Hand Held UHF Decisions Decisions!

Can't help with the handhelds, but can help with the batteries. I run a digital camera with rechargeable AA's, and have bought 2 sets of batteries and a mains charger. The trick was to get a mains charger that runs off a 12V inverter plug, so the charger itself has 12V input. Mine is "Golden Power" brand. Then I got a cigarette lighter lead to connect the charger to the vehicle, and now I can charge one set of AA's while the camera is busy flattening the other set. The biggest advantage is that the rechargeables last a lot longer than the best alkaline AA's (I have 2200 mAh rechargeables from eBay).
Hope this helps when you use your new handhelds.

Preferably stick with units that have AA batteries, they tend to have higher capacity that AAA's & last longer between charging. The only time I would consider AAA's is if I had a 12V Charger or the unit can support an in car charging lead.

By the way charging 3 AA's is a pain in the neck because most chargers only charge 2 or 4 Batteries.

my 2c
Phil P

Hope this might explain a bit
The little ones are ok but i had some 3 watt little unidens they were good for about 2.5 kms on the beach, in the bush they were only any good for about a
1 km, my mate brought one from DS for $49 a uniden i dont know what watts it was but it was only good for about 0.5 of a km in the clear never took it bush.
I brought the big uniden for $349 a desent handheld and it has as good a range as
some fixed ones with small antennars.But it all comes down to what you what them to do.

MS the great thing about the 2watt Uniden UH-044XR is they are designed to take NiMh batteries and can be charged in place, so need to remove the batteries from the unit. My mate has a 2 watt and the improvement in performance over the 1 watt units is more than I expected.

I believe you can buy a car lead for the UH044 so you can power it from the lighter socket and recharge the batteries (make sure you use rechargable batteries in it if running from external power).

Hey there MS,
This is actually my dads member name (im not a member) but i work at T***Y E*******ICS which is same as d*e as you probably know. The uniden UH-044 is so much better than the cheaper unidens(036). We have had a few problems with the half watt'rs and the reason that the 1w(uh-041) unidens come with rechargeable batteries and desktop charger is because they are compromising for the lack of quality in the units. they may look small and friendly but the 044 is a much better unit to buy even if they are $158 at the moment. i have not seen a 2w (uh-044) come back into the store and my dad has one when he goes out on his trips. The digitor 40ch communicator(d1794) is also a good buy for the kids it is sturdy, well built and is easy to use comes with a belt clip and wrist strap and can sustain a splash of water. it is on special at the moment and a good buy as unlike some cheaper units has all the bells and whistles that you could need and the price its because digitor is d*e and ta**ys home brand you can also get a cigarette adaptor for the digitor and one for the uniden 044 as well and you could plug them both in with a cig double adaptor

there is only a couple of issues uniden 044 needs aa's and the digitor requires 4 aaa for operation. those batteries in NI-MH will cost you close to 50$ and you will need to buy the optional chargers which are about $20 for the digitor and $40 for the uniden
ps NickelMetalHydride batteries are the only way to go and could last up to 1000 recharges

armed with this your all good

the little fayd'away girl

We bought the 2 watt uniden jobbie for our trip to Frazer. We are now not going to bother putting a fixed unit in the car. We measured about 6 klms range on the beach which was not much different to our friends fixed unit. The great thing was that we could take it in to the house we rented and at anytime our friends could go outside to their 4x4 and call us. The batteries seemed to last forever. I am just not sure what the law is for holding it when your driving although you can put it on your lap and people can hear you quite well.

2 watts is not as good as 5watts
if you really want to get out get a 5 watt unit which can be selected to run on low power....more $$$ but a better unit in the end. My preference is rechrgeable battery and a separate battery carrier for AA just in case the rechargeable gives up when away from the car for too long

Those digitor and similar Toys are okay but you get what you pay for!

Yes, I think you missed the point. A Repeater has 24dp gain multi element beams on 50m towers and super sensitive receivers. Another handheld does not. And the point I'm trying to make is that 2 x radios, chargers, handsfree vox sets all for $89 that will do handheld to handheld over those distances is bloody amazing.