Walkie Talkies

[Stormin Mormon]

Within the last several years, FCC authorized "Family Radio Service". I know that many stores have great success with them. Though, they are not legal for use by business. Just families. Still, many stores use them.

They are seriously cheap on Ebay. And can be bought with rechargable batteries, and charge stands. So you're not spending piles of money on batteries.

Cheaper than using cell phone minutes for everything.

I like my gadgets. And FRS walkie talkies are on my list of neat gadgets I like to play with. Who has used them, and how did they work?

My major experience has been picnics. From picnic base to firewood team, they are good for chit chat. The only time I've used them for anything real, was one time I was pincic with a friend. His daughter wandered off. He went to look for her, and I stayed at the base.

Used them while working on a heating and AC job. They were a serious help, there. We could have guys in the cellar, or in the attic, and saved a lot of running around.

[aemeijers]

There are 2 closely related flavors, FRS and GMRS, the slightly more expensive and powerful ones. GMRS technically requires a cheap license, but almost nobody bothers, and it does not seem to be enforced. Those are legal for business use. Some radios swing both ways, since the assigned frequency bands overlap.

They are cheap and useful, but not very durable, especially if you drop them in mud or on concrete. We use real walkie talkies at work, but they range from $750 for vanilla vhf, to ~$3k for the modern trunked digital ones.

-- aem sends...

[Ulysses]

I got some with a 3 mile range and they didn't work from my house to the back of my property (over a hill about 1000 feet). I got some with a 7 mile range and they didn't work as well as the 3 mile range. About the only time I actually use them is while working on something when someone has to monitor one thing while someone else is 500 feet away working on the problem.

I was hoping they would work well enough so my wife or daughter could call if they got stuck in the mud where there is no cell phone service. It's less than a mile to the bad area and they don't work.

All-in-all I'd say they work a little better than the old four transistor walkie-talkies I had when I was a kid.

[RicodJour]

I've had some Motorola Talkabouts for over ten years and I love 'em. I use them when working to communicate between floors or from front to back of the house, when following people in cars (you can actually follow someone you're guiding when you have them, and you don't have to be within sight), use them at large events and parks to stay in contact (great way to give kids free rein and keep them in check at the same time).

R

[Jon Danniken]

Yeah, but it was funner playing Captain Spaceman back then.

Jon

[Ralph Mowery]

The ranges given are a big joke. If you look at the fine print you may see something strange like from the top of a mountain. Some friends have communicated over 30 miles with them,but one was on top of Mt. Mitchell (highest point on east coast). At much over 500 feet they are like a big searchlight. If you can see it, you can talk. If there is a hill in the way , forget it.

As a ham operator I have used the talkies for over 25 years. You just have to know what can and can not be expected of them.

[The Ranger]

We use them whenever we travel and expect to be working an amusement park. In Legoland, SeaWorld, Phoenix Zoo, etc. our Motorola Radio Shack 21-1854 worked extremely well. The channels were clear and uncluttered, they also held a charge all day and well-into the night; I especially appreciate the quick-charge that can be done if you go back to your hotel room to nap between meals. Inside The Happiest Place on Earth, they were useless. Not only did 700 others share the same thought about that radio's usefulness, every one of them were holding dissertations on War & Peace. We've also used them during those first years where I allowed my older daughter-units a modicum of freedom (riding their bikes to friends' homes or to school daily.) They worked fine for those trips and short jaunts.

The Ranger

[Bob F]

The ones with multiple "security codes" help eliminate a lot of the extra traffic. You don't have to listen to everyone else's talk.

[AZ Nomad]

Unless you are outside cellphone coverage, what's the point?

Just use cell phones. WTs are just one more PITA piece of portable electronics to lug around. My camera, cell phone, and walkman are enough.

[aemeijers]

You don't have to pay monthly fees for walkie-talkies. Not everyone has or routinely carries a cell, or wants to. And out in the boonies or at a crowed public venue, availability is likely to be spotty or non-existent.

-- aem sends...

[Stormin Mormon]

I can easily imagine getting cross talk from zillions of tourists. At a moment like that, MURS color dot radios would likely do a better job.

[Stormin Mormon]

Cell service costs money. That's the point.

[George]

I recently dropped the mp3 player and also the camera for most occasions because my phone can do that. It actually has a pretty decent 5 Mega pixel camera with the only shortcoming being lack of zoom.

[George]

Pretty much all of the carriers have some sort of "in network calling" etc where the clock isn't running if you are called or are calling someone on the same carrier. Our plan also includes the ability to add

10 additional numbers from any carrier or landline which are also off the clock. I have never experienced a problem at a crowded venue because carriers plan for that and unfortunately coverage also extends into the boonies. A walkie talkie is just another radio to carry and charge a battery and maintain.

[AZ Nomad]

I already have a cell phone. Most people do. Another poster pointed out that WT's don't work terribly well in theme parks where too many people still think they're a novel idea.

[AZ Nomad]

Cell phone's all have awful optics and I would only consider using a cell phone camera if there was no other choice. Cell phone mp3 players aren't much better. I know few cell phone's with an 80G drive.

[aemeijers]

I repeat- not everybody has a cell phone, or wants one. Nor does everyone want to pay the monthly fees, for something they may only need

3-4 times a year. I only have a toy prepaid that costs me 8 bucks a month, and have close to $200 in airtime built up on it, because I use it so little. (traveling or the occasional days I am on call.) No way would I pay $25-30 or more a month for a 'real' cell phone. It lives in my briefcase, and I turn it on maybe once a week to check for voicemail, if I remember. And if what you call 'boonies' has cell coverage, you don't wander around much. Whole swaths of the country only have cell in town and along major highways. It is only in last few years that Park Service has encouraged cell towers in the larger remote parks, mainly to make life easier for their people when clueless tourists get lost. As to system saturation- it is better than it used to be, but they still have to run in portable towers for major events, or lots of people can't dial out.

-- aem sends...

[aemeijers]

Toy FRS walkie talkies won't- real ones will work fine.

-- aem sends..

[ransley]

For 80$, Motorola says theirs do 25 miles. For 90$ 28 miles, around a building over a hill, who knows maybe 100ft.

[Stormin Mormon]

The business bands should be usable. MURS for example.