WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

After a bit of advice guys. This is gonna make me sound like a noob for sure.....lol

The Wagin Motorcycle Club is looking to purchase 4-6 handheld UHF radios to be used at out Pony Express Enduro's and Hyden Quad race. We used to have a set of uniden TX610 handheld but they have seemed to have been wanted by someone else more that us....apparently. So now we have to replace them.

We found the old hand helds did the job well, not perfect but probably good enough. They were fitted with rechargable batteries and were recharged the day before the event and most lasted the whole day of use. Only mine would go flat before the day was over, i assume because as clerk of course i was on it the most....makes sense to me. lol

So in short what we are looking for is 4-6 handheld UHF radios with an approx 10k range that can be recharged, that should last the whole day on a charge. One would probably be fitted with a headpeice for ease of use while the others would hopefully be fitted with external mic/speakers.

As usual we dont have buckets of spare money but there is no point buying a cheap version that will not do the job.

So my question to you, my all knowing friends, is What would you recommend for our situation? And what sort of cost per unit approx.

Cheers for your time.

Travis

xr8edute wrote: So my question to you, my all knowing friends, is What would you recommend for ou situation?

10Kms for all day is really pushing the abilities of these cheap little CBs. You should go for a larger unit like the GME TX6200 which has a bigger battery and can transmit at the full 5W.

The larger GME radios also have the advantage that should your club in the future outgrow UHF CB you can have the radio reprogrammed with a commercial channel with a repeater.

We just bought three UH076sx Uniden 5w handhelds to use at work, they are great.
Battery lasts a long time, and they are quite rugged and splash proof.

I wouldn't go past either GME or Uniden

If funds are an issue you could look at some of the models on eBay.
You can get some from China for around $100 each - 5w. There is one called the OMDI-40Ch UHFCB that is programmed only to Australian UHF CB channels, although I'm sure it could be reprogrammed if you needed to do it later down the track.

Would there be any issue with customs and programmable handhelds though?

yorky wrote:Would there be any issue with customs and programmable handhelds though?

No. They are quite popular with hams

Fair enough, I just keep hearing that programmable/Ham portables may need an appropriate license holder to import but I never saw proof of that.

yorky wrote:Fair enough, I just keep hearing that programmable/Ham portables may need an appropriate license holder to import but I never saw proof of that.

Importing them is easy. Nobody asked me for credentials for the ones I've ordered. How you use them is another thing. Using them on UHF CB is illegal because they don't comply - only approved CBs comply. If you have to program in each frequency in then it's a pretty good bet it isn't legal. It's also a pretty good bet that a large proportion of radios being used on CB channels aren't legal. That's evident from reading 4WD forums........
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