Eddy802
Guest
Re-test, but this time I carried both an A80 and the 3107 and headed away from a very patient SWMBO until transmissions became deteriorated between her A80 and the Kenwood (like last night - further than expected in honesty).
Time to turn the Kenwood off and the A80 on. Immediately it was apparent that the 3107/A80 combination was better than A80/A80 from my point of view. Back ground noise recieved on the A80 was stronger than on the Kenwood.
I turned the power output up to 1w on my A80 but SWMBO reported no percieveable improvement at her end. Up to 2w and the background noise at her end died out, so I extended the disctance (200m further away) until the background noise returned.
At this point I had her power up to 2w too and reception for each of us was clear enough but background noise was apparent and transmissions broken on occaision.
I turned the Kenwood back on and there was little or no change in the background noise level over the extended distance, or in the degradation of her reception.
Over the next 100m the signals between us faded enough to warrant a mobile phone call to end the testing.
I've concluded that the 3107 does offer better reception and transmission quality (I guess this is down to the antenna quality or the 4watts of power). I hope to be able to extend testing tomorrow onto the bikes, this is dependant on Intaride getting Autocom patch leads to me in the post. And in honesty I think most of the above will still apply.
There is no doubt that the A80 offers amongst the best functionality and quality of any PMR unit available for purchase in the UK (and that's before you consider the option to up power or remote your antenna). And despite the fact that I'll be giving up a "roger tone", the option to adjust power, scan the channels, an LCD to see what the unit is up to, recieve on one freq and transmit on another, easy sub-channel selection and some space in my tank bag, I think I'll go with the Kenwood on pure quality in simplicity. (and a saving of £50 per unit).
Time to turn the Kenwood off and the A80 on. Immediately it was apparent that the 3107/A80 combination was better than A80/A80 from my point of view. Back ground noise recieved on the A80 was stronger than on the Kenwood.
I turned the power output up to 1w on my A80 but SWMBO reported no percieveable improvement at her end. Up to 2w and the background noise at her end died out, so I extended the disctance (200m further away) until the background noise returned.
At this point I had her power up to 2w too and reception for each of us was clear enough but background noise was apparent and transmissions broken on occaision.
I turned the Kenwood back on and there was little or no change in the background noise level over the extended distance, or in the degradation of her reception.
Over the next 100m the signals between us faded enough to warrant a mobile phone call to end the testing.
I've concluded that the 3107 does offer better reception and transmission quality (I guess this is down to the antenna quality or the 4watts of power). I hope to be able to extend testing tomorrow onto the bikes, this is dependant on Intaride getting Autocom patch leads to me in the post. And in honesty I think most of the above will still apply.
There is no doubt that the A80 offers amongst the best functionality and quality of any PMR unit available for purchase in the UK (and that's before you consider the option to up power or remote your antenna). And despite the fact that I'll be giving up a "roger tone", the option to adjust power, scan the channels, an LCD to see what the unit is up to, recieve on one freq and transmit on another, easy sub-channel selection and some space in my tank bag, I think I'll go with the Kenwood on pure quality in simplicity. (and a saving of £50 per unit).
