MultiCom Jnr PMR 446 Radios

Reviewed By: Steve N

Review Date: 19/01/03

Having heard both good and bad things about PMR radio, I thought I’d try them out.    I remember using hand-held CB’s in the early 90’s, and performance with their telescopic antennas was good – but rubber ducks effectively made these radios useless.    Only recently I purchased two Eurosonic hand-helds – and again, whilst they’re fantastic little radios – performance using the supplied rubber-ducks was appalling.   With one user standing indoors, and another less than 50 meters away – we were already having problems talking.

Anyway – onto PMR.   I’d heard mixed reports – many people saying the cheap models were useless (comparing them to kids toys).   The MultiCom Jnr’s are priced at an intermediate level – at 99 UKP a pair, they’re considerably more expensive than the 30 UKP (a pair) toys, but – still considerably lower cost than the Motorola’s etc (at >100 UKP each).  

Initial impressions – they’re tiny!  And light too!    However, the plastic looks fairly low-cost, and this coupled with their light weight makes them initially feel like budget models.   However, their feature list contradicts this – with every function you could wish for being available (8 Channels, 32 Sub channels, scanning, paging function, VOX via headset … the list goes on).

I grabbed a friend (thanks James!) and we decided to take them out for a quick test.   When powered on – the MultiCom Jnr’s look quite nice, with a clear LCD screen backlit by red and green LED’s.     With few buttons, the advanced functions are selected via a menu system – and whilst a little baffling at first (we never read instructions), we quickly got the hang of it.

We were initially amazed at the audio quality - Absolutely crystal clear!   I’ve never heard any radios which compare to this in terms of absolute audio quality.    We started walking in opposite directions, James walking down the street, and myself taking an awkward route on a narrow path – with high buildings either side.   We walked away from each other for about 5 minutes – with no noticeable difference in audio quality or signal strength.    Neither of us could believe just how clear the audio was – even with considerable obstructions in the way (several streets between us – many houses).    At this point, CB hand-helds would have been useless.

A little further, and signal did start to decrease, with noise appearing in received audio.   However, we could always hear each other – and given the huge buildings either side of me, I wasn’t exactly surprised.    As soon as I reached an open area – signals were back to normal.   At this time we were a fair distance from each other – probably approaching a mile.   Still with streets and buildings between us – but both also stood in open space.

Continuing walking – the signal fluctuated fairly considerably.   We did lose each other a few times, and communication at one point became quite difficult.   However, overall – we could still hold a conversation, and we were unable to lose each other completely.

At this point, we had to call it a day – as I had an appointment elsewhere.   However – to be honest – I’d had enough exercise already, and they had already exceeded my expectations in terms of performance and range.

In summary – I still can’t believe how well these worked.   We did have some signal/reception problems, but this was long after I expected – and I was getting myself in the tightest of enclosed spaces just to test them – this probably isn’t considered ‘normal’ use!

We didn’t use any of the advanced functions – so I can’t comment on anything other than the basics.   However, initial impressions of ‘cheap plastic’ were very wrong – these radios are anything but cheap.   The lightweight nature actually adds to their ease of use – and with wrist straps and belt clips provided – you wouldn’t even know they were there.

In addition to wrist and belt clips, rechargeable batteries are also provided (Ni-MH) – plus two desktop stands/chargers and PSU’s.    This is a professional PMR system – equally at home in shopping centers (security) and for home/leisure/sports use.  

The only negative point I have is the plastic.   It is lightweight, and they feel fairly well built – but they just look like black boxes with LCD displays.   However, this is one negative point against many, many positives – and at this price I guess I shouldn’t even complain.

The MultiCom Jnr’s are essentially professional quality functional radios – they lack the pretty looks of radios aimed at the home/leisure market, but their performance and feature list more than make up for this.

Considering price, features and performance – I’d have to give these radios 9 out of 10.   The plastic case / styling being the only thing to detract from a full 10/10 – but again, in use –  you won’t even notice it.

Highly recommended.