 Poster: A snowHead
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Can anyone recommend a two way radio? I'm after something for less than £100 and a range of 7 - 10km. Ideally as small and light as possible. Seen Motorola ones at S+R and EB, just wondered if there are any others out there.
Cheers.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Whatever you do don't pay the S+R prices for the Motorolas, you'll save £10 or more from ebay or even Amazon.
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Sun 7-12-08 20:30; edited 1 time in total
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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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Drluvski, don't forget that with VHF it's line of sight. Ours are cheapies with a 5km range but they don't go round corners, or over mountains.
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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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Drluvski, you won't get a range of more than about 3km in Europe without spending money on serious kit and an operators licence. Most of the cheap PMR 446 radios are very similar, offering licence-free operation over 8 channels, with sub-channel encoding to allow a wider range, so you can use channel 3(12) for example, and only those using encoding 12 on channel 3 will hear you. You can normally buy a pair for about £40 with chargers, but can go up to maybe £80 per pair for features like voice-activated systems, earpieces, and so on. Batteries will last a full day with moderate use.
The US standards FRS and GMRS offer much wider ranges (5-8 miles), but are illegal in Europe as they use frequencies reserved for medical, scientific and emergency use. In some places, being caught using one can land you with a large fine - reportedly €1000 in Germany, as they will triangulate on your signal to find you, and then charge you for the cost of the search...
For most mountain use, PMR is more than adequate for all but the largest areas, unless you are in a valley on one side of a peak, and your friends are in a similar valley on the other side. For arranging to meet people who are in the same valley, it's ideal, and zero cost compared to two international mobile calls to cover 200 metres.
Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Sun 7-12-08 20:49; edited 1 time in total
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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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Drluvski, The following may be rubbish... but... 7-10km will not work with the ones which are legal in Europe without a licence. You will get 3-5km with those and lidl and aldi do respectable quality ones fairly often. For 7-10km I think you need the US ones - but they are not legal to use in Europe...
I think you will find more about this if you search the site.
Edit - Ouskejarr puts it rather better... Our Lidl ones certainly have been better than our BT ones - but both sets have been voice activateable (can be sued as baby listeners too...).
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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can be sued as baby listeners too...
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you mean if they let the baby scream all night and did nothing?
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Thanks for the help everyone. Think I will just have to settle for the 3km range ones and not venture too far apart. THanks ousekjarr, useful info about the channels. Will try and get hold of ones with lots of channels so I dont have to listen to anyone elses babbling.
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| Drluvski wrote: |
Can anyone recommend a two way radio? I'm after something for less than £100 and a range of 7 - 10km. Ideally as small and light as possible. Seen Motorola ones at S+R and EB, just wondered if there are any others out there.
Cheers. |
try and get a hold of motorola T5522 rechargeable 2 way radios off flea bay.
should cost no more than £30.
been using them for 3 years now and they're sweet.
hope this helps.
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