[Closed] 2-way radios

Be sure that you really need the 10km range, they will pick up lots of unwanted distant traffic. I use shorter range on rides, we are never that far apart.

OK cheers don't know much about them assumed the longer the range the more likely they'll work in forestry etc???

We bought some cheap binatone jobbies that we use at the caravan. They only really get used for annoying the site security whenever we go to the Haven site we use, but they do work.

oh, I'd love a two way radio, then I could tell chris evans and that northern **** on radio 1 that they ruin mornings.

oh, and Vine, what a wummer.

I used to own some Motorola T8's that they said worked over 10Km and had a great nicad battery life.

They dont - On either count. Especially if there is any sort of hills near you.

Anyway, then I got recommended a Baofeng Li-ion pair from ebay - and they are really good. Last ages, but be careful you buy the ones within the regulations. Those regs vary with where you live.

#Edit - budget is about £25 for uk spec to £35 for more powerful versions but either way the batteries last longer than the aaa nicads in the motorolas.

ok cheers masher I'll have a look on eBay

Was just about to Baofeng you, but I see it's been done 😉

10km is on a perfectly flat area (like the sea on a calm day) with brand new batteries. It'll be much shorter in practice I'm sure.

Baofeng ones work over a mile range in an urban area FWIW. Was at work and sent someone down the kebab shop and did the ordering over the radio. 8)

Also battery life is good, and they pretty heavy duty also.

I was of the understanding that being licence free (pmr) means a limit on the power. That's what limits the range so in theory, they'll all claim the same.

If you buy the wrong Baofeng ones (presumably they're over the allowed power) are you likely to have any issues? It entirely obvious on ebay which ones are the correct ones to get!

I've used them for snowboarding to keep in touch with mates. They are as stated line of sight, they won't go over a valley. The best I got out of them was about 5km, me at a gondola station and the wife in a bar in the town. I used to use them at home when my daughter was little. I live in an old 3 story house and I'd leave one in her room as we couldn't here her if she shouted. She thought it was cool!
I've got some Doro ones from currys that are tiny, and some older Motorola's.
I found them both to have good battery life and would last all day, as they took rechargeable battery's you could always take extra, but for a day on the slopes they were fine.
I found the motos to have a better range but as there all limited in power 0.5w I think, there wasn't much in it.

I was of the understanding that being licence free (pmr) means a limit on the power. That's what limits the range so in theory, they'll all claim the same.

Yes. PMR446 is limited to 0.5W transmit power; receiver sensitivity does make (some) difference but doesn't help much when you're on the wrong side of a hill.

If you buy the wrong Baofeng ones (presumably they're over the allowed power) are you likely to have any issues?

Frequency bands as well: there are different allocations for license-free use in different parts of the world.

Out of interest - what are the odds/dangers of getting caught with an overpowered radio?

I looked into this recently after a road trip where we were in 2 cars and thought it would be useful to be able to communicate between each car, also handy for use when out riding, but all the legal ones seem to have the same problem - no range. I'm not going to claim to be knowledgeable but I don't understand why we are limited to such low power 0.5w, the frequency 446 I can understand so you don't interfere with other official users but can someone explain why you can't have a higher power on the same restricted frequency, surely all this would do is increase the range??

but I don't understand why we are limited to such low power 0.5w, the frequency 446 I can understand so you don't interfere with other official users but can someone explain why you can't have a higher power on the same restricted frequency, surely all this would do is increase the range??

and swamp anyone else trying to use that frequency.

and swamp anyone else trying to use that frequency.

Ah, ok, so is there no way of locking from user to user in some way, so that if I buy 2 or 4 or 10 I can set them up to just communicate to each other?

Because for what PMR446 is designed for, the range is fine. You only have 8 channels (anything more claimed is just filtering) to use, so bigger range would make it far harder to get a free channel in busier areas. Ski resorts are already very busy with PMR (to the point of being unusable at times), imagine what it'd be like with everyone from the neighboring valleys trying to decide which cafe to meet at as well.

If you need the range, going to licensed ones isn't too hard or expensive (£75 for 5 years iirc when I worked on a big campus and needed them for roaming IT techs) and you can go up to 5W. The units themselves get a lot bigger to accommodate the battery needed to work at that power and still get decent battery life.

As far as PMR goes, those Motorolas will be fine.

Bear in mind that you can't use these in the US and Canada without a licence, and that if you buy the equivalent unlicenced ones over there and bring them home, they clash with many European emergency services (inc fire in the UK).

Tevion action 850's here which are the same as Binatone 850 great battery life & about 10kmh range,v cheap load on ebay and ear pieces & mikes available too, making the m v easy to use for mtb'ing..

OK thanks for the information, will get searching for some deals