmit when in traffic and left hand is busy with clutch.
 
slowsider said:
Interestingly they were both set to High already... so no big increase in range to come.. :(
Click to expand...

If both radios had the wee 'H' symbol next to the power bars then they are on high output. theres a varienty of things that can effect range of PMR radios,

Terrian - built up areas or large mountains between radio's will reduce range

Aerial position - the best position for any aerial is vertical anything significantly off this and will reduce range ad quality of signal which where squelch will come in to play,

squelch - this can be set so high that the incoming signal has to be a strong clear signal to get through the squelch, so giving the impression of poor range, I have the A80's and generally have the squelch set about 3 or 4 this give's me a range of about 1 mile under general conditions with my buddy who use's a Kenwood tk (something)

I found that generally theres no need for the power to be set any higher than 'low' all you will be doing is reducing battery life and I found you really don't need that range to be any higher than about a mile and unless you using a sub-channel you'll cross chattering onto other user's who are no where near you which can be a bit annoying since radio's are becoming quite common on bikes of all types.

HTH
 
PX888

Could someone please do a plain english operating manual for one of these !

The book that came with mine seems to give you the absolute basic instructions, and the disc worse still as it has every Puxing model on there.

I managed to turn on the FM radio OK though.
 
888

That disc that comes with the package is neither use nor ornament, can I for the life of me get anything that resembles the 888 programming software up and running. The 777 stuff works but wont load onto the 888 because of a comms problem or low battery power so the ever so helpfull box tells me.
 
I have been using Intarides' latest radio , IR-803, powered from an Autocom 300 and battery eliminator I rigged up. Works with the standard "kenwood" lead as well.
see http://www.intaride.com/803 pro radio.html
I would say its a cost effective alternative to Kenwood 2 way radios but Intaride want £120 for one now. I think I paid about £80.

The radio is made by Wouxon and called a KG-703E
http://www.wouxun.com/Two-Way-Radio/walkie_talkie_KG-703E.htm
I got parts for it off of ebay & I think you can get the radios as will if you are prepared to download the software and configure them like the Puxing radios being discussed.
 
andyclift said:
Recently saw the Alan 450 and bought one to try it. This is a real pro radio and I am well impressed with the quality of constuction and audio. Again no problems with range but am using it to talk to one of the 456s anyway. These can be bought at Maplin but are somewhat cheaper at Showcomms (on web). Note that these can be bought with two different batteries, 1100mAh NiMi or 2200 mAh Li-Ion. Maploins catalogue shows that theirs are 1100 but those in local dealers were 2200. Maybe worth checking when buying.
Click to expand...

Just stumbled across this by a Google serach for something else. Our ones are 2200mAh. If you go to the manufacturers page you will see we are THE dealer they list for the HP450! See here.

Duncan
Showcomms
 
Duncan,

Tried to buy mine from you as you are local and, more importantly, a lot cheaper than Maplins. Snag was you hadn't got any and Maplins had!!!
 
Puxing PX-777

Guys, got my Puxing Px-777 today, now can anyone suggest how I get this to work with the Intaride TK3133 trainee radio set please ?
The TK3133 has 8 channels, how do I get them to pair up ?
 
John,

you wil have to programme the PX-777 to the UK PMR freqs, this can be done by:

1) Holding down the black button on the side under the PTT button and the menu button as you turn the radio on. this puts the radio into program mode (it should display "Self"

2) press enter to display CH-001, press enter again to display the transmit frequency and enter 446.006 (notice that when you type it in a small 25 to complete the freq)

3)press enter again to display the CT code option, press the VFO/MR button to turn this off

4) press enter again to display the recieve frequency and enter 446.006 again.

5)press enter again to display the CT code option, press the VFO/MR button to turn this off

6) again for DT code press the VFO/MR button to turn this off

7) press enter to skip ADD

8) this is the power setting make sure it is set to L (low power to comply with PMR regs) by turning the knob on top of the radio next to the volume control.

9) press enter, this is channel width, make sure this is set to Narrow by the same method as step 8.

10) press enter and enter a name if you whish.

11) thats channel 1 set up.

now all you need to do is setup the other channles to the following frequencies by repeating steps 2)-11):-

446.03125 MHz
446.05625 MHz
446.08125 MHz
446.01875 MHz
446.04375 MHz
446.06875 MHz
446.09375 MHz

once done turn the radio off, and this time turn on by whilst holding down the enter key to turn the radio into "channel" mode now using the selector knob on top of the radio you can select between the different channels you have set up. Hopefully the channel numbers will correspond with your other PMR radios!

I have had my PX-777's for a week and they work really well, got them installed on the bikes at the weekend and perform very clearly and great range on low power.

any questions just ask! :beerjug:

Regards
Si
 
Si it's OK up to the point of entering the frequency - enter 440.006 then the display goes blank !
Is there something else I need to do to set the frequency range ?
 
if the display goes to --.--- after typing the freq in it sounds like you are putting too many charecters in, you only ever need to enter the first 6 charectors, the last 25 or 75 is figured out automatically by the radio.
 
Just looking at the Puxing PX-777 listings on Fleabay, looks like I've got the VHF rather than UHF version !
 
ah if the useable freq range is 136-175MHz, this is not compatible with existing PMR radio's, I think the PX-777 comes in two flavours - the 136-175MHz and the 400-470MHz version, the later is the one you want to use with uk PMR radios like the Kenwoods or the Icon

i.e.
PX-777

sorry!

simon
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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