Thread: walkie talkie

do you use a walkie talkie, or radio.
whats your experience or recommendation for these sort of things. im thinking person to person, max range, and for no real reason maybe a private channel.
im just thinking these could be handy, and have thought it for a while, but have done nothing about it yet.
I don't want to rely on batteries, as such, but a charger type system.
I have used a radio that everyone else uses in the bush for work, channel 13 in my local area. but nobody else really needs to hear me talk shit with my mate.

I use the Garmin Rino with a 5w radio built in.

I've found it to be very good in the bush and also on the open tops.

It's bloody great to be able to keep in contact with your mates throughout the day.

Cheers
Pete

Been using them for years uniden rechargable but also work on AAA batteries which is handy at times. 5w I think wont work with too much seperation in hilly country always take them when hunting with a buddy, at times a radio is a big help.

Got 4 unidens ... The 5w are ok, but definitely line of sight only.

For private channels you can switch encryptions on.


Tim

only line of sight... what kind of range in the hills or bush?

Never used them in the bush, but I got 5k once in the hills ..


Tim

Originally Posted by bully

only line of sight... what kind of range in the hills or bush?

I was talking to my mate who was near the Dead Dog Hut in the Ruahine while I was on the top of the range not far from Lesters Memorial Cairn which is a distance of about 5kms with a couple of ridges in between. It was a fine day and the radio transmissions were clear.

Other times we have been separated only by one ridge and while still maintaining radio contact it found could be difficult at times.

Both of us have Garmin Rino GPS's set to 5w output.

Either way a Radio is better than no Radio and sometimes in some situations you just have to expect you will loose radio contact for a period of time.

Cheers
Pete

We use top of the line Motorola's at work, ( I work in pest destruction in the northern Tararuas) these are fully waterproof 5w UHF ( we run our own channel ) and they are a bloody good bit of kit, not cheap though around a grand each, they are a basic unit but the old "KISS" works well, also having a grunty CB unit in the truck helps. One time stands out where I was miles in the hills and tried my boss from a radio point we have and I got him on our #1 channel, he was sitting at ITM in Palmy ( farken miles away ) and he came in crystal clear with out even using a repeater


Hills a certainly the down fall of hand held's but for most situations they will do the job, If you're using em while hunting remember to keep the volume down and if ya trying to get hold of a mate, have a system worked out like give 2 or 3 clicks on the trigger to get his attention with out blaring out a shit load of noise, nothing worse than creeping through the bush and next thing ya mates voice comes yelling out scarring the shit out'a everything for a square K

Those Rinos look quite cool, pity they don't do a UHF model, but for most hunting ( where you're out in the sticks ) running VHF is probably all ya need and cheaper

Originally Posted by Philipo

We use top of the line Motorola's at work, ( I work in pest destruction in the northern Tararuas) these are fully waterproof 5w UHF ( we run our own channel ) and they are a bloody good bit of kit, not cheap though around a grand each, they are a basic unit but the old "KISS" works well, also having a grunty CB unit in the truck helps. One time stands out where I was miles in the hills and tried my boss from a radio point we have and I got him on our #1 channel, he was sitting at ITM in Palmy ( farken miles away ) and he came in crystal clear with out even using a repeater


Hills a certainly the down fall of hand held's but for most situations they will do the job, If you're using em while hunting remember to keep the volume down and if ya trying to get hold of a mate, have a system worked out like give 2 or 3 clicks on the trigger to get his attention with out blaring out a shit load of noise, nothing worse than creeping through the bush and next thing ya mates voice comes yelling out scarring the shit out'a everything for a square K

Those Rinos look quite cool, pity they don't do a UHF model, but for most hunting ( where you're out in the sticks ) running VHF is probably all ya need and cheaper

Ummm, the PRS bands that are used by Garmin, Motorola, GMS, .... are UHF bands. If you want real distance the old school AM stuff has much greater range, 50km or more (sometimes 1000km), but these things are pretty rare. Next best is the VHF which are more expensive and you have to pay license fees for.

what would this be like? One Ham Radio Handheld (400-480Mhz) 5w | Trade Me
its 5watt and uhf.

Originally Posted by gadgetman

Ummm, the PRS bands that are used by Garmin, Motorola, GMS, .... are UHF bands. If you want real distance the old school AM stuff has much greater range, 50km or more (sometimes 1000km), but these things are pretty rare. Next best is the VHF which are more expensive and you have to pay license fees for.

Lol, Yeah I just read my post again and I friggen typed it the wrong way round ( we use our own VHF channel, not joe public UHF ) oh well you get what I mean

Originally Posted by bully

what would this be like? One Ham Radio Handheld (400-480Mhz) 5w | Trade Me
its 5watt and uhf.

Those can usually be programmed to whatever channels you want. Pretty sure you can set the non PRS as receive only or delete them.

yes, he said you can programme them, there uhf. the rest of what you said, I don't know what it means, or if that's good or bad.

I have a pair of the Uniden 5w ones that are pretty much new in box that I would sell if your interested. PM me if your keen.

Originally Posted by bully

yes, he said you can programme them, there uhf. the rest of what you said, I don't know what it means, or if that's good or bad.

These units cover a much greater frequency range than just the usual frequencies used by the common radios in NZ and Aus but it can be programmed to use just the usual frequencies. You can set it to just listen to the others if you want and have it set so you cannot transmit on those to keep legal.