2 Way Radio 'Walkie Talkies'

A snowHead

We find walkie talkies great when skiing and are in the market for new ones. Any recommended makes / models from experience of using them in the mountains very welcome please. Battery life in cold conditions often seems shorter so some that cope well would be ideal.

A snowHead

Baofeng uv5r+ on ebay.

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pam w, even then.... normal gsm phone is at 1W or more, and you are holding it next to your ear Wink

These 5W won't kill anyone in these days when everyone are jumping around with cell phones 24/7 Wink

Otherwise these Baofeng radios have chance to set them on 1 or on 5W, but you can't really do it on the fly, so it's not like you could transmit at high power one conversation, and next one at low power... at least not without bugging quite a bit.

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These radios are not legal on *any* of the bands you can use them on. Programming them to use the PMR bands (on UHF - there are no VHF PMR bands) is not legal - only type approved PMR radios can be used on those. These baofeng radios would be legal with a full amateur radio license on the 2m and 70cm bands, but no legal use for an unlicensed user.

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Szymon, are you sure about this? Here (Slovenia) you can basically use whatever you want as long as frequency and power are according to law (yeah I know these doesn't fit into allowed power range, since low power is still too high for what PMR is specified)

After all it is free

100% certain that they are not legal in any EU country. By definition a PMR radio has to be type approved, and as part of that approval it needs to demonstrate that it can only transmit on the specific frequencies and at the specific output power (0.5w erp). Incidentally no PMR can have an interchangeable antenna, since as you've rightly pointed out that increases the erp (effective radiated power - the actual power output into the ether).

Of course, it would surprise me if the laws were strongly policed if they were used on the PMR bands. But make no mistake, they *are* illegal...

Intek MT5050 are the PMR's of choice in EU, A very simple mod can make them 5W, Legal in Every EU country on low setting, you can also upgrade the arial

We have 8 of the fully modified ones in our group and can talk from Tignes to Val D with the 40cm aerials on

Look on the web and you'll see they are the most popular proper PMR out there

They also support a scrambler so you can annoy anyone else on your frequency

They are water resistant. Get a waterproof shoulder mic, and put the unit in your rucksack with the mic up to your shoulder, that way you can have the volume low (or even stick an earpiece in) and its easy to talk and transmit with gloved hands. My mic works fine even jammed solid with snow

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The uv5r is half the price of the mt5050, fully usb programmable and it also has an FM radio built in.
When you do the mod to the mt5050 to upgrade to 5w output, it's not legal anyway. Is this correct?

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Anything more than 0.5W is illegal on any PMR446 radio:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PMR446

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Its illegal once you've modded the aerial and when in 4W. But easy to put back to legal. If you don't do the aerial mod its impossible to easily tell its been modded internally (just a cut jumper lead). I've modified my old stump aerial so It can go back on to make them look like brand new units if needed

Main thing is it IS a PMR radio and therefore nominally legal in all EU countries with all the stickers and logos to prove it. The uv5r is a VHF and therefore instantly not legal in many countries and you need a licence in the UK

So the MT505 will get you no grief at the airport or customs, the uv5r can be confiscated on the spot

I'm not really sure about "confiscated on spot", since there's no law (once again, at least for Slovenia) telling you are not allowed to own it. You are just not allowed to use it Wink

I had this sort of discussion with our custom, when I was importing Pocket wizards (we are using US version which is 340 MHz, while EU version is 433 MHz, and PWs are very short range (200-300m) with really short impulses, as they are meant to trigger remote cameras or flashes). You are not allowed to use these kind of products, but you can still own them.
With all these things it's normally problem when you are causing problems, or when there's huge event and you need to declare frequencies to get permission to use it. Based on my experiences it's no problem with skiing, but with Olympics or Football World championships you can forget about using Pocket Wizards if they are not on EU frequencies (in Europe of course). For radios, we used UHF but out of PMR band on Motorolas, during few skiing World championships (for World cups noone cares about this anyway), and we declared these radios and there was never problem, even if not on PMR frequencies. Only thing is, they tell you on which channel/frequency you can use and that's it. Not to mention it would be basically impossible to find you on hill with 1000 other radios on Wink

You know it makes sense.

Thanks to all for advice Smile

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

the last few years we've used Binatone 950's which I think are a pretty good legal radio. Only problem the range isn't great.

I've just bought a Baofeng BF-888s, which is a lot like the UV5R+ mentioned above, but with less buttons and features! Although its still rated at 5 watts.
Out of the box its not programmed to the 446 frequency, but thats pretty easy to do using the supplied software and usb cable.
I also picked up a 40cm whip aerial, as I've heard they make a difference!

888s - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110963800527?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
aerial - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221164305865?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

A snowHead

The French call 'walkie talkies' 'talkie walkies'. True fact.

A snowHead

Just bought some Cobra MT600's on the rec of a mate. Look good in home trial but will see for sure next week in the mountains. Pair were £34 off ebay.

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nick9one1, thing with this 40cm antenna is, that it's mainly for VHF (its range is somewhere up to 430MHz, which is bellow PMR frequencies). For VHF it works really great and on UV5R, changing from original antenna to this one is really good. With original antenna (we have registered frequency at 161 and something MHz here in Slovenia), reach is less then 2km (without any physical obstacle between both points), while with exactly this Nagoya antenna, it went up to 10km with hill in between, so no visible connection. It might be even more, but I haven't tested this yet on longer distances. But as I wrote, this antenna is for frequencies from 140 (or so) to 430MHz, while PMR is 446MHz, so it won't do much for PMR frequencies, or it might actually work even worse then original one on PMR.

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Layne,
Just got some cobra MT975's from amazon at £40 odd pair......supposedly have 12km range ( in line of sight)............having a fiddle last night they seem good quality & will see how their range works out in a couple of weeks when in Obergurgl.
Also have a pair of Motorola TLKR5 which although pretty good, the batteries are shagged & they have only seen about 15 odd days use..........have ordered some eneloop recharables which are supposed to be the nuts but its a bit off that the originals didnt last longer.
Have used the cobra MT600's & they are pretty good. Think Maplin have an offer on a 4 set for around £60-£70'ish if your in the market for any more.
Rnjoy
Mitch

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2 Way Radio 'Walkie Talkies'

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