October 21, 2010

Starting my own aerial farm


A nice aerial farm at a gathering of Land Rover products. My Jeep has now started its own farmlet (see small photo below right)
The GME TX3220 fits perfectly in a Jeep's dash pocket
A few months ago, I posted these  thoughts on UHF radios. The availability in the dying weeks of 12.5% GST of a nice GME special package that basically included a free good quality matched aerial prompted me to take the plunge. The GME TX3220 is a compact unit less than half the size of the old GME AM set that served so well on the Land Rover. As the photo shows, it fits perfectly into a little dash pocket on the Jeep, unobtrusive and out of the way. The guys at Motortech 4x4  made up a nice mounting bracket that fits onto existing bolt holes, so no sheet metal was penetrated during the installation of the product! I'm impressed by the strength and quality of the signal the AE4012K2 aerial pulls in, despite not being mounted in the best position (ie the middle of the roof!). Although the unit is compact, even the clumsy-fingered should have no problem working the knobs and buttons. It's way better than trying to use a 2w hand-held for in-vehicle use.

The 5w unit is 29mm high, 129mm long, 117mm deep and weighs just 420g. It includes a speaker of decent quality, but there's a jack for an external speaker if needed. It comes with a strong mounting bracket if your 4x4 doesn't have a convenient little pocket to put it in. It quickly scans the 40 channels so you can hear all the inane babble, if that's your thing. GME often has special deals, so if a UHF radio is on your list, keep an eye out for the next one. Check also other good brands such as Uniden, Motorola, Midland and Oricom.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous's comment, for what it's worth, has been published without cleaning up the spelling or grammar.

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  2. Thanks for that posting. I also have a Wrangler and never thought of putting my compact Uniden in that pocket, but it would fit nicely. Presumably you've had no problem with it coming out?

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  3. William, I was originally going to use some Velcro to hold my radio tighter, but haven't bothered. The GME unit is snug and really secure in the pocket, partly because it's also held by the lip under the row of switches (see photo).

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  4. Dude, that pocket is where your MP3's supposed to go!

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  5. Thanks Fletch, but that's okay, I haven't even had MP1 or MP2 yet!

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