First UHF Radio

My very first UHF radio was a version of the synthesised FM320 Australian UHF FM CB mobile made by Philips. This was a 70cm amateur version. It was called the FM321. It produced 4W on TX and used channel numbers. I remember someone from Philips discussing producing an amateur band version, at an IEE conference I think.

Ergonomically it was excellent. It only got used at home, never mobile. It worked some impressive DX on UHF FM simplex. I cannot remember when it was sold.

If I am honest this was one of the best radios I ever had. It had no memories, no fancy gismos, but it worked well.  If my memory serves me, I used this with a TV J-Beam antenna (hand rotated) which still had about 10dB gain in the 70cm amateur band.

Philips FM321 70cm mobile

The very first FM synthesised 70cm rig in the UK was made by Philips in Australia and was called the FM321. This 4W mobile was based on the very similar FM320 designed for the Australian UHF CB band. I owned an FM321 for a couple of years back in the early 1980s and really enjoyed using it on the UHF simplex channels and repeaters. Ergonomically it was excellent with simple up-down channel change and a decent volume control. It is a pity rigs are not made as simple as this today. No memories, no fuss.

From the home QTH and with just a hand rotated small vertical yagi I could work some impressive DX on FM on some days. That's the thing about 70cms: propagation changes within hours and often in very localised directions. When there was plenty of simplex activity it was very interesting watching propagation change and the maximum range change from maybe 30 miles to over 100.