I finally got the last of the parts I had ordered in and was able to play with the new TCA-152 over the last few days.

I ordered it from ShiQing on the FB group, by ordering with ShiQing I was able to get the radio cheaper than any other place online and he was easy to work with. The one I have is a new manufacture and according to the QR code on back it was manufactured in March 2024.

The programming software that the FB group has in the files section installed easily on my PC, and it does work for setting channels, etc. as long as you have your com port set correctly. This took a few minutes to figure out as the software only showed one com port option the first few times I had it open and it kept throwing an error code. Once the other port finally registered on the software and I chose it the radio would read/write with no isues.

I did not try to expand and open the frequencies on the handset. I was able to open that function in the software though and confirmed that the passwords we have will work.


I am using fully charged real Harris batteries, the real batteries fit with no issues and seal/lockup tight. I dont know why; but real Harris new/old stock batteries are cheaper on ebay than some of the knockoff batteries from TRI/TCA.


I used some adapters and hooked up a Nagoya NA-320A antenna to the radio.

Using an uncalibrated Surecom SW-33Plus SW meter I tested the transmit power. I made sure the radio was set on high power and depending on freq used I was getting anywhere from 5.5-10.6 watts, the radio putting out 5ish something watts was the more common readings I got. When I set the radio on low power the SW meter would not even register that it had a signal.

I noticed a large back and forth power swing from 5-10 watts depending on what freq I was on with UHF/VHF. My UV5R's all seem to be pretty stable with transmit power when I tested them; but this is a relatively cheap meter and it is uncalibrated so take it for what its worth.

Transmitting with the radio while having my SDR+ pulled up showed a few outlying signals; but they seemed random. On one test the SDR waterfall would show the main freq transmit with the spurs elsewhere in the spectrum, the next few tests it would not have the spurs, then the next transmit they would be back again.

I also have an issue where when on the 440 band, keying up would cause my USB computer light to blink, it also causes issues with one of my monitors. The monitor would black out when I was transmitting, none of my other radios have ever done that.  


I had to use the Nagoya antenna since the stock one was not usable at all. I have heard about stock antennas being trash; but this is the first time I have really struggled with one.

We have a local repeater that is two towns over and according to Google earth is 9.9 miles away. My FT-60 has an amazing stock antenna and the Baofeng UV5R HT's all seem to work fine. The FT-60 is a stud and hits the local repeater with no problem, the UV5R’s are not as strong; but still hit it. The TCA would not hit the repeater no matter what power setting I had it on or which antenna I used.

Another annoyance is that when using the key pad, you will often get a "pop" coming out of the speakers as you push the buttons, especially the first button push after you turn it on. Once again this was random, sometimes it would just be the first time you push a button, other times it would be every button push. I have a feeling this is related to the volume since it seemed worse the higher I had the radio volume set.

The radios ability to receive also seemed weak, it could be both the stock and Nagoya antennas I tried. But the ears on this one are dull, static filled, and weak compared to both my FT-60 and UV5R’s.


The menu was not as intuitive and easy to understand as the UV5R menu is; but you can figure it out. The manual was fine and I really didn’t have any issues understanding or using it to set up the radio.

I have heard some reports that you can’t enter repeater tones from the keypad; but I had no issues doing so once I figured out how to navigate the menu/quick menu.  



With the cost of the radio, the programming cable, the Harris batteries (x2), and the Harris charger I am at $496.39. This radio is not even remotely worth that price and I still don’t have a dedicated antenna that works for it.

Overall this thing looks very cool; but it is not worth purchasing unless you just want it for the looks. The metal case is about the only real plus it has going for it, if you wanted to use it simplex for an airsoft game it "might" work.


I knew it would be rough from the reviews I have read online; but I did not expect it to be a giant piece of shit that is outperformed by a $18.00 Baofeng.  

Your milage may vary; but this is my experience with it so far after a few days of having it. We will see what happens as I use it more and start to tinker with it.

I don't want to be accused of further shitting up the 152 thread, feel free to post that stuff on my replacement QS thread, and I'll post some more on it.

Thank you.

I think that was a very fair and balanced review.

Several of us hope you'll consider testing the out of band capabilities as soon as you have an appropriate antenna to do so. With an SDR, you'll easily see how spurious (or not) the radio becomes, something pretty important to some of us. I would not test it on high power though.

... and, you see why over the years I have given the whole concept a tepid review. Even if the sole use case was to be functional with Real Steel comm stuff, I'd invest in adapters to amateur gear before I bought a case of those. Kind of like launching fireworks out of a thousand dollar dewat RPG... yeah you did it, but did you really?

Anyone figure out how to set ANI ID on the 2023 TCA yet? The manual alludes to it but I haven't figured it out yet

Don't feel too bad. This real one cost almost 10x as much and sat in a parts bin for 2.5 years until I was finally able to fix it. In the end, it does about the same thing.

Attached File

You still win, though

I found a genuine military Thales broadband antenna on Ebay, it arrived this morning and I and was able to do some testing with it.

It seems to have solved most of the transmit issues that I was having as my monitor and light are no longer having issues and most of the spurs I was seeing have been eleminated. Looks like the unusable factory antenna was causing all of the issues, not counting the programming.

I opened the radio up to 50 to try the antenna as was requested and was pleasantly surprised at how well it did on 52.00 with the new antenna. The 147.00 and 446.1 bands had some spurs; but the spurs are closer together than what I was getting with the stock antenna and with how well the 52.0 did I am OK with that.

Probably because the mil antennas have resistive matching networks that help suppress spurs and calms the transmitter with a nice 50 ohm load.

Well, thank you for the graphs.

That UHF plot does not look... promising.

But, for anyone who asks, right there, your radio is doing FM 50Mhz.

Neat!

The UHF also had me a little worried; but I just tested the standard antenna that came with my FT-60 and it is worse than the Thales. The FT-60 spurs are spread much wider across the spectrum.

So all in all I am happy with the antenna, now if I can just get the programming bugs worked out....

I have no idea what these are. I said if I ever found 152 type radios, I would share with the class.
4k, all I ask is a copy of the programming software...

https://greentipsurplus.com/products/harris-rf-7825m-hh

edit:

Annnd.... (I followed this trail from a post on a place that led to fb that led to groups.io that led to their site. Usually by that time they are all gone. This is a place in England, so, caveat everything I guess)

I saw these earlier in the week. Somehow I ended up subscribed to their IG, or it was suggested.

Those aren't the variant that only picks up UAS video feeds, are they?

Big gamble for me.

No, they are regular TX/RX units. I've seen that same one on one of the FB mil radio groups so be ware.

interesting, because if you go to their website, he/they/someone apparently has 4-5 of them