Leaderboard

"Fact is I have found little difference in how well commercial grade and the evil bubble pack radios transmit and receive in most circumstances." I have to disagree. I have a Baofeng UV5R, and while somewhat "versatile" it is quirky, and certainly not built tough enough for any commercial duty I have ever seen radios in. As a ham rig, a scanner, a light duty GMRS radio...it's ok, but not great...but I didn't expect much for $42. There is not way any of these cheap chinese knock offs hold a candle to a Motorola or other real radio. There is a WORLD of difference in quality, all around operation, etc in this stuff and Motorola portable, of which I have several. The UV5R is very prone to noise, and other "trash" that degrades it's receive. The TX is rated at 4 watts, and I find it does 1.5 to 2 in hi power mode. I also have some Audiovox GMRS/FRS radios I have kept around for a number of years. They are supposed to do 3 watts in high power mode and I beleive they are close. I use them on vacation for car - to - car comms, and if I lose one, I am not out much. The UV5R I consider an intermediate "toy", and normally keep it at home just to listen on, but I only expect so much out of it. When the real work is done, I carry a Motorola. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, this is mine. I guess in summary.....just because a 1/2 Ton V6 Pickup can hitch to a big trailer, that doesn't mean you can pull it and don't need a 3/4 Ton Diesel! (Above mention of Motorola is in reference to Commercial/Professional Motorola radios - If I didn't make that clear).

they are more or less "toys" for the most part. half watt, 12.5 Kc's and the molded antenna doesn't help. just my thoughts

WB725NY is up and running. On my meter I have 25 Watts to the antenna, better than what I had hoped for. I didn't want to say anything prior to this out of fear that I may jynx myself but I have to send praise to the Ritron folks. They took in my machine after I had tried to align it and broke a VCO adjustment Pot. So I sent the entire radio to them for alignment, tuning of the duplexer and to have it set back to wide band. The technician at Ritron replaced the pot as an upgrade, they replaced the noisy fan with a very quiet new one, tuned the duplexer and set the transmit from 12 Watts to 25 (he said 20 so I will say my meter may be off). As of now it is running and sounding great for a total of $92.75 which includes the cost of shipping back to me. Good Job Ritron. Nice to see a company such as this. I will start some propogation testing as time allows and adjust the maping on this site accordingly. Bill And just if anyone is looking for a innexpensive repeater, with this work I am $325 into it. That doesn't count JohnE's time which is priceless.