best bike to bike radio's ?

[gsman1]

Currently use pair of cheap motorola radio for self and mate, which are best radios to buy, for range and quality of sound ?

 

[Boon]

Standard radios are much of a muchness

they will give you 500mw (0.5 watts)with a deviation of around 2.5khz


if you want a walk on the dark side you can buy radios with a bit more punch




have a look at some of the chinese radios which 'can' give 4 or 5 Watts and also cover the pmr 446 frequencies

uk spec radios which are made for a different market 'can' go to pmr 446 with a bit more punch too.........

do some research and buy stuff that will be compatabile with your current harness.............not all radios come with the 2.5/3.5 mm fittings


if someone tells you one half watt radio is £100 better than another.............take a pinch of salt


some radios made for the uk half watt market can be 'opened up' easily to provide more power for usage abroad...........


intek do one thats becoming popular........

 

[roddy]

I use a set of Wintec A80 bought from Intaride and I find them well built, clear comm's they can be boosted to give better power and remote aerial to give better position so reception can be better, there also a descent size

My buddy use's the Kenwood tk301, i think it's the official one not the chinese copy and it's also a good bit

I think if you spending about 100 you'll get a good radio, if you know what your doing you can buy chinese PMR radio's off ebay for less than half price to what they cost in the UK, but I'm not sure about the custom side of things when you get stuff from China/Taiwain and the like

HTH

 

[Boon]

If you buy the right make and model of chinese radios you are buying big brand radios ,made on the same production line,for a fraction of the cost ...................and they come at full power too.........

eg puxing 777...........motorola ex600...........same radio,different name............... at less than 15% of the cost.......






just make sure you can get the right fittings for harness /external antenna

motorola use a special antenna fitting

and you can program the correct frequencies in when you get the radio,its easy.........

 

[Bryn]

So the Puxing 777 here


http://www.euroradiosales.com/rs2/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=273

seems a good buy... but will you be able to power it from the bike to save running out of juice? and is it compatible with Autocom ( from a radio virgin)

Thanks awfully

 

[divelandy]

I've just ordered 2 for 72 pounds from RadioFactory/eBay which is 20% more than one from Euro Radio Sales. I've also ordered the 'battery eliminator' and Kenwoo/Autocom connector.

 

[Bryn]

I've just ordered 2 for 72 pounds from RadioFactory/eBay which is 20% more than one from Euro Radio Sales. I've also ordered the 'battery eliminator' and Kenwoo/Autocom connector.

So that price is for 2 777's... and the other bits are from the same supplier?

does the kenwood/autocom connector work on a puxing?

(not looked properly yet )


Is this the eliminator?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Car-adapter-P...h=item270364467234&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1262

 

[newboy]

Very interested to know if the 2x 777's for £72 and the eliminator and autocom connector all work
I have just bought a Kit 300 (mainly to pair with my bro's 200) - and hope to buy the PMR's this next week for our euro-trip....

Is this all from same supplier... ??

 

[divelandy]

I'm still looking around for a good deal on a second Autocom.

The bit's i've ordered are:

From Autocom (Orwell), i have ordered:
[1429] KENWOOD TWIN PIN LEAD (Radio to Autocom lead)
[1457] AUTOCOM RH5-PTT-TA (PTT Switch)

From Radio Factory, i ordered:
Battery eliminator (expect to mod to connect and power from bike)
Puxing 777 (400-470 5w) radio's

From Bikers Oracle, i'm asking about
Number plate mounterd antenna kit
- expect to also require an adaptor for the radio to antenna BNC connector.

So that should cover the radio, power, better tx/rx and connection to the Autocom.

Guess i'll let you know in a week or 2 when i have these bit's.

Anyone thought of the practicality of storing in a tool tube or similar?
- not much room left under the body work on the 800 for anything else...

 

[newboy]

Just picked up a second Kit 200 Duo for £102.86

Chainspeed sold out this weekend
from CMC
http://www.cmcbikes.com/shop/index.php?cPath=24_47&osCsid=adc3eb53349f2de55430de8d4392677a

 

[sparkplug]

I use a set of Wintec A80 bought from Intaride... they can be boosted to give better power and remote aerial to give better position so reception can be better...

While both of these things are true it should be made clear that the higher power output is only legal in some countries - and the UK isn't one of them It's also illegal to have a remote arial in the UK (don't really understand why...)

That said, the power boost is just a few button presses so it's easy to change as you cross international borders equally you can have a remote arial mounted somewhere on the bike but not connected. As you approach a border you simply unscrew the A80's arial and attach the remote one.

I've used these for years now - thery're cracking little radios.

 

[DaveGSCymro]

I use a set of Wintec A80 bought from Intaride and I find them well built, clear comm's they can be boosted to give better power and remote aerial to give better position so reception can be better, there also a descent size

HTH

+1

 

[Boon]

I'm still looking around for a good deal on a second Autocom.

The bit's i've ordered are:

From Autocom (Orwell), i have ordered:
[1429] KENWOOD TWIN PIN LEAD (Radio to Autocom lead)
[1457] AUTOCOM RH5-PTT-TA (PTT Switch)

From Radio Factory, i ordered:
Battery eliminator (expect to mod to connect and power from bike)
Puxing 777 (400-470 5w) radio's

From Bikers Oracle, i'm asking about
Number plate mounterd antenna kit
- expect to also require an adaptor for the radio to antenna BNC connector.

So that should cover the radio, power, better tx/rx and connection to the Autocom.

Guess i'll let you know in a week or 2 when i have these bit's.

Anyone thought of the practicality of storing in a tool tube or similar?
- not much room left under the body work on the 800 for anything else...

You have certainly done your homework............

Let us know how you got on ,I recommended these little radios to a mate who has an estate......he uses them fairly reularly and recons they are great.

 

[black1100]

Been using a pair of puxing 777 with autocom, bike power and remote arial for about 2 years now, makes the pmr stuff i had before look like the overpriced crap it is.

Never really done a range test but do know i've had upto 4 miles bike to bike across a spanish town. The guy who originally speced the setup for me is a full blown radio ham and claimes he has managed 20 miles back to his own transmitter from the bike, although he does live out in the welsh hills.

The equipment is no way illegal, however in order to be used within the law at full power the user should hold at least a foundation amature liscence, relativly cheap and easy to get, although it may involve you metting a few local anoraks

 

[Crashtel]

Small request from a radio ham...... I'm sure you can see some of the radios you are talking about come with extended bands over the "standard" PMR446. The 70cm band is shared by all sorts of people but as Radio Ham if you could steer clear of 430-440Mhz to give my Ham colleagues a chance of the those weak contacts it would be appreciated.

Anorack stuff.....As for range 5-10 miles is possible on 70cm, thats running 5W so with 500mw from your standard PMR radio we are only talking a mile or 2. Sometimes the E layer ionises (best at Solar maxima) "skip" comes into play. My best contact was in May 2000 me in London to a ham Corsica running 100mW. For the oldies skip happened when tv's used to display "we are experiencing interferance do not adjust your set", remember that! I have to say not particularly useful for bike to bike comms when you skip over the guy 5miles down the road and get someone 500 miles away.

The last solar maxima was 2001 so next one will be 2012ish.

***Keep using VHF and UHF frequencies else they will be taken away from us and used for some commercial purpose***

73s G0AHI.

 

[divelandy]

He he - G7GVL in a previous life....
- probably still have my 2m equipment in the loft.

 

[Crashtel]

Sorry bit of a hijack of this thread.....I expect there are a few Amateur Radio folks out there. Used to do 2m, but old FT290 has seen better days. Still have my Ft901 HF setup in the loft and keep my license going, might become serious when and if I ever retire and can't tour on the bike!

 

[Boon]

Yes................

 

[Boon]

I think most guys will know to set up thier radios onto the 8 PMR446mhz channels or the three 449 mhz open licence channels without using the extra 8 digital only frequencies at 446 mhz....another 8 channel steps above the original frequencies that no one uses.....or the 60 odd low power device only frequencies that are hardly used.........

and although ofcom has stated it will not police this spectrum and it would be actually technically a nightmare to try and trace a moving vehicle only transmitting every few mins.......I'm sure everyone will comply with the regulations regarding power output for whatever country they are in.

Channel Frequency (MHz)
1 446.00625
2 446.01875
3 446.03125
4 446.04375
5 446.05625
6 446.06875
7 446.08125
8 446.09375

Mirror the channel step for another 8 channels above this for digital use only......

Low power device frequencies to avoid if your radio is pre programmed for them:


Channel Frequency (MHz) Channel Frequency (MHz) Channel Frequency (MHz)
1 433.075 24 433.650 47 434.225
2 433.100 25 433.675 48 434.250
3 433.125 26 433.700 49 434.275
4 433.150 27 433.725 50 434.300
5 433.175 28 433.750 51 434.325
6 433.200 29 433.775 52 434.350
7 433.225 30 433.800 53 434.375
8 433.250 31 433.825 54 434.400
9 433.275 32 433.850 55 434.425
10 433.300 33 433.875 56 434.450
11 433.325 34 433.900 57 434.475
12 433.350 35 433.925 58 434.500
13 433.375 36 433.950 59 434.525
14 433.400 37 433.975 60 434.550
15 433.425 38 434.000 61 434.575
16 433.450 39 434.025 62 434.600
17 433.475 40 434.050 63 434.625
18 433.500 41 434.075 64 434.650
19 433.525 42 434.100 65 434.675
20 433.550 43 434.125 66 434.700
21 433.575 44 434.150 67 434.725
22 433.600 45 434.175 68 434.750
23 433.625 46 434.200 69 434.775



UK general license frequencies:


86.3375MHz 164.0500MHz
86.3500MHz 164.0625MHz
86.3625MHz
86.3750MHz
77.6875MHz

169.0875MHz 449.3125MHz
169.3125MHz 449.4000MHz
173.0625MHz 449.4750MHz
173.0875MHz
173.0500MHz

 

[pablo666]

Boon,
I've got a vague grasp of that! But what does 'mirror....' mean?

Pablo