Last week I met Luca the CEO of BeeTAC an Italian company that mainly deals with communications, after the usual presentations I explained to him my passion for radio and above all the growing curiosity and interest in the digital radio world. Some time ago I bought two INRICO radio networks to try to understand how this new emerging market could involve our world (radio amateurs) and I realized that the points of contact towards this technology are really many and if we don’t approach with old pre-concepts the fields of use for radiomateurs can be interesting. After explaining my research to Luca, he offered to lend me two of their production radios and let me compare them with those already in my possession. At the beginning it was supposed to be a personal experience of pure curiosity but then I wondered if it was not appropriate to share these impressions and since in Italy it is difficult to find dealers offering this type of product, I take the chance!! In my contribution I want to compare my two INRICO T-320 and S200 radios with the two BeeTAC B550 and B996 radios, I must however premise that the BeeTAC radios are for professional use and therefore many comparisons cannot be made with the sisters INRICO but I believe that this exercise of mine can be an help to those who want to approach this world and are strongly undecided if and how to invest their own money. First of all, it must be said that all these radio networks are ultimately more or less advanced android phones and about the radio only has mechanical features and insulation and protection certifications. These radios without a server infrastructure behind them are of little use, there are private servers and public servers like zello, peanuts droidstar and others.
Here is a photo that shows them all together, note the differences in size.
I’ll start explaining the radios one at a time and finally give my judgment.
The points I will describe will all be related to use as a radio so I will not dwell on speed tests, graphics, cameras, etc.
INRICO T320
The radio is compact and with its desktop battery charger, very convenient because it can also be recharged on usb port but being a micro usb socket it is easy to break it (especially if you see little of it like me) about 2 hours and requires a USB battery charger to recharge and attach to the adapter supplied. The keyboard is very precise and pleasant to the touch and when using it is extremely comfortable, the 2.4QVGA 240 * 32 multi-point touch screen is the real Achilles heel of this radio, extremely inaccurate and very dark, in the light of the sun is almost unusable, I had to use an external keyboard to be able to prepare it for use. The operating system is ANDROID 7 and defends itself well with all the applications I downloaded from the store, thanks also to a good 1GHz MTK 6572 processor. A defect that I found and that is important for a radio is the volume management, it seems that in the INRICO brand it is a common defect because even the S200 does not use an intelligent solution, The volume is managed by an incremental encoder which however does not get along very well with the firmware in fact it often happens to raise the volume and for 2 or 3 click it lowers it then the system comes back to its senses and begins to raise it further I noticed (and it is the only model that has this defect) that when you put it in STBY with the screen off and the application running (e.g. DVswitch mobile or Echolink) in randomly produces a deafening whistle probably some larsen effect that can only be stopped by turning the LCD back on. I’ve tried all ways to fix it, updating the firmware and more but it seems to be a firmware problem. A very important observation regarding all these radios is related to battery consumption, normally we are used to considering a battery life in RX and one in TX precisely because a normal RTX has much more significant consumption in TX than the RX, in these radios this does not happen in fact if we do not take into account the fact that when listening there may be a slight increase in consumption due to the BF, the RX TX consumption is almost the same and in the case of our T320 a charged battery live one day and half without major difficulties. The battery is removable and custom with a capacity of 3500mAh. In the two models I tested the batteries are not interchangeable. I do not dwell on the cameras that for all models are quite scarce or non-existent.
I noticed that if you insert a microphone (not original) it gets very hot and the battery halves its duration, which does not happen with the brother S200
Finally the radio is declared IP54 military quality (but I did not have this feeling).
INRICO S200
The radio looks good, compact and nice resistant (it fell out of my belt by mistake and nothing was done) the plastics are pleasant to the touch and the feeling is more professional than the little brother T320. No classic telephone keypad but only 6 keys of which at least 4 are programmable. A nice PTT button on the left side stands out and is very comfortable even if a little hard to press.
The operating system is ANDROID 7 and no new versions are expected the processor 1GHz MTK 6737 is used. The feeling was, however, of a faster management of the processes compared to the T320 and above all there are not these moments where the radio “thinks” and stops and then starts again ????. The audio quality is very similar to its brother and I consider it satisfactory with a good exaltation of bass tones which on the radio does not hurt. Both radios have a loudspeaker speaker in the rear of the case, this in my opinion is an advantage because if you put it stretched out with the LCD supported, the sound continues to arrive loud and clear. In this model I have not encountered larsen or other effects during the STBY operations. In my opinion, a big defect has it in the volume knob, in fact while all the other radios have either encoders or UP DW keys in this radio the designers have opted for a potentiometer knob that in addition to the volume control also turns off the radio (like the old radios of yesteryear ????) the problem is that when you turn down the volume it is easy to turn off the radio and then to turn it back on and enter the communication app it takes at least 2-3 minutes, it has happened to me more than a few times and I have to say which is extremely annoying, it is true then you get used to it but for me it is not a useful shutdown system and I must say that when I bought it this feature was for the first 10 minutes one of the nicest things I had encountered .
It seems that at INRICO the management of the volume knob is a continuous problem with different solutions but always a bit critical.
The display is 3.1 inches with a quality absolutely not comparable to its brother t320, even in the sun it can be seen well (not very well) and can also be used outdoors. The Touchscreen is sufficiently precise, not like mobile phones but it allows me to use the on-screen keypad without much difficulty.
It does not come with a cradle for charging but only with a micro usb cable, I used it for some time but then I saw that in ebay the desk charger cost about € 30 and since the socket on the laptop was already damaging I opted for this choice, I did not like the fact that the manufacturer did not give the desktop battery charger but only as an option also because the S200 costs much more than the t320.
A nice note is that this radio has a high efficiency LED in the upper part of the chassis and only serves to flash a bit at random or if you receive messages it stays on steadily, the somewhat ridiculous thing is that it is so much strong that lights up a room in the dark … ..
The battery is also interchangeable on this model and also has an NFC antenna inside which I have never used and which for us radioamateurs is not a necessary feature. The battery is 4000 mAh and with a fairly intensive use it makes the radio last a day and a half almost like its brother.
Obviously all the radios tested here have WIFI IEEE 802.11 a / b / c / g / n and bluetooth, I do not dwell on the tests of these features because on all the radios I received excellent and absolutely comparable performance.
On the right side of the radio there is a Motorola M6 connector and the tests made did not give me any compatibility problems as with the previous T320 model.
The radio is declared IP54 but even here I did not get the feeling that this is true in practice.
BeeTAC B550
First of all, it should be remembered that this brand does not sell amateur radios but professional radios, so many aspects of the comparison cannot really be taken into consideration but must be reasoned and then it will be the reader to decide if that particular feature is useful to his own purpose or not.
Both radios come in Pelican-type plastic cases and this immediately increases the feeling of a product for a professional market.
The B550 radio is dimensionally very similar to the two little sisters INRICO and the plastics are equally well made, it is understood that it is a device for work in fact the first thing that catches the eye is the lack of the antenna (probably the Italian company considers the presence of the antenna a possible source of problems such as breaks, snags on clothes etc.). I was immediately alarmed and wanted to see if the reception performance could be compared with the previously tested radios. I calmed down after checking the signal strength of the same cell used for the other two and the wifi signal. On the other hand, cell phones today are all without antenna and the antenna is more a factor linked to the world of radio than to the network station (here you can see my limited ability to analyze being a radioamateur ????). The battery of the radio is removable and replaceable but unlike the previous ones in this radio as soon as the battery door is removed you will notice a soft plastic gasket that surrounds the entire perimeter of the battery compartment, a sign that the Italian brand pays great attention to the IP67 insulation factor that is declared, the feeling that this radio is more IP ???? than the others. The battery is a 3600mAh ion, a little smaller than the S200 but bigger than the T320.We keep in mind, however, that the little one from BeeTAC has a very small OLED screen and therefore the consumption of the radio is very limited, in fact the radio gave me great satisfaction in terms of battery life remaining operational for 2 consecutive days. But here is the positive and painful note at the same time: the LCD, in fact this radio does not have an LCD like the previous ones and the operating system can only be reached via USB with a special software or with the free COMMANDER software that replicates the Android screen of the radio on our PC, it is also without the touch screen and therefore the only input methods by the user if we do not want to connect a USB cable (or connect to wifi) are the buttons on the side of the radio and the knob on the top near the display, an encoder with a coaxial key. If we were to consider this radio on the same level as the previous ones, obviously for us end users there would be no history since it would not be easy to use, but if instead we place it in a work environment such as a construction site, a ship, a hotel, it would become certainly much more interesting indeed it would certainly outclass the previous two.
The operating system on the model I received for testing is ANDROID 5.x and it was explained to me that there is no intention of bringing the radio to more recent versions for now, given the particular use for which it was designed. I tried it with DVSwitch mobile and I must say that it performed very well. The radio is recharged with the same micro USB plug as the previous ones and with the same plug it is also programmed but in BeeTAC I was told that it is sold in a bundle with a desktop charger and in fact the radio has contacts in its lower part for the battery charge. This device is also equipped with a cellular connection up to 4G, bluetooth and wifi IEEE 802.11 a / b / c / g / n and as I said previously, all the performances in this area are comparable to the two radios previously seen. The audio is reproduced from a speaker placed in the front of the radio (like the radios we are used to using) and the quality of the audio I found it stronger and richer in bass tones than the other two perhaps precisely because having to work in prohibitive environments must “make itself felt”. Also here on the right side we find the Motorola M6 connector to connect the various microphones and earphones which, however, are sold as an option, unfortunately, but it does not seem to me that the cost is prohibitive. The processor is a 1GHz MTK6737M, so like the INRICO S200 and not having the graphics, it is used very little in normal radio work.
I won’t go any further in describing this radio because it is very specific and yet I must admit that when you use it and hold it in your hand you immediately understand that it is a work object and not a well-packaged toy.
BeeTAC B966
The radio immediately looks like a top level, I don’t know if the CEO Luca wanted to give me an entry level and the top level on purpose to make people understand the differences between the various products but this is certainly a muscle test! The dimensions are generous and the display is a very bright 4-inch gorilla glass and in the sun it does not go into crisis at all. The screen resolution is very high and immediately you have the feeling of being in front of a high-level device, even here it should be remembered that they are professional radios and that often they cannot be compared with market radios and if the B550 was inferior. at the previous INRICO this beats them all and by far.
Let’s start with the CPU which is an octacore MTK6761 2.0GHz, the operating system I tested is the ANDROID 10 so at the moment the latest version of this operating system. Also in this model the battery is removable and also here as in the previous one when you remove the battery compartment door you can see a generous seal, a sign of the attention of the Italian Brand, the battery is a 4500 mAh LIPO therefore far more big all the above but this is also due to the larger LCD screen and therefore with higher consumption, in fact the radio showed the same behavior as the two INRICOs, maintaining a charge for a whole day and a half. The audio is entrusted to a speaker under the large display which, despite being small in size, manages in an excellent way to meet the needs of professional use, in addition it is the only radio that I have tried to have a DUAL MIC that is a double microphone. with a noise reduction that really works wonders, in fact it has been designed specifically for noisy work environments, this feature in my opinion is also very interesting for us since ambient noise is always a problem when using the radio. Obviously, this radio also has the M6 connector for all accessories and three buttons under the display that can be configured by the user. At first I promised myself not to talk about micro SD cards, cameras, etc. but to stay more on an amateur radio field but with this radio I have to make an exception in fact the camera is an 8Mpixel that works well, obviously we are not in front of an iphone but compared to the previous ones which are embarrassing to say the least, this one defends itself. Despite having a rotary encoder in the upper part of the LCD, the volume is adjusted with two buttons on the left of the radio, near the large PTT button, it seems that the encoder is used by BeeTAC applications in the moment for professional use, I was still ensured that the encoder as well as the various keys can all be programmed by the user as desired. Also here, being a top of the range, it is supplied on a tactical case and with a desk battery charger and a practical and elegant USB C cable (finally !!!) for fast charging.
Overall a high-end radio that certainly satisfies the professional user and the most demanding radio amateur.I liked very much and perhaps the only sore point is the size because for my taste it is too big and I prefer a form factor like the inrico S200 which, however, does not even come close in quality.
And with this radio I finished my comparison, I hope you liked it and in any case it must be interpreted for what it is, that is the comparison of different radios by price range and quality but certainly very useful because in this new field of radio networks there is very little information and especially a few comparisons. I thank the CEO of BeeTAC again for his willingness to lend me two of his creatures and I wish you all the best for the Italian company that is entering this new world. Overall a high-end radio that certainly satisfies the ‘professional user and the most demanding radio amateur I liked it a lot and perhaps the only sore point is the size because for my taste it is too big and I prefer a form factor like the Inrico S200 which in any case does not even come close in quality.
For completeness, leave the two sites of the brands that participated in this comparison:
INRICO: http://www.inricosolutions.com/
Models T320 e S200
BeeTAC: https://www.beetac.it/
Models B550 e B966
In the end I added some photos of the different radios, sorry for the quality but I’m not a photographer and I did my best….
