Thread: What kinds of radios do people mostly run? Kitting out my D1...

Originally Posted by johntins

Anyone have experience with these? Personally, I can see issues when you upgrade to a new phone, but maybe they've thought of that. .....

My (eventual) plan is to get a smart phone connection for sat phone(eg. a sleeve) too.
Looked into a HF setup, and the install and setup make it about the same entry price anyhow .. so the sat phone route is predominantly for the purpose of compactness/portability.
The downside to the satphone route is just the cost of connectivity.
But for my purposes it'd only be for emergency comms anyhow when in remote areas.

The way I'm reading how they work tho is that, with the smart phone adapter, you don't need a sim card for the smart phone as the sat phone adapter device is the comms device(ie. like a modem) to transfer the data from the smart phone to the sat network.
So all you need is a charged up smart phone device.

So for the sleeve type device, upgrading your regular phone would really be inconsequential.
You'd just keep the smartphone that fits the sleeve, sim card is irrelevant as it's not needed, and your updated smartphone doesn't come into the equation for satphone connectivity.

This way you then maintain the satphone adapter AND the (now) old smartphone as the satphone device. You still bring your now updated smartphone with you for when you're in an area with phone reception.
Sat phone device(s) all stay safe in some nice hardened case for protection ... as it's really only for the purpose of occasional contact with the rest 'civilisation' and not your primary mode of comms.

That Iriduim Go device that Tombie linked too could be more practical overall tho.
I could imagine in some situations where satellite reception could be marginal and the transceiver device may need some elevation or something like that. That type of device would make it easier to place it in an optimal location(eg. top of vehicle , or up high on a pole/post/tree or whatever) and as long as the 30m reception to the smartphone device is maintained you don't need to risk safety to make a connection.

Depends on where you place the base unit.
I placed mine inside the glovebox, taped and zip tied to the dash metal mounting(ie. above the actual inside of the glovebox).
So it's hidden, and therefore the speaker is next to useless.

Only reason I got the 370 model was that Radio Parts had it on sale for the same price as the 330 unit, and it wasn't that much more than what you can find (say) on ebay and other internet sites. (plus I like to support local biznesses where I can too! )
My plan was to save those $'s and get the 330, knowing that for my use the built in speaker was going to be useless.

The mic speaker is definitely very good, both models have dynamic volume feature(increases in vol depending on volume/strength of incoming signal).

If you place the base unit somewhere more open, it's speaker unit is a bit better than the handset's speaker .. but very small percentages.
Only handy reasoning to have the 370 and have its base unit mounted somewhere open is that you can set the unit up to use both speakers at the same time ... sound is much better this way.

In a D1(even tho it's a Tdi) .. the advantage is probably not enough to warrant the added expense of the 370.
In an oldish(ie. loud) truck or any other loud machinery .. I'd say more so.

Vol level control I think goes from 0-20 of their units.
On the whole(using just the mic speaker) I set it to between 5-10. On rough gravel roads(ie. D1 drumming and various road induced noises) .. I usually set it to 15. 20 is 'too loud'.

I placed my mic unit on the RHS of the centre console right near my left knee as I drive.
Small ethernet plug popping out of the console to allow quick easy removal in suspicious locations .. and it's gives pretty good sound from down there.
When driving in convoy, and the likelyhood of comms is higher, I just place the mic unit over my left leg(for quick/easy access).

It also has an Aux out port, so that if you had a car stereo with an Aux input, you could run it via the stereo if need be.
I tried it, but didn't see any advantage, and it's more annoying not having quick easy access to the car stereo, that is switching between aux and radio(for me).

Considering they have a bluetooth system built into the unit .. I'm surprised they didn't use that feature for comms through a Bt enabled car stereo(ie. as your phone can do).

I'd say in terms of impressions made by the device, #1 is definitely the quality of the head/mic unit .. and #2 is the ability to easily setup those receive only channels via their app(and saving the units settings).