Magazine Radio/Electronic tests..waste of time??

I totally agree.

The mag tests smack off the mag paying lip service to a test - this enables them to slap a bit about it on the front cover - but not actually caring enough to carry it through properly. It damages the credibility of the mag.

With a test for hand helds they should take the full range, award overall best buys as well as best buys in price ranges etc. This way you could see if the extra £150 is worth it or not.


However the sets should still be tested for conforming to spec.
 
On the recent YM (but may have been PBO) they went through about 8 fixed sets, giving the virtues and each set was given at least one outstanding point, such as rotary channel select or full keypad entry.

The thing that almost had me writing the magazine was the glaring set that was missing, the navman 7200, which had every feature the tester liked on the other sets, but the 7200 had them all on the same set, except the remote mike (station?) feature.

It it competitively priced and is very intuitive, my only gripe being that to turn the light on you have to enter the menu's, which is a little daft if you are trying to turn it on in the dark!

But on track with the thread, I would like to know the sets were tested in lab conditions too, to know they do what they say they do. How much current they 'really' draw, how much power they really tx and how sensitive is the rx.

Any set can transmit across the harbour, a megaphone will do everything they test for or even two cups and a bit of string if you want to test at high power.

This does not require pages of unreadable data, a simple star system, 5 excellent and so on. This system is used on most specialist magazine tests and you can quickly get an idea what makes a good product. Items you can skimp on and items you really shouldn't.

Most of the YBW tests now appear to be done in an office either cutting and pasting from the products manual or website. Ok maybe not fair, but often I believe the tests should be preceded with 'advertising feature'.

Blatant plug, after opening up my older icom h/h to tighten the aerial nut, I can assure users you are paying for build quality, strength and after sales. Just thought I would add that, sorry!
 
And if they say waterproof, they should be tied to a bit of string and hung off the pontoon, powered up and left underwater for an hour and pulled straight out and used.

I wonder if all of them would still be working. Or do all life rafts have dry shelves!
 
Certainly Jon all of those things, but your last item...how far can I talk on it really requires bench tests of both TX power and RX sensitivity. There is no other fair and objective way of doing this unless you use a very large antenna range, such as they have in the Nevada desert.
As you say they rarely test all the models available, so this is unfair to those manufacturers or importers who get missed.
In fact your second item as well, how long will it last on a charge, has to be tested with a specific RX/TX duty cycle to make any sense at all.
Without being patronising, we all know that Icom products stand out. I have used Icom Amateur and PMR gear for as long as I can remember and never been disappointed..., but what makes it stand out technically...what makes it worth 200 quid more than the competition or whatever...it probably is..but I want to know in detail why it's better..and only technical testing can show this.
Whereas Icom makes professional radio gear, thats all they do mostly, I have grave doubts about the other Navigation Equipment manufacturers equipment.
Simply badging up a Chinese product with a famous name on it then charging an extra 150 quid for it.
These are the things tests should tell us. They should be able to tell us that radio A looks identical to Radios B and C inside and therefore we should buy radio B because it's Fifty quid cheaper.

Steve.
 
Can not argue with that.
Steve makes some very good and valid points I just worry about over complicating it for the bulk of the readers.
As a radio engineer all the techi stuff is fine by me.
I just worry that it may be off putting for most.
IMHO it needs to be in a non techi format, if that makes sense?

Lets hope Hugo and the others pick up on the concerns of their readers.

Regards
 
They dont need to be. The readership doesnt need to know the definitions of units like Watts, dBm, uV, etc.
It would be perfectly simple to collate the engineers results and have sliding scales of "goodness" 1 to 10 for all the main Parameters. or 1 to 25 in the case of fixed set power output.
Add up all these per radio gives you an overall technical score per rig.
The readership doesnt have to be any more involved than that.


Steve.
 
Thread duly read and understood. I am very keen that we keep evolving and developing the mag and threads like this are useful pointers to what we should be doing. However, I do feel obliged to point out that we don't operate in a perfect world. Manufacturers aren't always able to supply product, radio labs aren't always willing to carry out tests at short notice and we don't have limitless money or pages to throw at them. That said I will make it my mission to find ways of squeezing more out of the resources and pages we do have. One way of doing this is to tap into the huge reserve of knowledge on this forum. Can I take it you would respond positively to requests for assistance on projects like this, even if its just asking for your experiences of a particular product?

Hugo
 
With all due respect Hugo we were not asked to supply kit for this review.

Our marketing man contacted your mag when the review appeared to ask why certain kit was not included and why we were not asked to supply.

We will always send any and all kit required for such reveiws.
we are always very supportive of the mags.
Any company that does not is a tad fool hardy.

Also the fact that the review featured a radio no long available smacks of lack of research.

Hope that helps a bit

Regards
 
.........and I think they should come in a greater choice of colours...........and have extras to buy like mobile phones have........ and ideally a screen so you can "download" marine related porn. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif



(I got lost on page 1 /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif)
 
...........and ringtones........... gotta have ringtones /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
Whilst I know I would not be seen to give an un-bias view I am more than happy to help with the struture of the test and reviews.

Tests the show all of the features, good and bad.

Please feel free to contact me at any time if I can be of any help.

Regards
 
Jon,

This wasn't meant to be a dig at your or anyone else's company. It was simply a generic comment about the fact that we can't always get our hands on all the kit we would like to at the same time. By the same token there is a limit to the number of pages and therefore individual products we can cover in any one test. A truly comprehensive review of every VHF handheld on the market would take up half the issue. Invariably this means some get left out either out of choice or necessity.

However, I appreciate your offer of help and will be sure to get in touch the next time we carry out a VHF report.
 
\" radio engineers \" how to identify.

These will the 3 people who when they answer the phone will immediately tell you that
"it is on the bench at the moment"
"we are waiting for parts"
"we are waiting for a drawing"
'we have fixed it,but want to soak test a couple of days"
What they really mean is..............................
Its in the workshop somewhere but we have lost it
We have it in bits but have pinched some component to fix a set that has been here even longer than yours and the owner is going to sue.
We have not been near it since you bought it in, and said you needed it urgently for the weekend.That was two months ago.
We cannot find anything wrong with it you moron,but if we keep it a bit longer,we can charge you anyway.
"i am lazy idle so and so and if i could get a proper job then would I be doing this,[--word removed--],have just spilt my tea on that ancient marine radio,still who cares zzzzzzzzzzz...................... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Re: \" radio engineers \" how to identify.

I was going to fight you for this post, then I read

[ QUOTE ]
We have it in bits but have pinched some component to fix a set that has been here even longer than yours and the owner is going to sue

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, you win.
 
Re: \" radio engineers \" how to identify.

Tee hee...you know me so well...Sounds like I'm fixing CB's in 1977.
Another PA transistor....3 mins..(takes longer to take the covers off than do the job)...that'll be 25 quid Sir....ahhh...halcyon days.

But conversley from the engineers point of view, once you've fixed the bl**dy thing, then no matter what happens to the radio after that it will ALWAYS be your fault. It doesnt matter if the pillock grockle has taken the cover off, filled the thing full of meths, set light to it and danced up and down on it Hendrix style, the very fact that it doesnt work afterwards will be simply because you the poor engineer
fitted a new protection diode last week after the t*sser put it on the battery the wrong way round.

It's called the phsycology of service and is basically why we have to charge
exhorbitant fees to cover the wanton excesses of customer expectation.

Steve.
 
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