By Jason Reilly.....

 

Most UHF CB radios are designed to appeal to a broad cross section of the community. The hobbyist will want features such as scanning, the business user or primary producer wants a simple, no nonsense radio that is reliable and easy to use. They can be used as a home base or slung into a mobile. 

 

 

If you were a manufacturer of UHF CBs, wouldn't it make sense for you to make just one or two types of radio that would fit the needs of many? That's why it comes as a breath of fresh air to cast a glance over a radio that is oriented towards a more specific user.

 

 

Not many radios I've seen have been designed to be waterproof like this little water baby is. Sure, many of the high quality handhelds, with Icom HT's immediately coming to mind, have sealing gaskets, grommets and other rubbery bits to keep moisture at bay, but they could really only be described as splashproof. 

 

 

Here, Uniden have come up with a handheld that will withstand full immersion. "What's the use in that?" do I hear you ask. I've had my mobile phone go swimming before, and the feeling you get as you retrieve it from the water, carefully dry it off and hope that it will come back to life is not the most uplifting experience. My mobile has now earned itself the nickname of 'Lazarus'. This was just an isolated incident, but just imagine if you need reliable two way communications in or near a very wet environment. The newest handheld from Uniden should fit the bill nicely. The UH-054A is fully waterproof, and it's cousin the UH-054L is splashproof.

 

 

So, aside from this fairly unique property of being waterproof, what is the radio itself like? One of the first things you notice is how diminutive the radio is. With dimensions of 122mm (H) by 63 mm (W) by 32 mm (D) it fits into the hand nicely, and it won't weigh the belt down too much, either at 238 grams, and this includes the battery and antenna. The colour scheme is interesting: two tone grey with sporty purple coloured buttons. The radio immediately screams 'hey, I'm waterproof, take me anywhere' simply because of its looks and carefully chosen colours. Not only has the looks of the radio been carefully considered, but the ergonomics have been researched, too. I found myself comfortably able to operate all functions of the radio with one hand, either left or right. There are no functions that requires a two handed approach, which is an important consideration if you are using the radio when you need to keep a hand free while working or playing. The antenna supplied is nice 'n rubbery, very flexible, so it shouldn't be a problem in restricting your movement if worn on a belt or carried in a pocket. The belt clip although made of plastic, is strong and has an eye for attaching a hand carry strap. There is no provision for an external microphone input or speaker output, but I don't see that as a problem for a radio that is as small and as light as this. Top marks for ergonomics, Mr Uniden.

 

 

The top panel where the LCD display is located is angled at about 30 degrees, which aids in easy viewing, and the LCD display itself is very clear, doesn't tend to wash out in sunlight, is viewable at any angle, and has soft green backlighting for night time operation, which automatically operates for four seconds every time a button is pushed, but can not be locked on. The display shows the status of the radio at a glance: a large channel display; a battery bar graph, similar to those on a mobile phone; the memory scan status of each channel; weather or not repeater is selected for the first eight channels; low or high transmit power is selected; and a TX, scan and priority channel indicator.

 

 

The top third of the front panel is where you will find most of the buttons. A power on/off button is slightly more recessed than the others, and requires it to be positively held in for just over one second to turn the radio on or off, just the way it should be. When switching on the radio, a long beep is emitted to announce that it is ready for action. The beep is also heard whenever you press a button, and while you can't disable the beep, its volume is proportional to the volume you have set. The volume, and squelch for that matter, is set by pressing the appropriate button and using the channel up/down rocker switch to adjust the level. A corresponding bar graph on the LCD display will give a visual representation of the current setting. This arrangement for adjusting the volume and squelch is used to replace the more conventional twiddly dials, which would be difficult to waterproof. A duplex button is used to individually select which of the first eight channels are to be used for repeater operation, and a priority button below that is used to designate any of the 40 channels you want as a 'dual watch' priority and is also used to activate this feature which will check your priority channel every 1.5 seconds. A scan button sets the radio off scanning what ever channels you mark with the 'mem' button, and if you mark all 40 channels, it would take a little over three seconds to do so. High or low RF power can be selected by a bush button below the PTT, which is an instinctive place to put such a control.

 

 

Operation of the controls is easy and intuitive, I was able to work out 90 % of the controls and functions without even opening the instruction booklet, which is well written and provides some basic information on operating through a repeater and other safety information.

 

 

Below the keypad, is a speaker that sounds quite sharp with only a little distortion evident above two thirds of full volume (rated at 600 mW), which can only be expected considering its small size. Beneath this is the battery pack which partly slides into the body of the radio. The battery supplied with the radio is a 450 mAh 4.8 Volt pack which is a bit odd in its shape, and has a decent waterproofing grommet to keep moisture at bay. The battery life seems impressive, given the size and weight of the battery pack. I was able to use the radio on a full charge for receive only for half a day and have a good long chat at high power for half an hour after that. The battery meter on the LCD display gives an indication of the battery charge condition, which can help you manage your battery life. Once the battery charge is nearly exhausted, if you try to transmit, a beep from the radio will tell you that the battery needs recharging, and that the transmitter has been disabled due to the low voltage. This is a nice touch, no more talking into a dead radio and not receiving a reply. To recharge the radio, all you do is place the radio with battery attached, or the battery by itself into the drop in charger, which is supplied as standard. The battery will be ready for action again in about 15 hours.

 

 

The manual doesn't mention just how deep the radio is waterproof to, but I imagine that a metre or two would be the limit. The radio doesn't float, either, so if you drop it into deep water, you could be shedding a few tears.

 

 

Now on to how well the radio itself performs. The sensitivity is certainly pretty hot; the manual rates it at 0.15 uV SINAD, and the review radio was still hearing a signal at -128 dBm, which is pretty darn good. Power output on low was at 250 mW and just a touch over 1 W on high power. Frequency accuracy is good, remaining within +/- 250 Hz, even after an extended transmit time, in which the back diecast metal case half had barely warmed up. If you want to make an improvement over the standard quarter wave antenna, you will need to find one with a SMA male connector. Also bear in mind that the supplied antenna has a grommet built in, so any after market antenna will compromise the waterproofing ability of the unit. The adjacent channel rejection and blocking capabilities of this unit are about average for this sort of radio, which means that in a busy metropolitan area, some bleed through or other nasties will be evident, but on the whole, nothing out of the ordinary. Of more concern is the transmit deviation is a bit low. On the review unit, I had to talk very loudly directly into the microphone to be heard normally. I suspect that the waterproofing for the microphone is reducing the available voice going into it, and muffling the voice just a tad.

 

 

Included in with the radio is the standard battery pack, a drop in charger with AC adaptor, a waterproof antenna, and a wrist lanyard. As an option, you can also purchase a high capacity battery pack and a car cigarette lighter adaptor.

 

 

To sum up, this radio is ideal for snow skiers, bush walking, fishing, boating, plumbers and other outdoor workers, in fact anyone who needs reliable handheld communications near the water. It is easy to use, small and lightweight.