Viability of two-way radios

[cutntrim]

You know those inexpensive little Motorola two-ways that people use camping or skiing? Well, they've got ones advertised at Radio Shack for $130 per pair that claim to be effective up to 13km.

Anyone have any experience with these type radios? How is their range in urban areas? We don't have any skyscrapers around, but it's a densely populated suburban market where I'm at. I'm considering using these type radios to communicate truck-to-truck as opposed to just using cell phones.

[snowjoker]

We use them hunting and seem to be OK. We can get a couple miles on the ones we have max. If it were me I would look into the UHF or VHF FM radios, much better and will get many more KM or miles out of them. Or even CB radios :)

[Pelican]

In a densly populated area you are likely to have to compete for air time. I've used them during hunting too, and was amazed at the number of hunters I heard outside myself and my partner. The way these work is you will hear the radio with the strongest signal, usually the one closest to you. So if your partner is out near the edge of the reception area, it will be difficult to hear him if there is other radio traffic.

I don't know if you have Nextel up there, but where their reception is good, these radios can't be beat!

[wyldman]

We don't have Nextel up here,we have the Mike Network.It's expensive and coverage is poor.

We use the little Motorola's for communication when working on the same,or nearby sites.It poor weather,you won't get much range.Probably a Km or so max.Ours are the older ones though.The newer GPRS units have much better output power,so they should go further.I know the 1 watt units (the most powerful ones),are rated for 5 miles,or 8 Km.I have never seen anything over that,except for ones falsely advertised.I think under normal use,you will probably only get 2-3 Km tops.

The rechageable batteries could use some impovement.We usually get about 15-20 hours of use out of them before they die.Ours can also take regular AA batteries,and I was suprised when regualr cheap alkalines lasted about 30 or more hours ! Way better than the rechargeable,and you don't have to worry about forgetting to put them in the charging cradle at the end of the night.I know with most other devices (like cameras),the rechargeables outlast the alkalines.Maybe Motorola just needs a better battery pack,or try upgrading to high output Ni-MH rechargeables for better life.

[Waterchikn]

A couple years ago I bought a pair of Icom 2way radios for an off roading trip that I went on. They were around 80 bucks a piece, which I thought was alittle pricey, but they performed awesome. They went at least 5 miles for the range. Bad thing is, they are the same frequencies as all the other ones your see advertised, so airtime would have to be fought for, like Pelican said. They are water-restistant and quite durable. Another truck had the same radios I had and they lost one during a night time mud bog, we went back the next day, and kept calling it and found it burried in the mud the a tire track right over top of it. Still worked perfectly.
Maybe something you could look into.

[gvlawncare]

I will agree with all that was said above. If you are going to use them on the same site, or fairly close to each other, you should be ok as far as reception is concerned. Radio congestion is a whole other issue. It could be bad, and it might not be....

What are you looking to get out of two-way radios? Distance? How much are you willing to spend? There is always an answer, you just may have to spend the money. Give us some more details on what you are trying to accomplish, and we can help you better..

Matt

[cutntrim]

I dunno, maybe since the landscaping season is over I've got too much idle time on my hands. Anyway I bought a pair of Motorola Talkabout 7200R 2-watt radios for $129.99 online today. If they don't work worth a crap then I'll return them. We'll see... Ideally, a 5km range would be sweet, and that's less than half the range they claim, but I'm not holding out much hope.

[JustUsDe]

Last year I bought four magnavox handhelds from walmart. They were 7 mile range. We found that they were much closer to 2 to 3 mile range in dense areas and with bad weather. They still worked great for what we wanted. We mostly wanted the trucks on the same site and nearby sites to be able to communicate quickly. As far as hearing other conversations these radios had sub channels you could go to and they were vertually private channels. I plan on buying atleast 4 more this year. They also had rechargable batteries and chargers. I think they were around $100.00 a pair.

[cutntrim]

They came by Purolator tonight. I'll see if I can try out their range tomorrow, then post the results.

[synner]

I swear by my Mike phones, one piece for phone/radio/pager and voice mail. Only downside I find is the handsets are expensive.

[wyldman]

Originally posted by synner
I swear by my Mike phones, one piece for phone/radio/pager and voice mail. Only downside I find is the handsets are expensive.

Mike's are nice,but the phone service sucks,especially out of town.Go a few hours north and you are SOL.

We used to use them for the 2 way,but still had cell's with other providers as we needed the better phone service.Couldn't stand paying two bills.

I still have some handsets left if you need any.Let them go cheap.i90c's i think.

[synner]

yeah once you hit Huntsville or Collingwood the service sucks. Chris I'd be interested in your old handsets, always on the look out for some back up units.

[cutntrim]

O.K. tested the radios out this morning. I think they may be the single most disappointing product of all time. Effective range was 0.8km = 0.5mi.

They are advertised to have an effective range of up to almost 13km. Perhaps if I were an astronaut transmitting on the surface of the moon, but in the real world they are no more effective than the GI Joe walkie-talkies I had as a kid. Actually, if I were to blow real hard on a Fox 40 whistle I bet you would hear it further than these pieces of crap can transmit.

I'll be returning them for refund ASAP, and sending an e-mail to Motorola telling them how poorly their product performed. :mad:

[CPSS]

We use Motorola 45 watt UHF radios in all our trucks. They communicate thru a repeater on a nearby mountain for a range of over 40 miles. When two trucks are in the same area, we can bypass the repeater and talk "truck to truck".

[cutntrim]

Initially I looked into that type setup, but I'm out of the truck a lot when landscaping plus I'd still have to pay an airtime fee (or whatever the equivalent fee is called for two-ways).

Looks like I'll be switching my Bell cells (3) into Mike (i.e. nextel) phones. I'll live with the diminished cell phone coverage area...99% of the time I'll be in areas where coverage shouldn't be a problem.

[T-Zab]

I run the Motorola T5950's for hunting also. The range is barely a 2 miles in the big woods up north (northern Wisconsin). The guy at Bass Pro did tell me the 8 mile range might work out on the big Lake, but good luck in the woods. The best part of these things is the noaa radio ! I keep one in the truck at all times ! Great for getting the real forecast right now when you need it. Also great for the marine forecast when your thinking of sneaking out for an afternoon too hook up with a big King or two ( no sense going if there predicting 6-7 footers). The Nextels are what we use for my business, and all the guys I plow with run them too. Allthough my supervisors all have company installed Motorola UHF's installed in there trucks.
Todd

[CPSS]

The repeater charge is only $8 per radio, per month for unlimited talk time. On two of our trucks we have a speaker under the hood with a switch on the dash so you can hear calls away from the truck. The radios have a coded squelch so you only hear the transmissions from your company trucks. Works well in areas of poor cell/Nextell coverage.

[cutntrim]

Hmmm, probably still go with the nextels though, since I do require a cell phone capability as well.

[wyldman]

Two-way in truck radios are expensive,and we do pay for airtime\usage,which isn't cheap.The Mike's are a better option.

[SLC1]

Back before Nextel's were popular we purchased new two-way radios for each truck plus a few handheld ones, they worked good but the nextels work much better. We still have kept the radios in each truck because it is nice to not have to go through the call list on the phone just to call the truck in the next lot over. You may be surprised to find that you can now buy the truck two-way radios much cheaper now because alot of companies are trading them in for the nextels. We paid almost $800 per radio back in 1993 and you can probably find them now for $200, we pay $8 per month per radio and it is billed out four times per year. I think that each service has its place and each one is good for certain situations. Just my two cents

[Pelican]

The only downside to Nextels and similar type radios is you can only hear the person calling you, not someone calling someone else in your group.

When I worked construction we had company radios in the trucks and if a call went out for one guy to take a load somewhere and another truck heard the call that was closer, he's call in and say so. Makes for a little more efficient operation if everyone listening is working with you. If you need to stay in contact with a number of vehicles instead of 2 or 3, radios might be the better ticket.

[Waterchikn]

I am not sure how it works, but I thought that with a nextel you could have "talk groups" I have never tried it before, but thought maybe thats what it was for..Maybe something to look into there also. I have Nextel and it works pretty good between people I plow with and plow for.

[synner]

Nextel/Mike calls the service "Talk Groups". What you can do is set up numerous contacts as members of a group, then alert the entire group and tell all of the contacts the same info/message/etc.. without having to alert each contact individually and tell them all the same info over and over again. Works great for supervisors telling teams about upcoming meetings, deadlines, etc... one call and everyone knows what's up. Would work well for snow groups as one call could alert numerous contacts of upcoming weather conditions in the area/help needed/etc.. I think you may also be able to send a text message to the group as well - guys I know on the network text message each other when they find a low gas price in the area.

Best thing about the Nextel/Mike network is it works whereever there is signal - I use the two way radio to talk with my little bro in British Columbia and I'm here in Ontario.

[gvlawncare]

While you are on the subject of Nextel/Mike, I too am a Nextel Subscriber. I love Nextels. and their ability. The one of the drawbacks, if if you have ne cell coverage, the Direct connect will not work either. Here is Nextels solution. Mid summer they rolled out the i315 and i325 phones. They have "Direct Talk" This is an off network walky talky built in. If you don't have cell service, or service is down for some reason, you will still have the ability to use the walkie-Talkie. The range is pretty good. 4-5 miles line of sight, and 2-3 miles populated area.

This is another option for you. I have the i325 and love it. It is rugged as you would ever want and has excellent reception. I would highly reccommend it.

Links:
Direct Talk: Nextel Direct Talk (http://www.nextel.com/support/faq/directtalkfaq.shtml)

i325: Nextel i325 (http://nextelonline.nextel.com/NASApp/onlinestore/Action/ViewPhoneDetailAction?phoneSKU=I325)

[Waterchikn]

I think I might know what I am getting for Christmas!
Thats pretty cool, they usually send me all the new stuff via email or in my bill, I didn't get anything this time! Weird...

[synner]

Link for any Canucks who are interested.

http://www.telusmobility.com/on/mike/handset_i325.shtml

[CPSS]

We also use Nextel, and the "Talk Group" feature costs an extra $10 per month, per phone for 250 minutes of talk group time, or $25 extra per month, per phone for unlimited talk group.

The other problem is that to use the two way radio function of the Nextels, you first have to push a button to bring up your contact list, then select the contact, then push to talk. It's a little tough when your plowing. As mentioned above, the UHF 2 ways that we use allow you to just pick up the microphone and talk, all units hear your transmission, the battery is never dead, and you can't lose the unit in a snowbank........

[synner]

you can't lose the unit in a snowbank........

too true I've lost 2 phones in 3 seasons some where in the snow. makes the rest of the night really quiet.

[cutntrim]

I returned the two-ways to FutureShop today for a refund. I doubt I'll do anything further until after Christmas as it's too crazy in all the stores right now, but odds are I'll switch over to the Mike phones. The 325 series phones are too pricey, I'll go with the rubberized flip-style ones, much cheaper.

[synner]

cutntrim sometimes there are good Mike phones to be found on ebay. sometimes.

http://search.ebay.ca/telus-mike_Cell-Phones_W0QQmaxrecordsreturnedZ300QQsacategoryZ1503 2QQsalocatedincountryZ2QQsorecordsperpageZ50

[dplummer]

Hi Guys ! I've used cells, Mikes & found them both to be too expensive. I now use Motorolla 2 ways. Intially a big outlay. I don't need to be on a repeater so I don't have a monthly fee, just the yearly license. Works great for me! Anyway just my 2 cents.