Opened my RadioUser magazine this morning and went to the back 4-5 pages and saw that once again we are due an invasion of Chinese rigs. However these are now Vehicle and Mobile rigs, capable of 60 Watts FM.
Furthermore they are designing radios that will be Dual band 2/70 but also the most exciting rdaios are the ones capable of 66-88 MHz. S0 with some 14.4v Lipo Batteries, we may very soon be able to do some QRO on 70MHz from Summits.
The rigs are called ‘Anytone’ made by company called ‘Qixiang’ I simply googled the latter and clicked on ‘In Car Radio’ Link and up came the Rigs!! Not sure when they are due to hit the U.K. Shores but it would seem that in RadioUser they estimate an RRP of £110!! 70 Mhz model number is ‘Anytone AT-5189’
Will probably be lighter then any PMR and capable of greater power!
In reply to 2E0XTL:
Thanks Matt - sounds interesting and cheap too! Not been out on the hills, I’ve got trouble with both my knees, so it looks like sota activity is out for me this year. Say hi to your dad for me. 73 Grant G4ILI
Out of stock at Lynchy’s. I shot myself in the foot by writing about them on CQHQ before I ordered mine on the 20th Nov. Email from ML&S says “Unfortunately this item has sold out and we do not have a lead time for the next delivery”. Mine was one of dozens of net orders that arrived on the Monday. Boo Hoo!
That is a shame Steve! Oh well I’m usre they will try and get a new shipment in! I agree with your tactful comments about the AKD Steve! I must admit it made me smile! FM 1200 seems to be sensitive on receive, especially if you add a preamp, courtesy of Spectrum Comms!
Brian a 4m ssb rig would be superb, Yaesu have done it on the 847, I’m sure one day there will be a mod for the 817!
817 1st IF is at 68.33MHz which is awfully close to where we want to RX/TX!
In reply to G8ADD:
Or just build your own transverter… there are plenty of published designs about Brian.
In reply to nobody:
I must be in a Meldrew mode but why would I want to pay £150 for some piece of BY-land tat when I can buy PMR rigs with proven build quality for coppers? Yes I know it’s shiny (for some definition of BY-shiny) but you can buy an awful lot 2nd hand gear and cleaning materials for £150.
I must be in a Meldrew mode but why would I want to pay £150 for some
piece of BY-land tat when I can buy PMR rigs with proven build quality
for coppers?
I think that most of the exPMR stuff I have seen is at least as deaf as it needs to be without being useless. The Chinese stuff is hopefully using more modern modern components than some twenty year old Motorola and the recent track record is for quite sensitive receivers compared to some of the better ham gear. Bear in mind that all the major manufacturers outsource to China. I have an AKD 4001 and an Ascom SE550 and wanted to line one up against them. £150 is not much when I spend close to £100 just for a tank of petrol and if it is a piece of junk there is always eBay. Someone has to be the first especially when the sceptics (and I am usually one) have preconceived ideas of how crap something is before they have seen any evidence either way. The 70MHz band has been completely ignored by the big Japanese manufacturers so why not give the Chinese some business, maybe next time they will do an all mode.
Having recently re-programmed and re-aligned some Motorola PMRs onto 4m using calibrated test gear, in my experience they are far from deaf. The squelch opens at 0.05 microvolts. Not only that but I suspect the selectivity is excellent as well. They really are very well designed and the build quality is superb.
Maybe some of the lower quality PMRs are not as good, but to compare Motorolas, however old, to these radios is, IMHO, a very bad example.
That aside, I have no doubt these Chinese radios, as the Wouxons have proven, are good value if you really do need a brand new radio and of course I welcome more activity on what is one of my favourite bands.
Can anybody point me to a design (preferably a kit) for a transverter
that is smaller, lighter and cheaper than the Spectrum kit?
Form an orderly queue! I have been told the problem with the Spectrum kit is reliability. The design is okay but the supplier may let you down. Can anyone confirm this? as it has put me off in the past. He did always seem a mite grumpy when I tried to ask questions at rallies in the dim and distant.
Form an orderly queue! I have been told the problem with the Spectrum
kit is reliability. The design is okay but the supplier may let you
down. Can anyone confirm this? as it has put me off in the past. He
did always seem a mite grumpy when I tried to ask questions at rallies
in the dim and distant.
I have encountered no such problem. He quoted me a 1 month lead time. In the event, a ready-built transverter was delivered to me in 2 weeks.
