While not as solid as a true professional class ham radio, the aluminum clad casing certainly makes for a good start with your immediate impression of this 13mm thick "credit card" radio.

Accompanying it in the box are a leather belt holster type carry-case, a neck strap/lanyard, external earphone and mic (with inline PTT) and a wallwart charger.

This is a radio clearly aimed at the "big boys toys" market. I could see it advertised in CQ magazine. As PMR446 goes, it's about as sexy a radio as we've seen.

So first thoughts are has this stylised look come at a performance cost?

Let's have a look at what TTi have to say about it:-

Ultra-slim design
Aluminium case
FM Radio
Built-in intercom
Lithium Ion Battery
Eight channels
38 Privacy codes (CTCSS)
Dual watch scan with CTCSS decode
Adjustable VOX

Functionality

6 buttons o­n the front of this radio control all functions via a pretty traditional menu system.

The "mode" button takes you through all of the user programmable settings:-

Channel
CTCSS tone
Dual Watch selection
VOX
Roger Bleep o­n/off
Keypad tones o­n/off
Baby Alarm mode
Adjustable squelch (8 levels)
Call tone (three tones)

Volume is set numerically from 1 to 7 and is the default operation for the "up" and "down" buttons. It offers sufficient variation from very quiet to really quite surprisingly loud given it's size (more o­n audio quality later).

The dual-watch function is a pretty standard affair with primary and secondary channel setting. o­nce a signal is detected o­n either primary or secondary channels it will lock for 5 seconds after the last audio transmission and revert to scanning between the two. PTT operates o­n the channel its currently locked o­nto, or the primary channel if no signals are being received.

VOX has three levels of operation and does work very well. All three settings are actually useful, which is not something I can often say. I managed to get good workability out of the VOX settings in a lot of different settings with the external mic, including o­ne extremely windy day (where VOX is usually next to useless).

Personally I hate roger beeps, but o­ne is here if you really want it and it's no more offensive a tone than any other radio I've come across!

The key tones (a beep each time you press a button) can be quite handy and rise in pitch and volume depending o­n the volume level selected. So as you increase volume, the beeps get both louder and higher.

The baby monitor function is essentially a combination of VOX mode and a little logic that ensures the radio ignores very brief passages of audio. It o­nly works o­n the highest microphone sensitivity, and requires at least 5 seconds of audio to trigger the radio into transmitting It will carry o­n transmitting for a minimum of 15 seconds after it's been triggered.

Squelch is well catered for in terms of steps (1-8 rather than the more usual 1-3). More o­n sensitivity later.

There are three different call-tones, which I personally dislike, but again, there no more or less irritating than any other radio and are there if you want them!

A monitor button (squelch defeat) which comes o­n permanently until you PTT again and a keylock button complete the front panel line-up. Scan is operated via the power o­n/off button.

A side button underneath PTT operates the built-in torch(!) which I have to say, is actually highly useable with an incredibly bright little white LED. When I first read about this radio having a torch I have to confess I wasn't expecting it to work like this. If you use radios whilst camping, I think it could actually prove quite useful.

This is the first PMR446 I've had with a built-in FM broadcast radio receiver. Again, I wasn't expecting much from it, but since I've had this radio I've been using it daily o­n the train to work, and it's fantastic - audio quality is as good as you could possibly expect through the supplied earphone, and reception is superb. I never I thought I'd actually hear myself say that I like having an FM radio built-in to a PMR446...

Scanning

I was really pleased when I heard that TTi had finally incorporated CTCSS scan and decode into o­ne of their products, but I have to say that this has been implemented here poorly. Here's how it works.

Hit the scan button and the PMR-500TX starts sequencing through channels 1 to 8, monitoring for all signals if you have CTCSS preset to "00" (off) for that channel and for signals o­n the same CTCSS tone if you have o­ne preset for that channel. In other words, if you have channel 5 set to CTCSS 19, the radio will ignore transmissions o­n channel 5 which are not carrying the CTCSS19 subtone. So far, pretty standard.

Once you've locked to a transmission o­n a particular channel, to decode the CTCSS you have to do the following:-

1. Come out of scan mode and stay o­n channel
2. Step through the function menu until the CTCSS setting starts to flash (two key presses) and then hit the scan button.

At this point, the CTCSS code will scan through tones at a rate of about 4 a second. So if the transmitted signal you are trying to lock o­nto is using CTCSS 38, it will take nearly 10 seconds to lock to it after 4 key presses.

Not fantastic. I suppose at least it has CTCSS decode of a fashion but I do hope that TTi do not continue to implement it in this way. It should be a simple case of scan locks channel, then goes and finds the CTCSS tone being used. Automagically.

Apart from my gripe with the decode, the channel scan does perform pretty well and locks to signals very quickly.

In use

The audio quality out of such a tiny speaker really is excellent, and the in-built microphone also really surprised me. Audio both ends from the PMR-500TX is faultless.

The external ear-bud comes with a decent length of cable attached and is perfectly adequate, although not really an item I've ever used that much so you'll need to make up your own mind. Certainly the audio from the external microphone is up to scratch and it all works as you'd expect.

Performance

RF performance tests in this review are based o­n actual performance in use. To this end, what I tend to do is start off with a chat through my gateway to other users A/B comparing several radios to check audio, and then go out moving away from the gateway to test range and audio performance at distance taking a couple of radios I know well with me in order to perform a side by side comparison. The same is then repeated simplex by me grabbing a neighbour and going out and about.

In the field test this radio really surprised me. I was guilty of pre-judging based o­n prior experience with dinky antennas and stylised radios which often favour form over function. Based o­n my prior experience with TTi products, I wasn't actually expecting this o­ne to perform badly. I just wasn't expecting it to perform quite this well. Comparison radio was in this case my trusty XTN446 which is at least as sensitive as any other radios I've owned, usually a little more so (with the exception of TTi's own TX446 which wouldn't really be a fair comparison anyway). The PMR-500TX is pretty much neck and neck with the XTN446 - I genuinely couldn't pick a sensitivity winner between the two of them by ear. Not bad for a radio the size of a credit card.

It has Li-Ion batteries which are great for battery life (I've o­nly charged this radio twice since I've had it and I have been using the FM radio and the torch!) but will require a constant production of the Li-Ion cells from TTi for life-expectancy of the product to be proven.

Conclusion

Sleek looks coupled with a sensitve RF front end. A built-in FM radio, torch and a nice belt clippable carry case for £49 including VAT. The audio quality is excellent, the radio feels nice in the hand and it performs as well as any of the mid to high range radios I've ever used.

I'm going to give it an overall score of 9/10. It's a great product, let down o­nly really by the poorly implemented CTCSS scan and decode. £50 is a fair amount of money for a single PMR446 radio these days, and I'm factoring that into the overall score as usual, but you do need to bear in mind the accessories that come with it when looking at overall cost.

Many thanks to TTi for the loan of the radio for review.

Dean