Hand held UHF

You can pay big dollars for a brand name 5w hand held but I have one of these for a few years and they work as well as others costing much much more. They also have some nice optional accessories like a speaker/mic.

Cheap 5W Hand Held UHF

This one is great value, I recently got one.

The good points are

-very cheap, works well, good reception and programmable for 100 channels, it will take the 80 channels that will be the CB standard one day, plus some extra channels for scanning, & it will take an external antenna. It is rechargable ( with an option of a car charger).

The bad points
Who knows about the warranty, it only has one scan mode, that scans all channels and it is slow ( 10 seconds for about 90 channels). You can not "label" channels ( not a biggie for CB use). And CTSS etc is hard to set up ( not that I have ever used that), & it's probably not certified for use in Australia.

IMO it is great as a second UHF for winching, spare etc, but I would miss a group scan and a faster open scan mode if it was my primary UHF.

Cheap UHF

I bought a Puxing 5w off ebay about 4 or 5 years ago and I use it almost every day hooking it up in the car to external antenna and it punches well and never missed a beat. from memory it was around $160 with all aussie channels and then some programed in. will take 128 channels

I bought a GME 6200 a few years back - has been very good. Has all the advanced functions. At the time I bought it, it was on a show special for $400 via a local retailer ...included the fast charging kit and leather case.... good value I thought. Claimed to be made in Oz........as I recall, I chose that over the Icom due to a better class of battery. It would seem that both makes have a rock solid reputation. You'd need to check on the status of units shipping now, re the new 80 channel system.
GME 6200.
Prestige Communications seem to set the standard for online value........
Prestige Comms

Motorola use to have a toughend model (mining etc) which I bought. I assume you can still buy it. Very good IMHO.

Hi Zorro

Yep it can be a can a worms ie Toyota v Nissan etc. I would strongly suggest that whatever you buy its rechargeable and has Li-on batteries, not nicads, AA or AAAs etc. You wont regret that choice.

Me I've got a GME, its robust, neat, small, slips into the pocket and after 2 years has never let me down.

cheers

I purchased a pair of Uniden ones cheaply some years ago (probably only 3 w - i can't find wattage on the unit). I think i got them from eBay. We have used them when a vehicle in a convoy moving oversized agricultural machinery when a vehicle doesn't have a working UHF fitted. They have proved quite satisfactory when convoy is spread over a few kilometres. I lent one to my son a couple of months ago during harvesting - and he lost it! Grrrrr.

Motherhen

What about upgradability when the new UHF standards arrive?

I did notice that the battery doesn't last very long. If it's on all day just the receiving uses up battery power yet alone transmitting on 5W. Great to have that extra power but I used mine of lower power settings most of the time.

Would get almost 1 day out of the battery and then recharge overnight. Eventually I bought a second battery because if you have a busy day on the radio the battery will die at the worst time.

EVERY 40 channel CB is about to become obsolete, when the new 80 channel units appear on the market.

You can already buy SOME vehicle 40 channel units that can be upgraded to 80 channels. If they don't put it in writing and publicly advertise, don't believe promises of "yeah, you can always add more channels " - they also have to add narrowband filters.

Once this becomes well-known, 40 channel units will sell at bargain prices.

It will still be legal to use 40 channel units until 2016.

They're still debating as to when it will become illegal to sell 40 channel CBs - maybe 12 months ?

It is illegal to operate on the new, additional channels until the government publishes the new class licence. That's why you can't buy 80 channel sets yet.

I have x2 Icom 41s Handhelds for a couple of years now,very well made and are told the military use them...They are upgradeable to the 80 system when ???? its eventually implemented,They come with great batts and i use one on an external RFI 6db areal,the other for out of vehicle issues...It will transmit at 5w just like any in car unit...Some people may tell you it wont but its wrong...The only reason it may not is if the batt may be flat but i havnt come across it....You get warning beeps if its going flat anyway and a voltage sign...

Another good point is you havnt the radio visible in your car all the time...

Goodluck