Please can someone explain or recommend a Race Radio?
We have just purchase a Radio TM-271A Kenwood @ Ham Radio 2meters 60w, however it seams that it doesn’t have a good range for racing.
If some one is an expert or has some expertise with radios please help.
Budget was the main reason for this choice.

I just bought the same one. All the other guys we race with have the same one supposedly, guess its fine for just the smaller racing out in barstow and lucerne but i have not had any experience myself with them yet.

That is the radio we run in our car and it works awesome. You say it has a limited range for racing, what do you mean by this? Did you do the modification to get it onto the race frequencies? At the last 500 we had no problems talking with our crew who were on the highway towards ojos and we were at the starting line. At the races in the states we have constant radio reception(we do use a base antenna) around every course we race on(except behind superstition). Tell us your exact problems with it and maybe we can help.

Where did you buy the Kenwood and for how much? I'm looking into getting me one and was just wondering how much people are getting them for and where

sounds like the mod wasn't made for higher frequencies yet

When I say good range for racing it means that you can actually ear the signal, but not able to transmit. The range is about 25 mile in la Salada.
We modify the radio to get into the race frequency. We might have to buy a base antenna for our chasers.
For the price this works fine, however I wanted to know if there was any other type with in that price range that can actually work better.
Some guy posted that a really good race radio must transmit in ranges of 176 - 178 mhz, and according to the info for this radio It will transmit in ranges between 146 -148 Mhz. Don't know any thing about radios and just wanted to get some input form you guys.

The radio was purshase at Ham Radio.
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160 + antenna + tax: 220 + 5 bucks for frecuency mod.

The specs on the radio regarding the mhz is before the modification. After the mod you jump that range up. Those ranges though are the frequencies and really don't have anything to do with transmitting power. Your power comes from the wattage. The more watts the stronger the radio. Do you have the radio wired directly to your battery? Running the radio any other way will decrease it's effectiveness. You may also notice that you lose signal strenghth when you have more electrical accesories running(such as at night). Another factor would be saturation. If you are in area with alot of radios your radios effectiveness will go down.
As for a base antenna I highly recommend it for pits that will not be moving. Ours is approximately 40 ft. tall. We purchased it from RLH Communications in Chula Vista from Radio Bob. He is a salty old guy but he knows his radios.
Other than that your only real option for high powered radios is to step it up to the 110 watt Kenwood that all the big name racers use. Be ready to spend about $1000 though. The radios PCI sells(The Vertex, roadmaster and Icom) all work well but I have not seen a greatly significant performance gain from these radios to justify the extra cost for a team on a budget.

Check out www.ruggedraceproducts.com they manufacture a lot of the components that PCI and RacerX sell. Their radios are less expensive as well.

In the race car is wire directly to the Battery.
In the of my Truck I install the radio with a lighter plug. Much easier to connect and disconnect.
Do you have the address and Phone number of RLH Communications.
How much did you pay for the base antenna?

Thanks guys for your help

RLH Communications
3633 Peach Blossom
National City, CA. 91950
(619)479 - 8855

I don't remember what we paid exactly, maybe Jeremy will chime in. I think it was between 2 and 3 hundred.

http://www.rlhcomm.com/new/index.html

We have one of our chase radios wired through a cigarette lighter plug as well and it works fine.

I'm selling two of the kenwoods. One was in the race car the other was a chase radio. I also have a yeusa. All of them are $75 with antenna included and the kenwoods are modded already. Contact Mike @ 619-917-3487 if interested. I'm in San Diego and could ship the radios cheaply but the antenna are more difficult.