Radios & Comms - PLEASE EDUCATE ME

[Sprint]

Hi all,

Can any of you point me toward or be a source of simplified knowledge on what radios work well for woodland skirmish, i dont wanna have to drop a stack to talk to my team mates but at the same time i want a nice clear signal, obv doing what we do we dont need obscene range.

Comms is new ground for us and think it would enhance our gameplay end general fun when out!

Cheers

[dj2l8b]

Radios & Comms - PLEASE EDUCATE ME

Well you have lots of options as radio wise but licence free is PMR 446 radios which are at 0.1-0.5W
Most buy Motorolla XTni, they are easy to use Etc
If you want better you can go buy TRI Prc148 or 152.
They are more professional and are more powerful (5W) meaning you can hit a good 10miles of broadcast.
You can then get a licence and buy open frequency and use it or you can buy a permit and use UK general which is 449 frequencies which are broadcasted at higher wattage..



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[Defiant]

Re: Radios & Comms - PLEASE EDUCATE ME

Hi,

Technically you have one option for licence free use in the UK and that is something that is marked "PMR446" the likes of Motorola's etc you find in most shops like Maplin, Argos and so-on. They are license free and designed to be used anywhere in the UK and for the most part Europe as well.

They technically wont get you in trouble with anyone anywhere. However they are 0.5w and have a fixed antenna so you've not much room for "improvement", however mounted up properly on the top shoulder on whatever you wear vest wise and the antenna upwards to the highest point and most of the good radios like the Motorola's Txx range will give a range nearing 2KM in most circumstances - obviously not on an oil rig :-( but in the wood's you'd be OK.

Now a lot of people buy BaoFeng and the like. Now for the casual user they are illegal to use in the UK without one of two things a licence and type approval. Now not all will meet UK approval - and as such are illegal - and the other issue is they are preprogrammed with 16 channels across the UHF band - some line up with commercial channels - this is where you may get in trouble if you're shouting "whiskey 1 this is echo team we have eyes on HVT engaging security team now, move to charlie and secure transport, mike 1 and mike 4 will join you" all over ASDA's UHF channel 4 ... OFCOM may actually come and see you if someone actually complained - however and this is the big "but" you may never ever cause anyone any issues at all. Many many many people run these imported radios with no issues. BUT it is something to remember. You could interfere with a legitimate user in an emergency ... and that would not be cool.

The draw of these sets are the better range, they are higher power, 4,5 or 8watts and have great range in and out of buildings and over 4 or 5KM without any issues, normally have upgradable antennas and can be made to look "cool" with the right add-ons. A small down side is shorter battery life due to the higher power level AND you wont have interpolation with Motorola's and other PMR446 kit without being reprogrammed. (I do this for people at my local site so they have 8 original channels and 8 446 compatible channels). So a mixture of radios on game day wont work for you without some tweaking.

Again these cheaper handies are not as well made as other branded kit and tend to have a shorter lifetime. However at £30 for 4 sometimes you cannot moan. A good pair of Motorola's will set you back £100 but last 10 times as long as the Chinese clones.

You could try ex PMR stuff like the commercial Motorola's they come in VHF and UHF flavours and offer fantastic value (again questionable about using them) but would outperform all the above with ease. And be rugged enough for anything you'd use it for in Airsoft - and of course look the part for SWAT/Police type load-out users.

One caveat to the above is you could purchase from OFCOM a genuine business user "UHF" or "VHF" channel on a non-exclusive basis - it would be yours to play about on within reason and you'd not be limited by low power or poor make do antennas. And of course you'd have pretty good privacy as not many people would be on your "channel" and you'd get better range as you'd not be suffering from the effects of multiple users on or near your channel. (Technical crap here and too deep to go into but more users = worse performance).

The other option (for the dumb) is to spend proper big coin on eBay and get some H4855 PRRs that are ex-UK forces and look really cool then find out they are shit as people IRL have and wish they'd got Falcons ;/ There are a couple of types should you go that route. One is 0.5w and the other 0.8w on fresh AA's. The later units have a better antenna with some "gain" so it works a little better than the precious model, it also has a GPS port on the bottom so easy to spot if an early or late unit, there maybe the odd one that is an exception. They have 16 grouped channels at 2.4Ghz and WILL NOT WORK WITH ANYTHING ELSE AT ALL. To use these you would probably only have access to channel 15 and 16 the others were designed for FE and as such may do nothing when selected. However for the full UK forces load out they'd look the part and all the real steel kit works with them - and you'll be shouting at each other just like IRL. Again the use of such devices may fall foul of one or more UK laws or worse the MoD plod...

That's about all I can think of really. Hit me up if you need anything clarifying.

Cheers Steve

[minimi123246]

Re: Radios & Comms - PLEASE EDUCATE ME

There is always the intek mt50-50. They are quite expensive (£40-£60 depending on where you get them) but use pmr446 channels with privacy channels, also there are 69 (iirc) lpd channels that no longer need a license. Also can be modded in seconds to get scrambler, more channels and higher power.

[Sprint]

Re: Radios & Comms - PLEASE EDUCATE ME

Wow, some very informative stuff there, going to be re reading and looking about abit on that lot, thanks very much... lets see how far i get without any follow up questions :P

[Mephistos]

Re: Radios & Comms - PLEASE EDUCATE ME

Me and my friends have just bought in the last few days some Baofeng BF-888s comms gear off of ebay. Great value for what we've got.

Anyhow, you can buy the cables to reprogram them on a computer for a few dollars or make one yourself if you're handy with a soldering iron. The software and wiring guides are just a short google search away. Then you should be able to reprogram them to the PMR446 with little or no hassle. (at least that's the idea)

[Andy Mc]

Re: Radios & Comms - PLEASE EDUCATE ME

nice explanation Defiant thanks!
Just my 2 cents worth from my experience:
VHF - very high frequency = 5km distance or range with no obstacles in the way, so big open fields etc they work well, chuck an obstacle or two in the way and they could struggle.
UHF - Ultra high frequency = 1km range, now we use these for our rescue work in tunnels and built up areas, realistically the range is about 300-400meters, but they work really well through obstacles, like building, walls, metal work etc.. but they are also licensed by OFCOM.
For the pewpew's i had a few sets of Motorola GP340's (too bulky and very expensive), then tried a set of Entel radios that were licensed, problem i found was i could not talk to anyone else on the site, except for anyone else in my airsoft team that also had an entel radio with the same licence (basically radios that i supplied) but you can get PMR Entel radios if you want, Awesome radio as they are fully submersible, last ages as they are rock solid, tons of accessories for them, i know a few emergency services, military and police organisations use them as well.
But in the end i got myself 2 sets of Motorola TLKR T80 PMR radios, they are pretty good, only thing i have found that the earpieces are really small (i have big ears), and the throat mics for them are a bit naf..not so clear as some other brands i have used. But perfectly good for airsofting and can pick them up for a decent price as well.