Bite Alarm Mastery
Were you smitten with Sonik’s VaderX bite alarms? Then you’re going to be deeply in love with their new SKS2 model. It’s tech-filled, stylish and cheap. Very, very cheap...
Bite alarms keep getting techier. As they do expensive. So Sonik clearly hasn’t read the rulebook with their brand-new SKS2 bite alarms. Unlike most alarms where terms such as ‘feature-packed’, ‘reliable’ and ‘carpy looking’ usually equal a lot of zeros after the pound sterling symbol, that’s not the case with these cosmetically-pleasing sounders. These come with a classic old-school Sonik price tag—the type that made us all fall in love with the northern-based brand. So, are you ready? …Sub-£200 gets you four alarms, a receiver, plus a bivvy light! Yes, yes, we get you’re now hyperventilating—you have good reason to—so allow us to answer all your questions…
I take it this is a launch price and not the real one.
Nope, this isn’t a launch price or a special one-off offer. It does seem a little backwards running through the price list first, before we’ve actually told you anything about the alarms, but in a world ruled by crippling cost-of-living expenses, it’s rather nice to have some good news when it comes to costs. So, here goes: a single head retails for £39.99 (the receiver is the same price), then 2+1 + a Bivvy Lamp is £129.99; 3+1 + the Bivvy Lamp is £169.99; and the 4+1 + Bivvy Lamp is £199.99!
That’s BONKERS!And they actually look really nice…
They sure do! From the matt black outer to the soft-touch control buttons and rod-friendly rubber inlays, they look like a distilled version of a Fox Mini Micron and a classic Steve Neville: thin, compact and very pleasing to the eye. And they come supplied with built-in snag ears, so another money-saver right there!
Surely there’s not a lot of tech inside those cases though?
Wrong—again! They really are packed to the proverbial waterproof seams with tech and features. Twin hi-visibility multi-colour LEDs plus a night glow LED function, forward and backward dropback indication and six volume and tone settings (including a ‘Silent’ mode). The receiver’s equally as impressive, mimicking the volume, tone settings and ‘Silent’ settings, plus it will LED colour-sync to the heads, a built-in courtesy light, and has a 150m range. Even the batteries that power both the heads and receiver are just standard run-of-the-mill AAA.
Do they eat through those batteries?
Not at all, and thoughtfully Sonik have built in a ‘Silent Low Battery Warning’ feature so you’ll never be caught out with a flat battery.
So this bivvy lamp you referenced earlier—is there anything special about that?
When it’s switched to its manual ‘on/off’ mode, no, not really—it’s just a good, solid, well-made light. It has six levels of brightness, the same Silent Low Battery Warning and it can be fixed via the supplied magnetic or hook bivvy attachments. However, switch it to the ‘Illumination’ mode and that’s when the magic happens! It will both illuminate (you have six colour channels to choose from!) and sound when your alarm triggers, and these can be adjusted by seven levels of volume and six of brightness. Thankfully, though, there are six modes of delay to ensure your bivvy isn’t lit up like Wembley Stadium if it’s a windy night!
