 Poster: A snowHead
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Going to UK & France, and would love to have radios in-hand before leaving USA (NYC area). Any suggestions? Thanks!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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mfrandy, welcome. I guess Radio Shack would be a good start, but you'd be better asking this question on www.epicski.com , which is US based.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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mfrandy, welcome, but why go to extra trouble to buy a radio illegal to use in the US when you should be able to find them for less than £20 when you get there?
Edit: and 220V chargers too?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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First up since no-one else has mentioned it - welcome to snowheads, mfrandy!
As fo radios, just use US style radios. they'll still work over here - "illegal" does not mean "non-functioning" they justuse a badwidth that is allocated for something else. US radios are more powerful and thus qiute possibly more useful in the bigger european ski areas
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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nbt, Great attitude, very responsible  .
I don't know anything about transmission signals but the idea of allocated bandwidths is obviously to stop interference from others. What if that bandwidth you advocate tresspassing on is allocated to a critical function, say the emergency services or piste patrol?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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spyderjon, this issue has been covered several times, in both directions. if it was important, then in the time that snowheads has been working do you not think that someone would have mentioned that they'd been asked not to use that us radios in europe / european radios in NA for whatever reason?
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oh and apologies to comprex and Wear The Fox Hat, it's ealry and I completely failed to actually read your posts 
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Relatively few skiers use radios & I would assume that those that are used are legal. Also the chances of getting caught using an illegal radio on a skiing holiday is almost non existent as you're moving around all the time with thousands of other people. Therefore your argument that it's ok to use an illegal radio because no snowHead has ever been caught/told not to use one is bollox.
When travelling to another country I believe that one should respect the laws of that country, whether you agree with them or not.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| spyderjon wrote: |
When travelling to another country I believe that one should respect the laws of that country, whether you agree with them or not. |
I think at the very least the Snowheads "official" policy should be not to promote illegal activity even if individual posters choose to make up their own minds. Maybe something for the Mods to discuss?
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As I understand it Motorola brought bandwidth and assigned their own 'definition' to it..therefore not recognised by a 'width' compatible or identified by standard radio services but still usable..if that makes sense. Binatone radios work on that 'bandwidth' as well apparently in Europe. And they are very cheap to buy as a twin-set, maybe 50-60 eu or less. Whether you would be able or allowed to use them in them US, I don't know but if you want them for europe, buy them here, as prev posters have advised
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| spyderjon wrote: |
| When travelling to another country I believe that one should respect the laws of that country, whether you agree with them or not. |
I see your point - but I can't afford to buy radios that only get used when I go to north america, and I know that my Euro radios worked over there. In fact in Whistler, several ski shops were selling european motorola radios, and advising people to use batteroes as the european chargers won't cope with the loer voltage ovwr there
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| JT wrote: |
| As I understand it Motorola brought bandwidth and assigned their own 'definition' to it..therefore not recognised by a 'width' compatible or identified by standard radio services but still usable..if that makes sense. Binatone radios work on that 'bandwidth' as well apparently in Europe. And they are very cheap to buy as a twin-set, maybe 50-60 eu or less. Whether you would be able or allowed to use them in them US, I don't know but if you want them for europe, buy them here, as prev posters have advised |
I don't quite follow your post. PMR 446 is a Europe wide standard, nothing to do specifically with Motorola, see here. There are now many PMR446 manufacturers. On the PMR446 system there are 8 seperate channels, seperated in frequency by 12.5kHz. It is common for radios to use the CTCSS tone code squelch system, which means that for each individual channel there are up to 38 codes which can be set, and your radio will only automatically receive a transmission if it is set to the same code (sometimes incorrectly referred to as a sub-channel) as that being used by the transmitting radio. Note however that if someone else is transmitting at the same time on the same channel but using a different CTCSS code setting it can still interfere with your reception. As regards Motorola sets, I believe they choose to process the audio through a so called compander system (i.e compressing the audio before transmission and expanding it afterwards). This improves the signal to noise ratio and also has the effect that if a Motorola handset transmission is received on a conventional PMR446 handset, the compressed audio will sound loud and "punchy", whereas in the converse situation a conventional PMR446 handset transmission will sound weak if received on a Motorola handset.  . Of course if both conventional handsets are used then the audio sounds normal.
The equivalent service in the US is called the Family Radio Service which operates on a different frequency band. Note nbt that the US FRS frequencies are used here by the Fire Brigade  , so mfrandy is quite right to attempt to use legal PMR466 radios on this side of the pond.  .
mfrandy , I would expect it to be pretty difficult to buy them in the US and as others have said it would be far easier (and cheaper) to buy them in Europe. If you are coming to the UK first, there are many places which sell them e.g Maplin Electronics Stores or Argos Catalogue Stores, both of which have many branches through the UK. Hope you enjoy your visit to Europe, and welcome to Snowheads! 
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You know it makes sense.
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I stand corrected. DOn;t mess with the people who save lives.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Thanks to everyone for your help! Will hit Maplin or Argos in London after we get there. Just don't want to shell out cash for pay-as-you-go mobile phones. It's almost $2 to the pound these days.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| mfrandy wrote: |
| Thanks to everyone for your help! Will hit Maplin or Argos in London after we get there. Just don't want to shell out cash for pay-as-you-go mobile phones. It's almost $2 to the pound these days. |
You can usually buy them at airport branches of high street stores Dixons/Curry's digital although don't count on then being able to take them on a plane because someone paranoid enough will probably consider it suspicious behavior and a security risk. Same for avy transceivers - its a device which is triggered by radio frequencies? - you must be a terrorist!
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