We did a hilltop test on 70cm simplex with 5w handies from Cockleroy Hill in West Lothian through the Pentland hills to a set on the other side. FM was barely readable through the white noise. DMR was OK. NXDN was stereo FM quality!
Any line of sight obstruction such as buildings, trees, and hills severely diminish range on PMR sets but if you have good line of sight they can get good distance so 1/2 watt is not really the limiting factor it's the nature of the frequency used.
A PMR446 radio with less lossy co-ax would obviously work better, and no foreign interference to jam out local contacts, which is what CB is intended to be used for. It'd be interesting to see how 934MHz compares - if it was still legal of course. My furtheset contact on 934MHz, was Dunstable Downs Bedfordshire, to Winter Hill Lancashire, 150 miles/240km, in lift conditions, Cybernet Delta 1, 5 watts into a colinear, but the range was surprisingly good even in flat conditions.. The uhf CB allocation in Oz & NZ is well established with hundreds of repeaters, and has more or less destroyed hf CB down under, as uhf is so good.
Glad ive seen this video i almost went to buy one of these,s be interesting to see on 70cm & what it like 4 meters was a better test & 934 Mhz cb radio sets ?
I got a one couple months ago it work great for a while then it’s no turn on and scan but went I try and talk to people on it I getting no we’re I think it could be pograming it’s ready to go in the bin
Lovely little radio but far too expensive 🤔 What radio was Mr Chippie using? I'm assuming it was a PMR handheld. The signal would be severely reduced by the metal body of the car, from experience simply getting out and transmitting next to the car would make a big difference.
Midland in the United States no longer manufacture CB equipment I believe, they're focused more on GMRS, a non test licenced system that allows up to 50 watts and repeater use in the same part of the spectrum as our "feeble" pmr. ... perhaps one day GMRS will catch on here?
Was looking forward to this but how disappointing given the cost of those units im struggling to see the point of these and the market for them. I think sales will be slow and they will drift into insignificance 😑
As always I try to sit on the fence & weigh up pro's & con's. I can see a use for a young family enjoying caravan holidays & using one of these as 'base' in a caravan rather than faffing around with a handheld & flat batteries....in the office of a small business, the staff having handhelds. We use those Retavis handhelds around the place...this is a one acre site....and one of these sets may help. The way we do communication here is that if someone is needed we can put a call out over the tannoy system (22 speakers).....that person then switches on a radio & calls back. Richard
Some people near me do something at 8pm on a Sunday on channel 8 pmr called the 8at8 call buy ham radio users who can puch more than 0.5 Watts just walk all over everyone's fun
It's a snag & these pirates don't realise/care about implications of legitimate other (especially small business) users not getting important messages. Richard
This is most certainly not PMR446 UK Legal as it has to have a FIXED antenna! "All equipment for use on PMR446 frequencies is required to be in hand portable / walkie-talkie form, feature a fixed integral antenna and operate with an effective radiated power not exceeding 500mW (0.5 watts), while the use of base station, mobile radio, repeater or fixed infrastructure is specifically excluded."
For the money and effort I really don't see the point to these radio's, at leat give them a couple of watts and ariel socket, same goes for the 446 handhelds, good test and range review to the bottom of our street lol
It's a 0.5W service. It has to be a tethered aerial to fulfil the rules of 'non removeable aerial'. I recall we maganed 2.5 miles on it, so considering it's supposed to be an 'on site service' the radio went far & beyond it. Yes, very expensive but does have it's applications. Richard, G0OJF, UK
@@ukfmcbradioservicingTango21 PMR446 is starting to get a larger audience, on my little Midland Handheld I'm picking up a lot more people, they cant hear me but I can hear them some of them 10 miles + and very clear, I'm afraid a lot of people are breaking the law and using these Baofengs UV-5R which are 5 watt radios and very cheap, channels 1-4 they leave alone for the Bars, shops and other business but Ive found a lot of local networking on Channels 6,8 and 10
Well that's up to the individual. Licensed since 1979 most of my interest is UHF & most of my gear is ex business radio. On/off/volume/sq/channel...as simple as that Richard, G0OJF
i think it would be work well, when you but the antenna outside....
Good video and like the idea of these radios, if it came with all 16 channels and was only about £80 I would get one.
We did a hilltop test on 70cm simplex with 5w handies from Cockleroy Hill in West Lothian through the Pentland hills to a set on the other side. FM was barely readable through the white noise. DMR was OK. NXDN was stereo FM quality!
Any line of sight obstruction such as buildings, trees, and hills severely diminish range on PMR sets but if you have good line of sight they can get good distance so 1/2 watt is not really the limiting factor it's the nature of the frequency used.
A PMR446 radio with less lossy co-ax would obviously work better, and no foreign interference to jam out local contacts, which is what CB is intended to be used for. It'd be interesting to see how 934MHz compares - if it was still legal of course. My furtheset contact on 934MHz, was Dunstable Downs Bedfordshire, to Winter Hill Lancashire, 150 miles/240km, in lift conditions, Cybernet Delta 1, 5 watts into a colinear, but the range was surprisingly good even in flat conditions.. The uhf CB allocation in Oz & NZ is well established with hundreds of repeaters, and has more or less destroyed hf CB down under, as uhf is so good.
Here in the U.S., we have GMRS, which has repeaters at 462/467MHz. It seems the service is exploding here every day!
Height above ground is everything.
These sets still seem to be selling well at over £150 2 years later
Nice looking radio Richard
Glad ive seen this video i almost went to buy one of these,s be interesting to see on 70cm & what it like 4 meters was a better test & 934 Mhz cb radio sets ?
I got a one couple months ago it work great for a while then it’s no turn on and scan but went I try and talk to people on it I getting no we’re I think it could be pograming it’s ready to go in the bin
Lovely little radio but far too expensive 🤔
What radio was Mr Chippie using? I'm assuming it was a PMR handheld. The signal would be severely reduced by the metal body of the car, from experience simply getting out and transmitting next to the car would make a big difference.
No Delboy, he's using an identical set with the magmount on the car roof right in the centre.
Richard
@@ukfmcbradioservicingTango21 well that is disappointing then. I honestly thought they would work better than that. 😮
Do you have the programming software for the GB1? I bought the programming kit, and the software disc came blank so I haven’t got the install file 🙈
Negative, I thought these just worked out of the box like mine did.
Richard
Midland in the United States no longer manufacture CB equipment I believe, they're focused more on GMRS, a non test licenced system that allows up to 50 watts and repeater use in the same part of the spectrum as our "feeble" pmr. ... perhaps one day GMRS will catch on here?
What size antenna ? Was it 1/4 wave ? Would have expected a little better having used 70cm handhelds car to car in the past , maybe CTSS did not help
Yep, 1/4 wave. Next test without CTCSS
Richard
Was looking forward to this but how disappointing given the cost of those units im struggling to see the point of these and the market for them. I think sales will be slow and they will drift into insignificance 😑
As always I try to sit on the fence & weigh up pro's & con's. I can see a use for a young family enjoying caravan holidays & using one of these as 'base' in a caravan rather than faffing around with a handheld & flat batteries....in the office of a small business, the staff having handhelds. We use those Retavis handhelds around the place...this is a one acre site....and one of these sets may help.
The way we do communication here is that if someone is needed we can put a call out over the tannoy system (22 speakers).....that person then switches on a radio & calls back.
Richard
very pricey for what it is :(
Some people near me do something at 8pm on a Sunday on channel 8 pmr called the 8at8 call buy ham radio users who can puch more than 0.5 Watts just walk all over everyone's fun
It's a snag & these pirates don't realise/care about implications of legitimate other (especially small business) users not getting important messages.
Richard
I'm in Lincolnshire and I could hear someone in Hampshire on Channel 8 a few Sundays a go. 0.5w I don't think so.
That radio is a fail...
Use it for spares or just chuck it in the bin.
This is most certainly not PMR446 UK Legal as it has to have a FIXED antenna!
"All equipment for use on PMR446 frequencies is required to be in hand portable / walkie-talkie form, feature a fixed integral antenna and operate with an effective radiated power not exceeding 500mW (0.5 watts), while the use of base station, mobile radio, repeater or fixed infrastructure is specifically excluded."
It is a fixed antenna! 3.8 meter cable, and the connector is glued
@@koosme6624 Fixed means NON-Removable and permanently affixed to the unit as in being part of the unit that can not be removed.
For the money and effort I really don't see the point to these radio's, at leat give them a couple of watts and ariel socket, same goes for the 446 handhelds, good test and range review to the bottom of our street lol
It's a 0.5W service. It has to be a tethered aerial to fulfil the rules of 'non removeable aerial'. I recall we maganed 2.5 miles on it, so considering it's supposed to be an 'on site service' the radio went far & beyond it. Yes, very expensive but does have it's applications.
Richard, G0OJF, UK
@@ukfmcbradioservicingTango21 PMR446 is starting to get a larger audience, on my little Midland Handheld I'm picking up a lot more people, they cant hear me but I can hear them some of them 10 miles + and very clear, I'm afraid a lot of people are breaking the law and using these Baofengs UV-5R which are 5 watt radios and very cheap, channels 1-4 they leave alone for the Bars, shops and other business but Ive found a lot of local networking on Channels 6,8 and 10
Yeah, well high frequencies and 1/2 a watt, hopeless! You have more or less got to see each other at that power.
It's about time ham radio was made easier to use
Well that's up to the individual. Licensed since 1979 most of my interest is UHF & most of my gear is ex business radio. On/off/volume/sq/channel...as simple as that
Richard, G0OJF
Who in their right mind would buy one of these!? Complete waste of money. Sierra hotel one tango awful set
Very disappointing result, is everything being lost in the dreadful coax, the design and build of those units look as though they could do better
I reckon you are correct with the coax. To be fair, PMR446 is a 1/2W 'on site service', and this radio does that.
Richard
Just ben to eBay, and 120 quid for thta, no not a chance, far to expensive
I agree. Far too expensive.
Richard
Wow! That was absolutely terrible, instant industrial waste..🙂
Useless radio far to expensive