Which bike to bike radios should i buy?

[smaytum]

Which bike to bike radios should i buy?

They must be small.
Have a good range.
Charge from a 12v supply.
Work with autocom.
Can have a remote push-to-talk button.

 

[Lord Snooty]

Give these guys a call http://www.intaride.com/ they are doing some deals at the moment.

 

[aRTy_Hexhead]

Which bike to bike radios should i buy?

They must be small.
Have a good range.
Charge from a 12v supply.
Work with autocom.
Can have a remote push-to-talk button.

Why not try the Autocom website???

http://www.autocom.co.uk/

You've got an Autocom and they recommend....

A Kenwood 3201 (£195) or a Motorola G7 (£50)

http://www.autocom.co.uk/Accessories-Bike-to-bike-Audio.aspx

Just purchased a pair of Kenwoods on this forum for a reasonable price. Took 20 mins to fit and ab fab.

Don't need PTT as it is all VOX so there's a saving....

It does exactly what it says on their website!!

Bit like the guy on this forum that bought a brand new 1200GS and then started worrying about the servicing costs

 

[smaytum]

Why not try the Autocom website???

http://www.autocom.co.uk/

... if i were looking for a car, then i could go to Mercedes for advice, but, i bet they would give different advice than Audi. Understand

Autocom say they recommend a radio for £195 and another radio for £50.

What i want to get from this forum is advice/experience.

What it says on the autocom website is...
- the £195 radio comes with a battery and charger
- the £50 radio also comes with a battery and charger

So what made you buy the £195 radio over the £50? There must have been a reason. What was the reason?

 

[IanNicky]

I have just fitted an Autocom and went with the Kenwood 3201 because i wanted it powered from the bike and not to have to worry about charging the battery Simples

 

[roddy]

I have the Intaride Wintecs A80 it's a cracking wee radio,

It's small about palm sized,

can be powered off 12v

Has PTT

use's the common twin pin connecting cable so don't see any reason for it not to work with Autocom

range is good, the power can be up'd if need be but I've found you generally don't need to

Built to a MIL spec so has metal chassis and is reasonably waterproof.

All round great wee radio, the basic rule with radios is the more you spend the better it is in the sense of sound, Build, reception quality, though this isn't the golden rule you can get well built radio straight from the Far East with all of the above but at a third of the price

HTH

 

[marcusfordus]

Radios

I've got a Puxing 888
two Kenwood TK-3201's
and I fancy a Wintec (it's real model name is LP 4502)

If you fancy a Wintec they are on ebay in Germany for £104 or best offer at present


both my Kenwoods use the same lead from Autocom as the Puxing 888.
The Puxing has a FM radio on it, which is alright for a bit of music on a campsite when you stop for the evening

 

[vtr1000sp1]

Hi,
I have Puxing 888’s which can be sourced on ebay. They take the standard Kenwood Autocom lead (two pin) and cost a lot less than the 3201. I had three 3201’s and to be honest for a radio that costs £195 each I was very disappointed – I got then off ebay so didn’t pay this thank god! These were UK spec (0.5w) and I found the range to be pretty poor.

It’s been covered many times here before but it all boils down to what you will be using them for. For me, I will only be using them for weekend rides with the missus and the odd euro trip so my £100 Puxings are more than adequate. If you’re a motorcycle instructor who uses them everyday then you may wish to spend the extra for top-quality kit.

You can power puxings from a battery eliminator pack (has a cig lighter adapter) so could use this to charge the battery on-the-go.

Please note that the Puxing radios have a high and low setting and it’s illegal to use the high setting in the UK without the necessary licence .

Cheers
Phil

 

[Bohsfc]

Myself and my mate had 3201's and were lucky to get 5 or 600 yard range between us.
We are both just after buying 2 kenwood tk-359 radios form littlegems on ebay for £30, battery elininator form chainspeed and it gives a huge range in comparison to the 3201 and much cheaper and smaller for under the seat.

 

[mr_magicfingers]

Myself and my mate had 3201's and were lucky to get 5 or 600 yard range between us.
We are both just after buying 2 kenwood tk-359 radios form littlegems on ebay for £30, battery elininator form chainspeed and it gives a huge range in comparison to the 3201 and much cheaper and smaller for under the seat.

Exactly what I did, but bought a couple of cheap kenwood battery eliminators from ebay, pulled the guts out and repacked them into a much smaller container, so I can power it off the bike. Also bought a much better external antenna that's mounted off the number plate.

Oh and I also got a brand new charger for them from amazon for £20 plus postage so we can use them as regular walkie talkies if we need to.

Great system and way cheaper than the 3201's.

 

[Paul Young]

I go to the US fairly regularly, as we have a renatal home in Orlando & like visiting the parks. US walkie talkies are the mutts nuts in that you can get much better range from them (35 miles...) & they are very useful in the malls & parks. We have had Cobra's with an 8 mile range (very good, but awkward shape/size), Audiovox (tiny size, very thin, but ultimately too fragile) & now have Midlands. The Midlands are proving very good & come with a 20 mile range capability & were around £60 (BIN on eBay) for 4 units with 2 chargers & batteries, all shipped from San Francisco.

 

[Boon]

FRS in north america uses 464mhz

PMR in europe uses 446mhz

The rule of thumb is:
Buy european talkies for use in europe.

The FRS sets used to be slap bang in the middle of the police radio frequencies in the UK...........yes it did cause a bit of a mess.....this band has been sold off to commercial users now......dunno who.........

PMR 446 sets upset north american radio hams when used over there........its in thier band allocation for the 70cm band.........I used mine in Canada skiing as the FRS was chocca.........and wasnt the only brit to do so...........


General wisdom is leaning towards getting a radio that 'can' give a higher power output than the measly 500mW allowed..........this increases range considerably................then add an external antenna and you have again increased the range ............however both these options are not legal in the UK.

The govt however will not pay a thin ha'penny to police the band so ............

 

[wheeledwidewebb]

Smaytum, I am in Broadstairs, drop me a PM and you are welcome to come over and I will show you through my Autocom/Intaride set-up.

 

[AberdeenAngus]

Buy puxing UHF sets and program them for the licence free PMR446 frequencies (the puxings give upto 4W rather than the usual 500mW).
If you are in a city and the PMR bands are very busy - there are 8 more PMR frequencies that are supposed to be meant for digital only but hardly anyone uses them.
these are located slightly higher than the normal PMR bands.

For frequencies see here...
http://www.wibble.co.uk/links/ukspectrum/spectrum.html

Forget about VOX. It's a pain in the arse. Fit a PTT switch.

 

[AndrewD]

Another vote for the Wintec A80, cracking little radio. I've had Puxing & WeiWei and Lyntons all were pretty rubbish.

 

[JoeC]

Bit like a 'What Oil' thread. So many answers to choose from.
I was reading the thread hoping for a simple answer. Ah well.

 

[advancedbiker]

The Wintec...

Worth considering, the unofficial 2 watt output and the facilty to add an external aerial.

I bought off Intaride once, not recommended as I felt the quality was not up to Autocom standard. Now Autocom is more affordable, worth going for it.

 

[IanNicky]

So is there a way of increasing the power from 0.5mW on the Kenwood 3201 ???

 

[AndrewD]

Worth considering, the unofficial 2 watt output and the facilty to add an external aerial.

I bought off Intaride once, not recommended as I felt the quality was not up to Autocom standard. Now Autocom is more affordable, worth going for it.

Not sure if you are referring to the radio? Don't think Autocom sell the A80

 

[mr_magicfingers]

So is there a way of increasing the power from 0.5mW on the Kenwood 3201 ???

No, it's fixed at half a watt. If you want a more powerful kenwood radio, get the tk359 for £30, you can program them to the pmr frequencies with either 0.5w, 2w or 4w. You can also put an external antenna on them, which makes a big difference.

'Legal' pmr radios are restricted to 0.5w (unless you have a business license) and are not allowed a removable antenna. Not sure how intaride gets away with it on the A80.