Recycled Radio: Baofeng GT-3TP Transceiver

Recycled Radio Series

Baofeng/Sainsonic GT-3TP High Power FM Transceiver

Price: £18 
Sold As: Used
Manufacturer: Baofeng/Sainsonic
Model: GT-3TP
Power: 1W low /4W medium /8W high
Band: 2M and 70cm 
Run By: 1800mAh 7.4V Lithium rechargeable battery
Antenna: Sainsonic INF-641 high gain
True Condition: Excellent. Almost new
Notable Features: 8W high power output, upgraded components, half decent antenna

Despite being second hand it's in excellent condition

First Impressions

It's not the first time I have owned a GT-3, I bought and returned a standard GT-3 MKII (4W) back to Amazon a few months ago and regretted it ever since.  I found that the standard version was really good in terms of transmit and recieve and the speaker was nice and loud.  I never had it long enough to do a review before returning it.

Time moves forward and I recently see this high power GT-3 on ebay. 

As I already own an 8W UV-5RTP I saw the benefits of having the extra power on board and fancied it.

The package arrived in very good condition. The seller had added extra padding to every part of the package which was a nice touch. Many sellers would not have bothered, but this extra work at least showed that some care was used.

The main Sainsonic/Baofeng original retail box was in pristine condition and hardly looked like it had been opened. I was quite surprised at that.

The inside of the box was just as impressive as the outside. Every single component which makes up the set was present and looked as if they had never been out of their packets. 

Even the LCD display had the screen protector still in place

I thoroughly checked the radio and it's accessories for any signs of wear or damage. I could not find one mark or blemish anywhere. I had to keep reminding myself that this radio was secondhand! 

This radio has been treated well in its life. It even has the original screen protector still stuck on.

The build quality of this rig is really good and it feels nice in the hand. 

I'm not going to start getting into a review here but what I will say is its a really good upgrade to the infamous UV-5R.

The battery that came with this radio seems in good condition and holds a charge as normal. Unfortunately the battery is not interchangeable with the UV-5R despite looking similar. 




Testing
As I currently don't own a power meter or even a decent video recorder I will hand the power testing over to lewis from Ringway Manchester He did a much better job than I could. 

GT-3 and GT-3TP Review and Power Tests

The test results were quite impressive. Both of the GT-3 MKII's are solid and high performing radios. 
Apparently the GT-3 has improved electronics to help with interference. I have definitely noticed less overloading from stronger signals. The radio seems to operate very smoothly.

Something should be said of the antenna, the Sainsonic INF-641. 
I really like this antenna, it's short, flexible and works really well.
As far as stock antennas go this is probably the best.

Switching the INF-641 for the after market Sainsonic INF-661 is a marginal improvement. The extra length of the 661 didn't seem to bring much to the party.

Overall I'm really happy with this purchase. 

Rating: ✅✅✅✅✅
Already a criticality acclaimed radio by those in the know, this rig is hard to beat in terms of good value performance and it's especially tasty for the price I paid for it. 



Special thanks to radio guru Lewis from Ringway Manchester  👍👍👍

Check out lewis other radio videos on YouTube. He knows his stuff!.......... Click the link Ringway Manchester

👍👍


#Update Jan 2017 - Having used this radio on a daily basis for the past few months I can safely say that this is the best radio I own. The only downside seems to be that the battery tends to die quicker than on the standard UV-5R (not sure why?) The RX and TX qualities of this radio are great.

Flashlight foolery on a foggy night..

Currently it's as foggy as a fart around Manchester and has been all day.
Its freezing cold, visibility through the fog is around 20ft and it all looks a bit eerie.
It was time to wheel out some high powered illumination and take advantage of the conditions.

As its so cold outside I won't mess about trying each and every torch I own, just my laser 303 and Excelvan UV will do.

Laser 303  - 50-70mW green laser

A short range shot straight into the bushes. All of my laser 303's are visible outside at night but shining them in the fog seems to fill in the gaps which are often seen along the beam.

Here on the long range test is the familiar green light sabre, this time much more defined. The photos don't do it any justice, the effect was actually quite stunning - but perhaps alarming to the unsuspecting dog walkers!



Excelvan/Floureon - UV/blue

The high powered Excelvan/Floureon flashlight really comes to life in the fog. The photo above shows the focus set it it's widest.

The UV light looked particularly eerie in the fog

The photo above shows a half way focus beam.  This beam was ultra visible for quite some distance.

And finally the Floureon was set to narrow focus. Much like the laser 303 I felt I was holding a huge light sabre. In normal conditions the Floureon does project a beam but it's never as intense looking as now. Much of the Floureons power is down to the 3x 18650 lithium batteries inside.
I really enjoyed testing this torch in the fog, waving it about I managed to Dazzler some poor sod walking his dogs. He said he thought the aliens had landed?! I said I'd have some of what he'd been smoking!


Unfortunately the photos were really crap and dont truly capture what was going on there. Nevermind.

HD DVR Dash Cam Review

HD DVR Dash Camera 

Price: £9.75 free shipping
Manufacturer: generic/unknown
Model: HD-DVR
Run By: 12V cig lighter socket or lithium battery (unknown capacity)
Vendor: seller via ebay
Description: High definition DVR recorder with night vision.

First Impressions
Dash cams are everywhere these days and are now they have become cheap enough for any budget. Disregarding high street stores, it's possible to buy a dash cam for as little as £7 which seems phenomenal value for a video recorder.
Of course the old adage of  "you get what you pay for" still applies here. The higher end cams can cost well over £100 so high quality components and video quality are expected.

At under a tenner this little dash cam seemed worth the gamble.
I have seen this exact model in a number of petrol stations at £20 so I consider this a bit of a bargain - that won't mean anything if it turns out to be crap! (spoiler)

This particular dash cam seemed quite a popular model and seemed to show up all over ebay and Amazon. It turns out that this model is only one of a group of generic dash cams which seems to appear the most.

The Postman comes

The dash cam arrived in a couple of days from a UK supplier.
The outer retail box has HD DVR plastered all over it so I was expecting some good quality video.
Elsewhere on the box was a list of the dash cam's features in bullet point form:
To save time here is a photo..

Inside the box besides the main camera was a 12V adapter for plugging into the car, a Nokia style phone battery, a thing for sticking it to your window and a crappy instruction booklet.

The HD DVR dash cam is constructed from old yogurt cartons by the looks of it. Not very strong and cheap in the extreme.
I don't imagine this device would survive many accidental drops to the floor.
The front face of unit features an array of LEDs and the main camera lens.  Nothing fancy whatsoever, just a row of standard 5mm IR diodes and a fairly standard lens aperture.

Memory Card slot

Underneath the dash cam lives the LCD display panel which conveniently folds away when not in use. It does have the ability to swivel 270° which could be considered as handy.

Much like the main case the LCD display is cheap and flimsy. Just how long it would last is anyone's guess. It's worse than the fold out displays that used to come with camcorders years ago.

Along one side of the device is a cover under which the USB power port and on the other lives the SD card port .
Curiously there is also a blank in the moulding where an HDMI socket should be??
Odd? I thought this was HD? come back to that later...

USB power on the left, a place for HDMI on the right

All in all this thing is pretty shocking when it comes build quality.
It's lightweight sure, but it also feels like a Poundland kids toy (no offence to Poundland there)
Pretty crap then

An interesting position

Testing
Well it's pretty bad to be honest. The camera is awful, the frame rate lacking and the sound quality is absolute shite.
What was I expecting....really?

Here are a couple of test videos highlighting the crap quality.
Each video was set to run for three mins each.
During that time not one car number plate could be identified! Really useful in an road incident situation I must say!

Glare and reflections on the M60 Motorway

Moisture in the air on the M56 motorway

The sound quality in both videos was dreadful, although that's not the most important part of a dash cam recording,

Whereas the all important video quality was pretty awful.  The camera lens didn't seem wide enough to get everything in shot and the low resolution ensured that I never got to make out any details. - and the frame rate was crap. 

Night Vision

Not exactly night vision. 

The IR diodes only illuminate a very short distance in front of the lens when recording at night. It's not that good really. Once the car heads off down a country lane without Street lights the video is hard to make out. 

Night  Shite Vision

Yeah I suppose its better than nothing and it's very cheap but if you had to use clips from this to bring a prosecution I would be very doubtful about its usefulness! 

Switching modes and making some still photos is a little better but equally as unsatisfying.

Reviewing saved memory clips is OK when in playback mode. Despite a lack of control buttons, it's relatively easy to scan through the videos and the picture quality doesn't seem as bad when viewed on the tiny screen.

Running the HD DVR on the internal battery 

One nice feature I thought was the ability to run this camera on an internal battery rather than be tethered to the cigarette lighter socket all the time. 

On a full charge the camera will record for about 30 mins before it dies and switches off.  - enough time to record any exterior damage in an incident etc. 

In playback mode the battery lasts for about 55 mins or so before giving up. 

Fake Nokia phone battery there

Does this dash cam have an identical twin?

Although not immediately obvious at first this dash cam has an identical twin.

This alternative dash cam features an HDMI socket so the pictures can be beamed straight on to your telly.....this is what the blank part was on the casing earlier. - where the HDMI goes.

Ultimately this means that the only way to view the recorded footage is by either watching it on the titchy screen or removing the SD card and sticking it in a laptop or PC - not as convenient as an HDMI connection on the cam. 

But really, it's no great loss considering the poor quality. Not worth hooking up to a bigger monitor anyway.

It keeps saying HD....

Is it really HD?

That depends on the interpretation of the word HD.

1080P this ain't!

720P.....maybe?, 

I can't be bothered to find out

Memory Card Buckaroo!

One rather annoying flaw in this dash cam is its memory card slot. 

Not only did I have to jam a piece of card between the slot and the case so it would recognise it, it actually spits the card back at you causing all recording to stop! 

Any random knock or bump to this device can cause the SD slot spring system to engage, forcing the card to eject and make the plastic cover fly open!  It can give you a little surprise much like the game Buckaroo does.

This dash cam is therefore unreliable (that's an understatement)

Overall it's probably not worth the tenner I spent on it and the time I spend writing this review.

Are all of these type of dash cams as bad as this one? Have I just got a bad one? 

At the end of my review something happened.....the silly little side cover broke off!

It just came off in my hand...

Time to chuck it in the back of the cupboard and walk away...

Rating: ✅ ✅ 2 out of 5

Bloody awful dash cam. 

I won't be using it anytime soon.

iMounTEK 8 LED Torch Review

Flashlight Fiesta


iMounTEK 8 LED Inspection Torch - mini review

Price: 99p free shipping

Manufacturer: iMounTEK

Model: Pocket light

Power: 8 x standard 5mm LEDs 4.5V

Run By: 3 X AAA

Burn Time: 11 hours from a fresh set of batteries

Description: Magnetic pocket work lamp

Shipped From: UK

Vendor: ebay seller

First Impressions

Following my last ebay haul I was left with a few quid burning a hole in my pocket so I choose to take a chance on this torch. At 99p it didn't seem to much of a risk.  I wasn't too bothered if it turned out to be crap.

The torch arrived after a couple of days as it was stocked in the UK - no extended delivery time from China for a change.

The pack is as simple as they come. A piece of card with a piece of moulded plastic slid over the top, nothing fancy.

Inside was a lightweight pen style torch.  Made from a low quality plastic and feeling a little cheap to the touch the construction leaves a lot to be desired.

The body of the the torch is a one piece affair with a screw cap battery cover which doubles as the one/off switch. 

The business end of the torch features 8 standard LEDs - no lens or reflector to be seen - this would suggest that the torch is more suited to close work applications than shining any kind of distance.

Along one side of the torch is a clip much like you would find on a pen, handy for strapping to a shirt or trouser pocket.

The iMounTEK  is described as being magnetic and this is evident by two such magnets cunningly placed on the side and on the bottom end cap.

Testing

As this torch is only effective at close quarter it was hardly worth testing outside in the bushes as I normally would.

Instead I stuck it to the fridge to test the magnets. The magnetic strength turned out to be OK but not the strongest by any means.

The light thrown out by this torch is quite bright really. Not at all like what I was expecting. 

I found the brightness to be adequate enough for emergencies.

The literature suggests that a fresh set of batteries will last around 11 hours which I haven't tried yet but I don't doubt it.

In terms of life expectancy then I would say that this torch would probably last a couple of years provided the case doesn't get damaged - this seems to be the weak point of the device. 

Its not the most attractive Flashlight, It's not a torch to get excited about but it does work as advertised and seems reliable at this early stage. Time will be the judge of that.


Rating: ✅✅✅
Hmm it's not too bad for a quid. It works and is bright enough for most things up close.
Cheap and cheerful

Biased and Incentivised Reviews

It has recently come to my attention that as my review tally on the blog gets bigger - the perception that I may be getting paid off could present itself to anyone who happens to read them

How does Aphoristic run the reviews?

1. Recieves free products from companies in return for a glowing review?

2. Is daft enough to buy every product out of his seemingly deep pockets?

Answer: 2 - every item that is 'reviewed' (if that's what you'd call them) is paid for out of my own pocket.
I have not been approached by any company to plug their gear unlike some blogs I could mention.
I'd like to think that an independent review is always a good review as they are not influenced by anyone else.
The reviews found on this blog are unbiased and all my own words.

To avoid having my house become a warehouse, many of the items are later sold on - this tends to go down well with girlfriend's.


Anyway, that's Incentivised reviews covered........next!

KT-908 Digital Themometer/Hygrometer Review

Price: £1.95  free shipping

Manufacturer: ?

Model: KT-908

Vendor: Ebay seller

Shipped From: UK

Description: Digital Themometer and Hygrometer

Features: Measures indoor and outdoor temperature.

Measures indoor humidity

Clock Inc date

What's in the package?: Themometer, outdoor sensor + cable, instructions

First Impressions

I'm not really sure what compelled me to bid on this item other than the fact that it seemed cheap at the time.

I suppose also it was out of curiosity, wondering how good a two quid Themometer would be.

The item arrived in just a couple of days. Flogged by a firm quite close by in Manchester. (I think they sent it first class?)

Better than waiting weeks on end for China post to show its face.

Inside the padded envelope was this neatly boxed Themometer device. I hadn't been expecting much to be honest, not for a couple of quid anyway. 

Instead I was greeted by a well design retail box, intelligible instructions and a good looking chunk of plastic posing as a measuring instrument.

The KT-908 promises to be both an internal/external Themometer and a Hygrometer in one. Just how good it would be in both disciplines was only a matter of fitting the little battery to find out.

But before any testing it was time to take a quick look around the device to see how well it is made.

This little device is quite small overall. In terms of thickness it is only a couple of centimetres deep. It's small enough to fit in the hand and weighs very little. 

The outer casing is made from a good quality plastic. Not like tough ABS plastic but good enough for the environments that its likely to be used in.

Controlling the device is carried out via the two blue buttons found on the front of the unit. These are made from rubber and feel positive when pressed. 

These blue buttons configure the settings and changes the modes. Simple but effective enough.

A large number LCD display is offered here and takes up much of the front of the unit. 

The contrast and clarity of this display is fantastic. Although it's not back lit in any way the ability to see numbers clearly in daylight from most viewing angles is surprising.  

According to the paperwork this device incorporates a power save feature. Although I'm not sure what the power draw is from the LCD I assume the power saver will help prolong the battery life.

Which leads me conveniently on to what actually powers the Themometer. 

Inside a small plastic cover on the back of the unit is a single button cell battery.  Obviously this thing doesn't have a huge energy requirement only 1.5v which came as a surprise to me. 

The last thing to look at on the main unit is the handy kick stand which tucks away nicely in the body. It's adjustable between two angle settings and has a positive click when shifting into position. Definitely not crap.

The external sensor cable is nothing special in appearance. The cable features a 3mm headphone jack at one end which plugs into the Themometer and a small metal sensor at the other for shoving outside for temperature measurements. 

Testing
This kind of testing doesn't require much involvement really, just popping the unit down on the counter and dangling the sensor cable through the window is enough.

Temperature updates happen every 5 seconds which isn't that bad.  Same with the humidity readings.
I can live with that, I don't think any of my other digital Themometers are any quicker.
Setting this unit along side another Themometer and comparing the readings went better than I had thought.
This cheap unit was just as accurate on both the indoor and outdoor readings. Far from crap

A couple of downsides I noticed during the test was the inability to store or save the max temp and humidity readings, and the annoying mode switching which takes place every five seconds. - basically, the time clock screen is switched with the date screen which is never ending and can't be stopped!

Overall this cheap little device does the business

Rating: ✅✅✅✅✅
This item gets a full five due to the fact that it was dirt cheap and actually works very well indeed.
I wouldn't hesitate in buying another if the need ever arose again
Recommended 👍

Tablet/iPhone Tool Kit Review

Tablet PC - Smart Phone Deluxe Tool Kit - mini review

Price: £1.75 free shipping

Manufacturer: made for MuchBuy

Description: Comprehensive tool kit for opening and repairing tablets and smart phones. 

Vendor: MuchBuy via ebay

Shipped From: USA

It was about time I got myself some decent pry tools. The amount of effort required and the resulting extra damage to plastic cases caused by using a piece of cutlery was getting ridiculous. I often have the covers of devices for various reasons and using a knife from the kitchen drawer just isn't right.
I saw this deluxe kit floating around on ebay. The price looked really good and the picture suggested that you get more tools than you would ever need (which turns out to be true).
It seemed a little daft not to buy one..
Delivery took a few weeks as the parcel had to come from the US.

There isn't much to say about the unboxing as there wasn't one.
So here is the contents of the plastic tool pouch....

Tool Kit Contents

• Fine bristle paint brush (dust removal)
• Needle nose Tweezers
• Glass sucker tool (for screen replacement)
• T0.8, T1.2  Torx screwdrivers
• Size 1.2 Philips head screwdriver
• Capacitive screen/Glass separator
• Long edge scraper/Spudger
• Flat plate metal Spudger
• Spade end metal Spudger
• Various sizes pry tools
• IPhone opening key
• Lint free cleaning cloth

Particulally useful tools

This pair of metal spudgers are the most durable and sturdy of all the pry tools in the pack. I don't think I need to use anything else for cover removal than these two really. 

This little selection is for changing a broken screen on a tablet or smartphone.  The sucker ring and screen separator tools are the most useful when fiddling about with capacitive screens. The little iPhone compartment key is handy as they always seem to get lost? (although nothing to do with screens)

When a metal Spudger is not a option and a softer, more gentle approach is needed then this plastic Spudger does the business. Yeah, it does look like an ice scraper for the car - another use for it maybe?


I think that overall this is a pretty tidy little kit with more than enough bits and pieces to get the job done.
The mixture of plastic and metal pry spudgers is useful.  The ability to switch from metal Spudger to plastic can be the difference between puncturing a lithium battery or not. - I don't want a venting battery in the living room.


Rating: ✅✅✅✅
A great value starter kit for any DIY tablet or smartphone project.  A surprising amount of stuff in one small bag!
Brilliant

Hilltop Radio Testing

Hilltop Radio Testing

Winter Hill, Horwich, UK

Height 400m+ ASL

Binatone 1100, GT-1 and UV-82+ standing by

I thought it was about time I headed back to Winter Hill after a four month hiatus.
One or two new radios have found their way into my collection since then and I was dying to see how they performed.
This time around I had a bunch of PMR rigs to test as well as some higher powered Baofeng offerings.

The little Binatone Latitudes were surprisingly good.

Weather conditions were not the best but plenty of signals came through regardless.
First of all I wanted to see how my relatively new Misuta UV-82+ would recieve long range stations.  (more on that later) but straight off the bat some very strong 20+ mile signals blasted through.

Manchester Airport 19 miles

The audio on the Misuta was great with only a touch of overload here and there.

Next up was my newest acquisition, the Pofung GT-1 with the crappy stock antenna installed. Opening a repeater 20 miles away is no problem especially with the added advantage of being at height. The antenna struggles more at normal levels. The audio was crisp, clear and loud. 

GB3PZ 70cm repeater - Dukinfield, 20 miles

Interference

There was the odd time when the dreaded overload came through and "drrrrrrrrd" it's way into my brain (I really hate that noise!) one example was when I was tuned in to the Manchester united security net. Every so often the choppy noise came in followed by one of the runways at Manchester airport. Totally drowning out the football stadium.

PMR446 Mhz

The 8 PMR channels were absolutely blowing smoke from up there! It was incredibly busy. Very difficult to get out to make a contact. I did get a shout back from a local guys a few miles away. Not quite the distance I was hoping for. It's always busy on PMR around that area so I was half expecting that. I did manage to test most of my PMR rigs for sensitivity. I found that if I ran auto scan on each handset and count the station hits then that might be a good test for measuring the radios. 

The best performing and seemingly more sensitive PMR radios

1. Goodmans GMPR116
2. Binatone latitude 150
3. Motorola TLKR T5
4. Binatone Action 1100

The result is a bit of a shock as I thought the Binatone 1100's were good but they turned out to be deaf when it came to listening out for stations.
No surprise that the goodmans was in first place.


Antenna swap-out
Before I gave up and came home I decided to fish out my long length antennas and see if I could pull in something further afield.
Strapping the hefty Retevis Elite to the UV-82+ was an instant improvement over the (pretty good) stock rubber duck. Running a channel scan resulted in more station hits than before. I heard the Liverpool and Llandudno repeaters but was unable to open Llandudno from this end - not enough power perhaps. In terms of distance then Llandudno is today's winner

Llandudno Repeater 58 miles

Misuta UV-82+ with the Retevis Elite antenna fitted

Switching the dreadful GT-1 stock antenna for the Sainsonic INF-661 was a vast improvement much like before. the extra length killed a lot of the static that was present with the stock. The Liverpool Repeater some 23 miles away was opened up and the recieved audio was nice and clear.

Liverpool Repeater 23 miles

Pofung GT-1 with the Sainsonic INF- 661 fitted

It hasn't been a bad trip up the hill. The radios performed well.