UHF Radios

gme or icon

are good

Hi Theo,

I am of the opinion that any of the brands of UHF Radios will perform OK, so it gets down to whatever individual features each provides, that helps you decide whatever is best for you.

I used a Uniden UH-100 UHF set for several years and it performed very well for what I used it for.

Recently I have upgraded my vehicle and my primary requirements was for a "remote head" unit to be able to install it in the more restricted space and therefore I chose a GME TX3420 to do the job.
Yep, it is an Australian produced unit for not that much extra than its competitors and fitted my requirements very well.
One little feature it has that I didn't even consider important was a priority channel.
You set whatever channel you require as the priority channel and even though you may be scanning the whole range, one press of the priority button on the mike head and it locks on to that channel. A very handy feature I have determined after playing with it.

So, I have made Doug (member) very happy as I have taken his advice on the GME unit as having a better range and being clearer audibly than its main (Japanese) competitor and also being Australian manufactured, must be a better unit.

So, Doug, if anything goes wrong with this unit, you are in for it:-)

Basically Theo, if you find a UHF set with the features you require at the most competitive price, you should be happy with your choice. They are all comparable in performance to within a couple of kilometre range, given the use of the same antenna.

By choice, I would agree if you can buy an Australian made unit (such as the GME) for a comparable price, for the features you deem important to you, it makes good sense to support a local manufacturer.


Bill.

GME TX4400,
Can't fault it.

GME consistently gets good raps in many forums re performance and value for money..... my 5W 6200 handheld seems a total winner. I did go to the Icom 400 Pro though for my incar unit, because it had a feature I was after.

If you go with any of the major brands you can't really go wrong. Uniden, GME, Icom, Motorola etc. Just look for a decent warranty as any brand can fail.

My advice would be, do a bit of research on common UHF features and decide what's important to you, if any. Think about the remote face, as someone else mentioned, especially if space is limited in your vehicle. My Uniden has wide band scanning to pick up Police and emergency services channels. I've mucked around with it but don't really use it. So it wouldn't bother me not to have it. Think about speakers. If it's noisy inside you vehicle you might want to think about an external speaker. Apart from those things, even the most basic units should offer the necessary features (channel scanning, squelch adjustment, duplex etc etc).

FWIW I have a Uniden UH-013. It was in my cruiser when I bought it, but I like the unit, and will probably buy another Uniden next time simply due to this one performing well.

Hope that helps.

matt

Go for Uniden..some purist are going to claim GME coz its made in Oz..in fact ALL components are sourced for O/S with a little bit of assembling and packaging here...

If you need it for remote travel ie Simpson desert, where your life may depend on it, get an ICOM 400 Pro plus a decent 5 watt hand held such as ICOM IC-41S or a GME 6200.

If your needs are less demanding anything will do.

Had an unfortunate experience of losing transmit on my GME 6200 on the first leg of a Simpson desert double crossing recently. Not a good experience. Now I am a firm believer that for remote area use a backup is needed and both in car and handheld should be the best available.

If I was getting another handheld it would be the ICOM.