What walkie talkie to get?

[Jbsheepdog]

Does anyone have any recommendations on a cheep set of walkie talkies? Camo would be cool. Something just for in the car/road trip/no phone service comms. The wife and I are wanting something for a trip coming up soon. Amazon has a ton of options of course, the majority of which looks like crap. Wondering if anyone has any experience with a decent option that is smaller (pocket size,) and is gonna hold a charge and won't fall apart after a few uses. Camo would be cool or just not neon colors.

Read More

 

[salmon creek gary]

Not camo and not crap. These Uniden handheld FRS radios would serve your purpose well. I have three pairs available, each pair with a charger. None are broken, all of them work fine, and I just put new rechargeable batteries in all of them this week. If you're interested in any or all, let's take the conversation to DM.

 

[rhollister71]

bi mart has mid land on sale

https://www.bimart.com/midland-36-channel38-mile-two-way-radio-with-121-codes-wx-scan-alert-battery-charge-dtc-usb/p/717895

if bought today 20 off 39.99

might go today @ 39.99 grab 2 sets

 

[Jbsheepdog]

bi mart has mid land on sale

https://www.bimart.com/midland-36-channel38-mile-two-way-radio-with-121-codes-wx-scan-alert-battery-charge-dtc-usb/p/717895

if bought today 20 off 39.99

might go today @ 39.99 grab 2 sets

The link you posted is showing 59.99 for me, are you doing anything special to get the extra $30 off?

 

[Outpost75]

GMRS shares the same channels as FRS, but also provides repeater access and has higher transmit power. We use it for comms in our pickups and farm machinery, SAR, CERT and Neighborhood Watch. You can talk to people using low power FRS, but can use mobile radios up to 50 watts. License covers all family members. $35 dollars for ten years. No test.

MURS is another option, a VHF-FM service, no license required. Transmitter output is limited to 2 watts but you can connect to a coax fed elevated antenna mounted high on the vehicle cab or on a building roof. Uses same antennas as VHF Marine band. Performance is similar to 2-meter ham on simplex at similar power level. Analog high-band VHF LMR handhelds can be reprogrammed. Can be used for digital modes for alarm and vehicle tracking systems.

 

[rhollister71]

The link you posted is showing 59.99 for me, are you doing anything special to get the extra $30 off?

View attachment 2152536

says if you click lucky tuesday in there shows for 39.99 tuesday only

 

[Bobbygun]

says if you click lucky tuesday in there shows for 39.99 tuesday only

@Jbsheepdog

Those are different radios. The ones in the new ad are 38-mile. The Tuesday only ones are 32-mile. Neither sounds like too bad of a deal.

I don't have any experience with Midland, but the Motorola radios I've had didn't wear all that well. For the price, I suppose they were okay.

 

[rhollister71]

@Jbsheepdog

Those are different radios. The ones in the new ad are 38-mile. The Tuesday only ones are 32-mile. Neither sounds like too bad of a deal.

I don't have any experience with Midland, but the Motorola radios I've had didn't wear all that well. For the price, I suppose they were okay.

oh my bad on overlooking that. i know back in day midland were good radios
32-38 same difference to me at that range

 

[Outpost75]

Advertiser's range claims for handheld radios are entirely unrealistic because typical base-loaded helical "rubber duckie" antennas have negative gain, about -5 db compared to a unity gain, full-sized quarter wave isotopic source. RF output is further attenuated by your body and if inside a metal vehicle, unless you have a coax fed antenna mounted high on the vehicle to provide a clear RF path.

The ONLY way you are going to realize these ridiculous range claims is if you are on top of a 6000 foot peak, standing in the clear, talking to somebody within line of sight in the valley below.

With a 5 watt handheld holding a base-loaded quarter wave at face level, on level terrain with no heavy vegetation, terrain obstructions or ground clutter you may get 3 miles UHF, a mile or so more with VHF. Walking city streets amongst high rise buildings at most 2-3 city blocks. If inside the building ten vertical floors with UHF maybe...

 

[RVTECH]

The ONLY way you are going to realize these ridiculous range claims is if you are on top of a 6000 foot peak, standing in the clear, talking to somebody within line of sight in the valley below.

Basically this is true.

I regularly talk to people who are up on mountain tops on 2 meter Ham simplex and often many are 40 or more miles away - some a lot farther however on level ground it's a lot less.

I can occasionally make it to Bend (sometimes a bit further) on Simplex but I am on 45 watts as well.

 

[Outpost75]

The efficiency of the antenna, antenna height above ground and the use of low-loss deadline to the antenna are more important than RF output.

Police, fire and EMS as well as RACES and ACS routinely use 5 watt UHF link transmitters positioned on top of high rise buildings to relay voice, data or damage assessment imagery to their main site repeater about 40- 50 miles away. Our entire operational region of over 1000 square miles has 24/7/365 repeater coverage with generator backup power.

Link yagis are horizontally polarized to reduce common mode noise from power lines, etc. Multiple remote receivers are positioned at sites in adjacent counties, controlled by a Motorola Spectra-Tac voting system to relay the strongest signal to the main site repeater. Police, fire and EMS can use their MTS1000 portable for voice incident talkaround and simultaneously multitask TCP/IP data or imagery at 9600 baud on an adjacent channel. While this is public safety radio, licensed ham and GMRS repeaters can be configured with the same capabilities.

 

[rhollister71]

The efficiency of the antenna, antenna height above ground and the use of low-loss deadline to the antenna are more important than RF output.
We routinely use 5 watt UHF link transmitters on top of high rise buildings to relay voice, data or damage assessment imagery to our main site repeater about 50 miles away.

Link yagis are horizontally polarized to reduce common mode noise from power lines, etc. Multiple remote receivers are positioned at sites in adjacent counties, controlled by a Motorola Spectra-Tac voting system to relay the strongest signal to the repeater. Police, fire and EMS can use their MTS1000 portable for voice incident talkaround and simultaneously multitask TCP/IP data or imagery at 9600 baud on an adjacent channel. While this is public safety radio, licensed ham and GMRS repeaters can be configured with the same capabilities.

My brain hurts after reading that.

 

[rhollister71]

Gotta be the angle of the dangle and must be perpendicular to the mass of the bubblegum

 

[bionic knees]

I have had the midland 36's for a number of years now. They would work well for your intended purpose.

 

[Outpost75]

My brain hurts after reading that.

Common knowledge for MARS, General class ham operators or General Radiotelephone Operator's License in public safety, aviation or maritime service.

 

[Bobbygun]

32-38 same difference to me at that range

Advertiser's range claims for handheld radios are entirely unrealistic

Absolutely. My walkie talkies are so old, some are 5-mile and some are 12-mile. I couldn't really tell the difference between the two models. Unless I was on the rim of Crater Lake and talking to someone straight across the lake, I rarely got good reception over ONE mile. My hunting party uses the Garmin Rino 750 gps/radios. Those have decent range for talking and polling the location of other party members. But when in mountainous elk country, a couple of miles is a big ask, even for them.

My comments are just based on personal experience. Like @rholllister, I didn't understand most of that other gobbledygook.

 

[CO136]

I would recommend GMRS over FRS. I have done the FRS thing (and still have a couple of sets). As was mentioned, one can hit a repeater with GMRS if you need to stretch your range. Might incur a bit more cost for a GMRS rig(s), but can still run FRS freq's. I went legal on GMRS last year, and have a couple of Wouxun handhelds (KG-905G). License was $35 for 10 years for me, which includes my family.

 

[Mark W.]

The GMRS radio license is $35.00 for 10 years. They dropped it from $70.00 about 3 weeks after I bought mine, of course.

 

[Tlock]

Gotta be the angle of the dangle and must be perpendicular to the mass of the bubblegum

Angle of the dangle....the heat of the meat! Makes all the difference

 

[Tlock]

Yeah, breaker one-nine, this here's the Rubber Duck
You got a copy on me Pigpen? C'mon"
"Ah yeah, ten-four Pigpen, for sure, for sure
By golly it's clean clear to Flagtown, c'mon"
"Yeah, that's a big ten-four there Pigpen
Yeah, we definitely got the front door good buddy
Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy"
(Convoy)