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Motorola Talkabout T5522
Motorola T5522. Sold in twin packs with rechargeable batteries and twin charger.
At the time of their introduction the T5522s were Motorola's most outlandishly styled consumer class PMR446 sets to date, with the volume control and the antenna unconventionally skewed off sideways at bizarre angles, and indeed the radio's overall appearance led one forum member to remark that it looked not unlike a lady's personal handbag item. But I find they do grow on you. Beside some of the newer Motorola models, even the rather thuggish T5522 looks almost beautiful.
I'll start with the bad points: The battery cover, like that on the T6222 and T5422, is thin and insubstantial with a too-small catch, but this one turns out to be the least worst of the three. It also has the same irritating pop-on belt clip as the T6222 and T5422 - I covered this in the T5422 review so I won't bang on about it again here. There's no attempt at a flat spot anywhere on the bottom of the bulbous, pear shaped body of this radio so it can't be stood up at all. The rubbery flap which is supposed to seal the accessory socket when it's not in use is so inflexible that it won't actually stay in position and so serves no real purpose. As usual for Motorola, the accessory connection is a proprietary, incompatible variation on a standard type, so if you like making your own audio accessories, you won't like these. This is one of several factors which make the radio awkward for gateway work, more below.
T5522s were originally fairly expensive with a RRP of around 100UKP per pair and I didn't know anyone wealthy enough to borrow one from until recently, when Motorola UK were kind enough to forward the samples reviewed here. I have to say that close up, they don't look or feel at all bad. The T5522 is a chunky, comfortable and nicely styled radio - and not too small (significantly bigger than the T6222). I haven't really been too impressed by the recent drive for minaturisation - there's a limit to how small you can make a speaker and still get decent audio from it. The real rotary on-off switch and volume control are a major bonus, and much appreciated. The front panel buttons are quite hard to push (so they can't be operated accidentally) but they are much more positive and tactile than those on the T6222. The PTT button is on the side. Yes, on the side.
What's in the pack:
2 Motorola T5522s, 1 twin mains desk charger, 2 special battery packs designed to fit into the space where three standard AA cells can also alternatively be fitted, 2 'adaptors' to allow the special batteries to be charged in the drop in charger on their own, 2 pop-on belt clips, one multilingual manual of which the first 19 pages are the English manual. The design of the radio and special battery packs is such that only the special batteries can be charged either in-radio (by dropping the radio into the twin desk charger) or in the charger by themselves. You can of course use three standard AA rechargeable cells, but if you do, you will have to charge them externally with your own charger. The twin desk 'pod' chargers for the T5422 and the T5522 seem identical despite the radios being quite different shapes, so you could mix and match T5422s and T5522s in a single communications setup, swapping and sharing chargers and battery packs at will. Battery life is stated as 30hrs with Alkalines and 12hrs with the supplied NiCd packs, both estimates being based on a 90 percent standby, 5 percent transmit, 5 percent receive duty cycle. Time to maximum charge for the NiCds is 14 hours and must not exceed 16 hours.
Quick Features:
8 Channels, 38 CTCSS tones (can be turned off) , Roger Beep (switchable) Key Beep (switchable) Call Tones (choice of 10). The key beep and roger beep seem to be controlled by the same 'flag', because turning off one turns off the other - you can't turn key beep off and roger beep on. Sound cues of all types are toggled on or off by turning on the radio while holding down the PLUS key. Turning them off also mutes in-menu audio so if you want to hear which call tone you are selecting, do it with key beep/roger beep turned on.
The radio also has VOX, which only (and automatically) works when the radio is used with an audio accessory mike or mike/earpiece. Vox has three levels of sensitivity, and the same sensitivity setting doubles as internal mike gain when there isn't an accessory plugged in. The radio has SCAN, as you'd expect, and CTCSS ident-and-show, an essential power-user/ enthusiast feature. There is a MON button, a keylock and a battery indicator and battery low warning tone. There's also a transmit indicator which could be useful if the radio is being keyed by something other than you - your computer, for example. Rather surprisingly, there's no S-meter. I had hoped Motorola would apologise for their sorry effort on the T6222 by introducing a proper segmented bargraph S-meter on subsequent high end models, but it looks as though we'll have to wait a little longer. Fans of the T6222 will also be surprised to know that there's no Vibracall or Vibra-alert - you have to go up to the next model up, the T5532, for that. Equally surprisingly, there's no pitch inversion voice scrambling on the T5522 -or- on the T5532.
Features in Detail:
ON/OFF
The genuine on/off volume control is a wonderful throwback to the days when all self-respecting radios had these. It's such a pleasure to be able to just twist-and-set rather than beeping or clicking my way inexorably up or down through digital steps. If I'm going to be really picky, though, (and I am), the rotary control featured here needs to be more heavily damped so it doesn't rotate or get turned on or off accidentally whilst in transit.
Menu features in order.
CHANNEL select from the 8 standard channels
CTCSS select tones from 1-38 or 0, 'CTCSS Off'
CALLTONES selection of 1-10 or 0, 'Calltone Off'
MIKE GAIN/VOX SENSITIVITY three levels.
Non-menu features in no particular order.
SCAN
Scan on this radio is a cut above the average, and in line with other higher-end Motorolas. Scan is started with a momentary press of the scan/MON button.
Each channel has its CTCSS tone individually defined. If you start scan when you are on a channel which has no CTCSS (CTCSS 0) selected, the radio will stop on all received transmissions regardless of the presence or absence of CTCSS. In this mode, the radio will also identify and show any CTCSS tone detected on the incoming signals.
If you start scan when you are on a channel which has a CTCSS tone set to something OTHER than zero, the radio will scan and only stop on transmissions which match the particular combinations of channels and tones programmed in your radio. If you have any of the channels set to CTCSS 0, the radio does not stop on ANY transmission on those channels. To clarify this:
IF the radio channels are programmed with:
1-18, 2-27, 3-34, 4-0, 5-0, 6-0, 7-3, 8-11,
-then the following conditions will apply to scanning, depending upon which channel you are on when you start scanning.
Starting scan when on channel 4, 5 or 6 will make the radio stop on all transmissions on all channels and identify the CTCSS tones on them (if any). If you press PTT while it's doing this, your radio adopts the CTCSS tone it was detecting just before you pressed PTT. This is only a temporary state of affairs, though... several seconds after you end your transmission, the radio resumes scanning again. I would have preferred it if pressing PTT had also automatically turned off scan, leaving you free to continue with the conversation on the channel/code the radio was receiving when you pressed PTT.
If you start scan when on channel 1, 2, 3, 7, or 8, the radio will only stop on channel 1 transmissions with CTCSS tone 18, only on channel 2 transmissions which have CTCSS tone 27, only on channel 3 transmissions which have CTCSS tone 34, will NOT stop on ANY transmission on channels 4, 5 or 6, will only stop on channel 7 transmissions with CTCSS tone 3, and on channel 8 transmissions with CTCSS tone 11.
Hope that makes sense. To move on from a transmission that the radio is paused on, you press PLUS or MINUS momentarily.
You can also drop a channel from the scan list temporarily - suppose SCAN keeps stopping on some active traffic that you really don't want to listen to - to drop that channel from the scan list you press and hold either MINUS or PLUS for at least three seconds while scan is paused on the transmission in question - that channel is then dropped from the scan list until you turn the radio off and on again.
BATTERY MONITOR/BATTERY LOW WARNING/TX TIMEOUT
The battery monitor is a three stage affair, which is good as it gives you a 'feel' for how fast the batteries are going down. Unfortunately the 'low' segment on the battery meter is also tied to the audible low battery warning, which can't be turned off, and gives an audible chirp after each transmission and every ten minutes in receive mode. This, coupled with the inevitable Motorola 60-second timeout, makes this radio a very poor choice as a gateway radio. on the T5422 there's a gimmick (described in the review of that radio) which allows you to turn off the timeout temporarily, but it doesn't work on the T5522.
KEYLOCK
Invoked/Revoked by pressing and holding the MENU button.
MON
As ever, opens the receiver squelch and the CTCSS audio gate so that the channel can be checked for activity before use, or in order to copy an exceptionally weak signal. It's on the same button as SCAN, so to invoke MON it has to be pressed and held for a second or so.
CALLTONE ('Musical Note' Button).
A single press sends your selected calltone. If you have calltone 0 selected in the menu, nothing happens when you press this.
Performance
Just from listening casually during the evenings and when out and about in the car, I came to the conclusion that the receiver sensitivity on the T5522 was somewhat better than average, perhaps on a par with Oregon Scientific's notoriously troublesome but sensitive TP-326. This view was reinforced when I took one on a receiver walk test along with a T5422 and the TP-326. They all turned out to be quite similar with any differences being so slight as to be difficult to call. I hadn't really expected anything less from a product from a company with Motorola's experience and expertise in the field. Transmit audio is full bodied and clear, as long as you have the mike gain set to 3 - setting it to 1 or 2 will usually only result in your transmitting with a lower than necessary level of deviation, although the lower settings may find applications in noiser environments where you will tend to talk louder and talk closer anyway. Judged on performance and features alone and leaving aside any minor concerns about physical quirks or pricing, these are radios that I'd be very happy to own and use myself. As a T6222 owner, my impression is that the T5522 has slightly more of a 'quality' feel to it, although it does lack some of the T6222's features.
Conclusion
As with the T5422s reviewed elsewhere, the T5522s are good radios somewhat spoilt by the asking price, and on a value for money basis for the RRP (Currently about 80UKP for the pair) I can only rate them 7 out of 10. The price HAS been higher though, they started with a RRP of about 100UKP, and the cheaper they get, the better they look. As with all Motorola sets, real-world prices seem to vary enormously, with the average E-tailer price being about 70-80UKP and in some cases as low as 50+UKP. If you dive in at the cheap end, make sure you're getting everything you are supposed to get, new and packaged (and not just the radios themselves, for example).
Prices quoted were correct at the time of writing, February 2004.
Once again, our thanks to Motorola UK for providing the review samples.
Added: Sunday, February 22, 2004
Reviewer: GrahamG
Score:  
hits: 43216
Language: eng
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Posted by Dean on Feb 25, 2004 - 09:17 PM
My score:
The 5522's compare very well really is the short answer. The main differences between them are the volume control \ power knob and the lack of vibrate. The T6222 is also more compact than the 5522's. Some users will prefer the 5522's because they are more orthodox in design with the PTT button on the left and the knob to control volume. Whilst I can see this and do like the side PTT I do prefer the T6222's mainly because the volume doesn't get knocked accidently and the center PTT button is easier to use in an aquapac. When i'm not using an aquapac I use a earpiece so the weight is a factor. The other thing, really its how I use it; the NiCd battery pack is a bit of a let down compared to the NiMh cells I use with the T6222's (they last a couple of days at least where as the NiCd's can go down in six hours. The annoying low battery warning when there is 1 bar left is annoying and because of the knob they often get turned on by mistake in transit (although all of them do). HTH Sam |
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