School me on Hand Held radio/walkie-talkies.

[ratski]

I know that hand held walkie-talkie two way radios come in all shapes and sizes.

I'm looking for something that would be good in say a power outage for my wife and I to keep in touch, as well as maybe between the house and office (under 5 miles or so).

Be nice to have more distance and be able to use them if we had to take two cars somewhere, etc.

So, what do I look for?
Lawton now has an Academy (woohoo!!!) and we now have some selection of in stock possibilities.

Not limiting myself to that, but I will confess my ignorance in this area.

What is good. What is bad.

Thanks in advance.

Dave

 

[Werewolf]

Midland has always made pretty good stuff when it comes to CB radios.

Current models have all kinds of features. USB and LSB which can get you ranges out to 30+ miles. Channel Encryption and coding so that you only hear others on the channel setup with the same codes. And much more - so much more that this computer geek, ex US Navy electronics tech and Nuclear Reactor operator was so over whelmed by the gift walkie talkie set I received I gave up trying to figure it all out and just use 'em as straight featureless, push the dang button to talk walkie talkies.

I figured a couple hundred bucks for 'em they had so many whiz bang features so I looked 'em up on AMAZON - $54 dollars. For a couple of radios with features that would have probably cost in the $1000's twenty years ago.

In short my only experience is with the Midland set I've got. I don't remember the model but amazon has lots - go there - read reviews. they'll have what yur lookin' for.

 

[jmike314]

I like my Midlands.

 

[SMS]

With the average Family Radio Service (FRS) band radios (and many GMRS) you find at local sporting good stores...you will be lucky to get a mile of range, unless you live on a clear hilltop or something.

You can up your range by moving into licensed GMRS radios/expensive ICOM uhf/vhf radios.

Regardless of marketing claims; antenna efficiency, transmit power and line-of-sight matter....any radio that's handy enough to throw in a 3-day pack isn't going to have a good enough antenna or a powerful enough transmitter to beat not having good line of sight.

 

[aviator41]

Without licensing to be legal you will be hard pressed to get over mile is real-world use. FCC just limits power too much. My answer was HAM radio, both myself and the wife are licensed, but that may be too much trouble for what you're wanting to do. FWIW I can talk from Guthrie to Norman most days using repeaters. when they are linked up, I can talk from Enid to Lawton with no trouble at all from my handheld rig (HT in ham terms) using about 5 watts of power. Nowadays they only link repeaters when bad weather moves in though.

Ham radio is fun and the emphasis on emergency management is great, but it's been overtaken by other means of communication these days. During the Moore tornado, over 100 ham operators were ready to spring into action and provide emergency communications to allow emergency management to coordinate everything from workers to water.

We were never called on as all the cell carriers had temporary towers up in less than a day.

It's fun, but it's usefulness is becoming less and less impressive at the local level.

 

[Coded-Dude]

By

Without licensing to be legal you will be hard pressed to get over mile is real-world use. FCC just limits power too much. My answer was HAM radio, both myself and the wife are licensed, but that may be too much trouble for what you're wanting to do. FWIW I can talk from Guthrie to Norman most days using repeaters. when they are linked up, I can talk from Enid to Lawton with no trouble at all from my handheld rig (HT in ham terms) using about 5 watts of power. Nowadays they only link repeaters when bad weather moves in though.

Ham radio is fun and the emphasis on emergency management is great, but it's been overtaken by other means of communication these days. During the Moore tornado, over 100 ham operators were ready to spring into action and provide emergency communications to allow emergency management to coordinate everything from workers to water.

We were never called on as all the cell carriers had temporary towers up in less than a day.

It's fun, but it's usefulness is becoming less and less impressive at the local level.

I'm getting my ft-270r in the mail tomorrow. It will be about $100 after the mail in rebate. Still need to get my license, but that shouldn't be too hard for me. The hard part will be trying to convince my girlfriend to get her license... lol. I may get the am counter part as well, but that's further down the road.

Transmitted Via Tactical Telecommunications Device.

 

[EFsDad]

I'm looking for something that would be good in say a power outage for my wife and I to keep in touch, as well as maybe between the house and office (under 5 miles or so).

Be nice to have more distance and be able to use them if we had to take two cars somewhere, etc.

So, what do I look for?
Lawton now has an Academy (woohoo!!!) and we now have some selection of in stock possibilities.

Not limiting myself to that, but I will confess my ignorance in this area.

What is good. What is bad.

Thanks in advance.

Dave

Dave,

If you were on a boat in the middle of the ocean I'd tell you to look into this:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_VHF_radio
But to use it on land would be illegal and you know how the FCC is on violators.

 

[BadgeBunny]

Dave, I'll have GC post in this thread when he gets up. The radio stuff is his department. We have some handhelds but I dunno anything about them except you push "this" button and talk ...

 

[GlockCop]

We bought a pair of Motorola radios at Academy. Im sure they are the same ones you are looking at Dave. They advertise like 20 miles or something on the package....Dont beleive it. We have tried ours and in the city about a half mile is all we can get. Front yard to backyard or down the street is about it. A much better option is to get your HAM license and be done with it. We bought two Wouxan KGuvd1p radios and I can receive and transmit in miles now. Ive picked up as far as Guthrie from the house(about 25-30 miles). Probably farther if I really try and hit the repeater just right. Any questions just holler.

 

[TerryMiller]

We bought a pair of Motorola radios at Academy. Im sure they are the same ones you are looking at Dave. They advertise like 20 miles or something on the package....Dont beleive it. We have tried ours and in the city about a half mile is all we can get. Front yard to backyard or down the street is about it. A much better option is to get your HAM license and be done with it. We bought two Wouxan KGuvd1p radios and I can receive and transmit in miles now. Ive picked up as far as Guthrie from the house(about 25-30 miles). Probably farther if I really try and hit the repeater just right. Any questions just holler.

GC,

Years ago, I used to have a ham license, but didn't use it enough and it expired on me. I may need for you to school me on the licensing and on the Wouxan radios. Those sound ideal if one is also traveling with an RV and a "scout car." If one is out of range of good cell towers, the radios would work much better than those 1-mile units.

Maybe we can get together again sometime where I can ask you questions.