Two-Way Radios

[Ed_Scott]

My wife keeps asking me what i want for Christmas. As probably most you are in the same position, I end up at a loss since most of what I want is gear related and cost about the same as a small house.

Anyway, I keep on looking at the Motorola Talkabout two-way radios. There are many models out there, so which one would you recommend? I would need the kind that has multiple channels so that you can synch up with other talkabout models. Range is nice, but even though a radio states 12 mile range, I think we all know if you can get a half-mile out of these your happy.

Any ideas?

 

[big daddy]

Any ideas?

Yeah.....Get a PO from your station and buy the radios then have your wife buy something for yourself and not work related.......

Something that you'll enjoy without having to think about work....

 

[RichVid]

The Talkabout GMRS radios are a joke - nothing more than toys, with crowded frequencies to boot, even with secure code enabled... Try using them at a crowded mall this xmas season and listen to all the intermod...

If you're serious about it, you should go after a UHF business class radio like the Motorola Radius or Vertex VX series and get on a repeater - or use your cellphone...



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"What's the difference between Nextel Push-to-Talk and a big, fat steaming turd? Not a f-ing thing!!"

 

[David R. Busse]

I own eight Motorola talkabouts, mostly picked up on Ebay over the years. I have never used them for work.

I have used them on cruise ships, train trips, houseboat trips and for general work around the house (especially checking irrigation systems). Great little toys.

My brother would agree with an earlier poster--use professional radios for professional matters. In his case, he has a garage full of Motorola Sabres and a couple of portable repeaters.

I have a Motorola JT-1000 which I use for freelance work in the transportation industry. This radio also makes one heck of a VHF scanning radio to carry on wildfires (USFS and CDF frequencies)...with transmit disbled. It was another eBay find.

 

[Ed_Scott]

Guys, I realize these talkabouts are toys at best, and I do own Motorola HT 1000's. What I'm looking for is an easy to program radio to use between crew cars.

Sometimes everyone shows up with these talkabouts, and it seems pretty easy to program them all to communicate vehicle to vehicle.

So that's my question, what model are you iusing for the 1/2 mile range (at best) you would need.

 

[canuckcam]

Sprint/Nextel. Beep beep!

If you're going car-to-car a portable won't get you a few city blocks especially downtown. You'll need a license and $ for a repeater setup.

"sub-channel" or "secure" tones aren't secure at all on FRS/GMRS. They're simply PL tones. If you listen on "sub-channel 0" or a scanner or real radio without DPL or PL tones enabled, you'll hear all the conversations.

If you go the FRS/GMRS route, they're honestly all the same junk. Just get one with AA batteries or something and you're good to go. They're mandated to 0.5watts and non-removable antennas. I highly doubt you're going to get a receiver with better sensitivity and interference/intermod rejection with the $59.99 models versus $19.99. You might get your choice of pink or black case though, if that's worth $30.

I think all those radios now have GMRS frequencies on them too, and despite the "requirement" for a license to operate (someone more familar with the FCC should chime in,) they're just as crowded as FRS frequencies now.

 

[Baltimore Shooter]

I wouldn't go w/ Nextel, they interfere w/ audio signals, both wired & wireless. I attended a symposium last night and someone had a Nextel and you could hear that high freq, low volume static sound several times during the program.

Warren

 

[The Daywood]

I wouldn't go w/ Nextel, they interfere w/ audio signals, both wired & wireless. I attended a symposium last night and someone had a Nextel and you could hear that high freq, low volume static sound several times during the program.

I'm sure it has been covered before, but we've had problems with regular cell phones in our edit labs. We have signs up that tell people to turn them OFF when they are in the labs because even in "silent" mode they can still chirp into the audio...We've also had several students get screwed when doing transfers over firewire. either pixelation or audio foul ups...

 

[canuckcam]

Ahh.. the chhk chhk chhk chhk.... I'm sure most of us who have cell phones (especially Nextels) dealing with unbalanced audio runs (and car speakers!) .. I can tell if I have a text message or a voice call before the thing rings.

But portable radios won't do much better - you'll hear a low level hum and rumble when you transmit.

All that being said, I've never had a problem with my Telus Mike (aka Nextel) on a 15 year old Lectro UHF 195 set. Now all the newer Sony and Sennheiser UHF wirelesses seem to go haywire. Try putting a transmitter next to a Blackberry.

"Ok.. rolling.... WAIT.. you have an email coming in."
"What do you...OH! .. Hey, how'd you know!?"