SONIK Sports SKX Bite Alarms
With the SKX, Sonik have created an alarm package few rivals can match
Sonik are well-known for looking at products slightly differently to everybody else. When they launched the SKS bite alarms a few years ago, they bundled them with a free bivvy light that illuminated when you got a take. That system was so successful they’ve incorporated the same technology in their latest buzzer, the SKX. And it’s a stunner.
The alarms, receiver and light look and feel like the premium products they are, and then you glance at the price and think it’s a typo. At full RRP (you’ll pay even less in shops) you get three heads, a receiver and a programmable bivvy lamp for under £230! That might still seem a fair bit of cash to many anglers, but the SKX alarms and receiver have features normally reserved for a set that would cost you almost double that.
The alarm heads each have twin LEDs which can be set to one of six different colours (white, purple, blue, green, yellow or red) and emit a different tone if you get a run or a drop-back bite. They also have seven volume and tone settings, a night-light function and a low-battery warning.
In addition to all that, one of the best features is the ‘intelligent mute’ function. Eliminating anti-social buzzer tweaking at your local day ticket venue, this feature allows you to mute your alarms for 30 seconds with the press of the button. It means you can adjust your bobbins, line clips and everything else in silence, before the alarm automatically switches back on. It’s a simple but useful feature that saves you having to remember to switch your alarms back on after adjusting your indication.
The look of alarms is down to personal choice, but the SKX heads work for us, and the function buttons are big, well spaced out and clearly labelled, which is a massive help for anglers with vision or dexterity problems, or if you’re
wearing gloves.
The four-channel receiver works on two AAA batteries and boasts a range of up to 150m. Like the alarms, it’s packed with features including three different modes - light and sound; light and vibration, and light, sound and vibration.
There’s a dedicated LED for drop-back bites, silent start up, low-battery warning and an anti-theft alarm. It’ll even automatically match alarm tone with each buzzer, and it has a built-in torch! If you were to put the SKX alongside rival alarms and tick off each feature, you would be looking at a much greater financial outlay. And on top of all that, you get the unique free bivvy light. This can operate like a standard fishing lamp with magnetic or hook attachments, but you can also pair it with your alarms. It’s got six channels to match the buzzer colours and six brightness levels. You can also set one of six delay modes, so you don’t get showered in light if you’re getting lots of liner or bleeps from the wind.
Overall, this package is hard to beat at this price.
£229.99