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What's the scoop with Two-Way Radios?

Kaido

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
I'm looking for some walkie talkies for outdoor use, with good range - 2 to start out with, with the capability of adding more if possible (I'm assuming they're unencrypted and can just be dialed into the same frequency). Cell phones are too slow (don't have push-to-talk on ours). These look pretty good:

http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-MH230...dp/B001UE6MIO/

Any restrictions as far as licensing or anything? Drawbacks? Good models to look at?

Bonus: funny walkie talkie clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A194vDpXzyA
 
To use the higher power GMRS channels, you need a license. For the lower powered FRS channels, you don't. Range is not that great either way. The FRS has been great while traveling for car to car communication.

Cobra makes good ones, but you can't go wrong with Motorola.

There isn't really a limit on the number of radios, except maybe for the number of squelch codes you have. You can have quite a few on the same freq, but on different squelch codes. I can't imagine anyone running out of room.
 
I've used almost every brand out there, and they're all pretty good for operation. My problem was finding some that were loud enough. If you don't need them to be loud, just get some Motorolas. Make sure you get the kind with a charging cradle, and rechargeable batteries. That makes life much easier.
 
duragezic said:
I'm surprised after all these years, the range is still only a couple miles usually (or so I hear).
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It actually disappoints me that even with moderately powered hand held radios you can still only get a mile or two. For railroad use we all use Kenwood and Motorolla radios and you're lucky to get 10,000 feet out of them.
 
EMPshockwave82 said:
It actually disappoints me that even with moderately powered hand held radios you can still only get a mile or two. For railroad use we all use Kenwood and Motorolla radios and you're lucky to get 10,000 feet out of them.
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It depends on terrain and indoor vs. outdoor use. I've used sabers VHF just under 2meters, 4W FM well over 15 miles on open water. The same talkie inside a steel ship breaks up after six decks and 500 feet of diagonal distance! Repeaters required!

Now we just have cell phones on our own transmitter and coverage is really good. A GSM radio has surprising sensitivity even at sub -100dBM signals! 😱
 
Lower the frequency the better. The only way some of these radios would reach the listed specs is if you were both in the tallest tree with line of sight, with perfect weather, and your fingers crossed !
 
VHF for trees, UHF for urban settings. Rubycon, for ships I would think UHF would have better penetration but maybe it's just better through concrete.
 
IronWing said:
VHF for trees, UHF for urban settings. Rubycon, for ships I would think UHF would have better penetration but maybe it's just better through concrete.
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Yes we switched to UHF before cellular and it was good but a repeater was in use. It was 477MHz. I liked the UHF better because the antennas were only an inch long vs. 8 inches for VHF!
 
In tunnels it is not unusual to be able to yell farther than point to point UHF portables can talk. These are also FM so you probably have signal or not ... no fading into noise in other other words.

Metal walls, foil on insulation, re-bar buried in concrete are all great signal barriers and it varies greatly with frequency.

Those radios advertise as having 22 channels which I am sure is correct. But 14 - 22 require an FCC license. But if you had a license you could operate with more power than than a 1/2 W.
 
The FRS channels are free. The GMRS channels require a license that costs $85 and covers you and your immediate family but otherwise has no requirements outside of the ability to fill out a form and send the FCC money. But in reality, I don't know anyone who has actually paid the license fee.
 
If you are really serious about your communications, get licensed as an Amateur Radio operator. You can talk from across the street or you can talk around the world. http://www.arrl.org The ARRL website will tell you everything you need to know to get started.

Bob
 
Demon-Xanth said:
But in reality, I don't know anyone who has actually paid the license fee.
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I never did. As long as you aren't an ass on air, there shouldn't be any problems. Stick to the lower power channels/settings whenever possible, and be courteous always.

Pro tip... Pick a channel other than 1 to reduce noise. Many people get these radios, turn them on and go. If you pick something other than default there isn't as much traffic.
 
Rubycon said:
Yes we switched to UHF before cellular and it was good but a repeater was in use. It was 477MHz. I liked the UHF better because the antennas were only an inch long vs. 8 inches for VHF!
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What ship exactly? Most commerical passenger fleets have wifi phones and an onboard PBX to facilitate communication on decks.
 
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