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FRS walkie talkies

"Stormin Mormon" wrote

I recharge the 2500 mAH NiMH AAs for my camera every 1st of the month, and they need a couple of hours to complete.

Reply to
Jim Wilkins
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Actually, "all that steel" was between me, and the man on the ground. I guess I could have took the walkie, and put it on top of the RTU, it would have been much better signal up there.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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All that steel blocks the signal, and causes dead spots wherever the signal is close to 180° out of phase.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

"Are you security?" "I'm not at liberty to say".

Ah, well. I bet they worked, and did a good job?

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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not as durable as older models but lighter.....

the RCAs were commercial receivers, took them once with some friends to the henry ford museum and greenfield village. this before cell phones......

people gave us wierd looks and a couple asked if we were security.....

now the odd person not carrying a cell phone is a rarity.........

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

That's not totally useful graph. Need to know what size batteries.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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Rechargeables start at a lower voltage but hold it longer.

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jsw

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

The new "precharged", "stay charged" or "eneloop" ones are supposed to be good. I bought some Raoyvac precharged at Walmart, and have been pleased with them.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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I recharge the 2500 mAH NiMH AAs for my camera every 1st of the month, and they need a couple of hours to complete.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Not unless you were line of sight with no steel in between, nothing to cause multipath (As in TV ghosting) and at least a full wavelength from the nearest large piece of steel. the signal quality & levels are affected by all those factors. On top of that the antennas aren't very good on a handheld, since there isn't a good counterpoise.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Well, walkie laying on top of the RTU can't be much worse than being in a heavy metal box.

And, the quarter wave for FRS is about six inches, the TX antennas are limited to four inches, which is totally not resonant.

With all these problems, I'm amazed how well FRS works.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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Not unless you were line of sight with no steel in between, nothing to cause multipath (As in TV ghosting) and at least a full wavelength from the nearest large piece of steel. the signal quality & levels are affected by all those factors. On top of that the antennas aren't very good on a handheld, since there isn't a good counterpoise.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Years ago, I read the FCC web site on FRS. Back then, they were non commercial, only. A lot of stores use FRS at the store. I went back and read the web page, the non commercial bit had disappeared.

I'd like to see base stations sold. For example, farm house, to contact the guys in the farm field. Midland has a "base station" with hand held microphone. I'd make one of those on four D cells, so it would last a while. They used three AA cells. What advantage is that? Antenna not removable, either.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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It would work a lot better with a simple ground plane antenna or dipole antenna, but FRS radios aren't allowed in fixed service applications. Those are supposed to be licensed.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

There are other systems intended for that application. These days, cell phones are cheaper to use than a long range radio system.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

"Stormin Mormon" wrote

Both are 2000 mA-H.

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

They do start at a somewhat lower voltage..but they outlast alkalines by about 3 to one in the field. Ive got Enerloops that have already been charged 500 times..and still go full charge and last for 6 months without losing more than 10%

Gunner

Reply to
gunnerasch

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Ive been very very happy with these batteries. Relabled Enerloops. Virtually zero drain

Gunner

Reply to
gunnerasch

So, what size batteries are they?

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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"Stormin Mormon" wrote

Both are 2000 mA-H.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

One is red, the other is blue. How long are your shoelaces?

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

So, what size are the batteries that go wtih the chart?

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I collected quite a few frs units, one set of midland gmrs/frs. I icom frs. Two base stations. One radio shack, one off brand. One radio shack mobile unit magnetic ground plane remote antenna. Several cheap frs units, some broke. When I first started using them, most people did not use cell phones, at least the younger persons could not afford them. They still can't afford them.

One base unit has all the bells and whistles. My radio shack is built well but simple, toggle switch to set channel, act as frs intercom.

I measured my midlands, gmrs having at least 2 watts.

Greg

Reply to
gregz

The farthest I transmitted was at least 8 miles on hilltops using my best frs, icom and radio hack mobile unit. Easy to talk to planes. The longest frs contact reported in nuts and volts, was something like 130 miles or more on some kind of atmospheric deal.

I know at one time on lake Erie I connected through a Canadian cell site using AT&T system, 50 miles away. Never got billed, back in mid 90's. I think I may have got billed another time, that's how I found where I connected through. The reception was real weak on near shore stations, but

10 miles into the water, reception was great with stronger towers visible. Why am I talking about cell phones.

Greg

Reply to
gregz

IF you have cell coverage. There are quite a few places that don't. The current narrow banding BS is causing a lot of problems in the fire service. Now they are saying that we should all go digital, even though it has been proven to be even worse than the NB junk.

Reply to
Steve W.

Yes, digital radio systems are as bad as digital TV. Great, where it works, and absolutely useless in fringe areas that old analog equipment is still usable. The earliest FM two way radio systems used 30 KHz channel width, and it's gone down hill since then. Narrower channels, lower power & lower towers. I installed a low band 250W base for a guy about 30 years ago. He could talk to Middletown, Ohio from his semi on hilltops in the middle of Kentucky as he drove loads of cardboard boxes down I-75. A county near here spent well north of a million dollars to replace their analog system with digital. They had four remote towers & voting hardware to give 100% coverage for the county. Motorola convinced them that wasn't needed, and they ended up with less that 35% reliable coverage. That they could fix for a few more million.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Back when there was Frontier Tel, and Genesee Tel, in the Rochester NY area. I had a mobile cell phone in the van. I was near edge of Lake Ontario, and the pager went off. I called the answering people, on roam. And then the customer. Turns out my cell was working towers in Toronto, Canada, and it was costing me two bucks a minute for roam.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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I know at one time on lake Erie I connected through a Canadian cell site using AT&T system, 50 miles away. Never got billed, back in mid 90's. I think I may have got billed another time, that's how I found where I connected through. The reception was real weak on near shore stations, but

10 miles into the water, reception was great with stronger towers visible. Why am I talking about cell phones.

Greg

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

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