I have noticed that some amateur radio HTs now have more than the typical 5 watts on VHF and 4 watts on UHF that many Japanese HTs seemed to have had in the past. My pessimistic self tells me that it is all about marketing and larger numbers equals a "better" radio to some potential buyers. However, I could be way off base on that. Has anybody here used one of the higher powered HTs? Do they perform much better? I assume that if they are used on battery power at the higher level that battery is going to be depleted pretty quickly with a fair amount of transmit time.
Amateur Radio HTs With More Than Five Watts Of Transmit Power
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kayn1n32008
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It is marketing. A 25 w portable in the same case as a 5w portable is going to just go through batteries faster, and generate significantly more heat.
Zero gained with a portable that puts out more than 5 watts. Regardless of what the Baofengqueens claim.
Zero gained with a portable that puts out more than 5 watts. Regardless of what the Baofengqueens claim.
I know a guy that purchased one of those 8W China made radios. While he was talking to me it would shock his hand. Seems like it has built-in Pavlov conditioning. He stopped using it.
I often use the lowest power I can. This means 2.5 - 3W around here typically gets right into the repeaters. 1W works, but one would need to be outdoors. People really should experiment with less power in their usual locale. I am unsure why many people feel they need to push so much power and then complain about the terrible battery life. Again, everyone's area is different so test, test, test and spend money on a better antenna over a higher power radio.
I often use the lowest power I can. This means 2.5 - 3W around here typically gets right into the repeaters. 1W works, but one would need to be outdoors. People really should experiment with less power in their usual locale. I am unsure why many people feel they need to push so much power and then complain about the terrible battery life. Again, everyone's area is different so test, test, test and spend money on a better antenna over a higher power radio.
I purchased a 12 watt Baofeng handheld that was advertised on Ebay. On multiple watt meters, it does 5-6 watts.
You can put a better antenna on the same radio to get the same effect. A 3dB gain antenna on a 5W radio would have (essentially) the same effect as a 0dB antenna on a 10W radio.
nd5y
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That's not a shock its an RF burn. It can happen with way less than 8 W.
NC1
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That is what I am hearing. However, I have a couple Baofeng radios and tested them out on a bunch of frequencies throughout the VHF and UHF bands and I noticed a pattern immediately. I took about 40 frequencies evenly spaced from the low end of VHF to the high end and put my meter on the antenna cable which went into a dummy load. What I noticed is some radios ( all 5W) will put out 6 or 7 watts on certain frequencies while the rest will go down on either side of those "peak" frequencies and bottom out around 3.5W the further I got away from the 6 or 7 watt frequencies. The same goes for the UHF side.
This "peak" differs from radio to radio and you will have to check yours to find the sweet spot. What I would like to know is if there is an adjustment to change the sweet spot from one point to another. For example: if the radio likes to do 7 watts on 158.500, can I move it to the amateur band around 147.200? This might be worth looking into.
nd5y
Member
That's probably because of the filtering in each radio is different due to component tolerances or due to poor quality control.
You could probably fix it if you had factory calibration software.
Check out this tune up procedure for the UV-82. Notice the screen shot of power adjustment software.
If they did this to each unit the power would probably be constant across the entire frequency range.
Who knows if they have the same thing for all their models or what the other clone manufacturers do.
They probably don't bother properly aligning each unit on the assembly line because it wastes time and money.
If they to do anything at all they probably load a firmware image with default settings that they think are average and good enough most radios.
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kayn1n32008
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In order to increase range in any Meaningful way, you will need to increase your transmitter power a minimum of 4 times(6dB) with all other parts of the system being equal.
25w radio 100w, or a 50w radio to 200w.
I'm tempted to buy one of these: Luiton 25W two way radio, Super high battery with 4000mAh
I'd be adding another novelty to my collection. (Like I have a yellow Baofeng because it was yellow) - I'd use the 25 Watter as a mobile with external power a speaker mike and connected to an external antenna. (Like I'm sure it's meant to be used).
I'd be adding another novelty to my collection. (Like I have a yellow Baofeng because it was yellow) - I'd use the 25 Watter as a mobile with external power a speaker mike and connected to an external antenna. (Like I'm sure it's meant to be used).
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
A couple of observations:
-The people that would buy a high powered hand held radio wouldn't care. There's a lack of understanding on many levels.
-I doubt any of these CCR's actually put out anything near their claims.
-Heat buildup probably won't result in long life of the radio.
-This is the same sort of thought process that lead people to install linear amplifiers on their CB radios back in the day, then hook them up to the cheapest/crappiest antennas they could find. -lack of understanding again.-
-Sometimes we need to just get out of the way and let Darwin do his work.
Starion
Member
FYI The Icom IC-86 2 meter handheld radio can transmit at 7, 5.5, 2.5 and 0.5 watts. I knew someone who had an older Icom handheld radio that put out 5.5 watts. He said the radio got hot after using it for a few minutes.
kayn1n32008
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Pretty much any hammy radio is going to get hot at 5w.
FYI, you transmit 0m further at 7 w than you do at 5w and maybe a couple of metres further than at 3.5w.
NC1
Member
If better range is the goal, get the 8W handheld and then buy the highest gain antenna you can. Figure out where the antenna will be installed and run a very low loss cable using the shortest route possible. This goes for both mobile or base installations.
Lets use a base installation for example: an 8W talkie hooked up to a 30 foot cable and then to an antenna that has an 8.7dB gain on VHF.
So I buy an antenna (Tram 1481) with a VHF gain of 8.7dB. Then I have a 30ft run of RG-213/U. And lets say my SWR is 0.5:1
I have 8W into the cable, my cable and SWR combined loss is 0.9dB, so the power going into the bottom of the antenna is 6.5 Watts.
The antenna gain is 8.7dB, which makes my Effective Radiated Power (ERP) a whopping 48.3 watts!
Given the same scenario and the radio were only 5 Watts, I would still have a 30.2 Watts ERP.
That is the difference 3 watts will make when you use top quality cable and an antenna with decent gain.
Lets use a base installation for example: an 8W talkie hooked up to a 30 foot cable and then to an antenna that has an 8.7dB gain on VHF.
So I buy an antenna (Tram 1481) with a VHF gain of 8.7dB. Then I have a 30ft run of RG-213/U. And lets say my SWR is 0.5:1
I have 8W into the cable, my cable and SWR combined loss is 0.9dB, so the power going into the bottom of the antenna is 6.5 Watts.
The antenna gain is 8.7dB, which makes my Effective Radiated Power (ERP) a whopping 48.3 watts!
Given the same scenario and the radio were only 5 Watts, I would still have a 30.2 Watts ERP.
That is the difference 3 watts will make when you use top quality cable and an antenna with decent gain.
I read a review on this rig somewhere else.. (can't find it now). As a side note, the radio does come with a tiny cooling fan built in
How about a 2kW backpack radio?
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