radios - looking for advice

[badas]

hello all,

thinking of getting some radios between myself and the others i play with for airsoft and came accross these:

Motorola XTR446

we play in woodland environment and usually quite close to one and annother but its a fair sized playing field we have.

just wanted to know if anyone have used these and wanted your opinions on these or anything thats better for the same price, were looking to pay £30 per radio and looking for plugin external mics and earphone things.

thanks

[Pyro]

Re: radios - looking for advice

I know someone who has a Motorola talk about (not sure of the model) and he is quite happy with it, however, me and my mate use the Cobra MT600 it does the job and it's only £30 for a pair.

[acheekymonkeyuk]

Re: radios - looking for advice

i bought a motorola gp68 from a well know auction site, Picks up PMR and GMRS

[No1_sonuk]

Re: radios - looking for advice

i bought a motorola gp68 from a well know auction site, Picks up PMR and GMRS

GMRS is only of use in the US, possibly Canada, and is illegal (to transmit) in the UK.

[badas]

Re: radios - looking for advice

ok thanks for that warning, but what about the radios i am wanting info on in my OP please

[steveoz]

Re: radios - looking for advice

I'm sure they will be fine, I have a cheapo £25.00 set of binatones, and they work absolutely fine in 10 acres of woodland and in CQB environments inside buildings.

Just remember to turn the bloody signal tones off though, anoying as hell, and if you don't declare radio silence it can give you away like mad!

[Sci Fi Steve]

Re: radios - looking for advice

Motorola are a good brand, however I would ( as I am going to do) ask players at your local site what they are using, as different makes preform different in certain terrains. Even states that on the blurb on some sites. Nothing worse than buying a radio and finding out that trees interfere with the signal.

[bravotwozero]

Re: radios - looking for advice

Yeah as Steve said.

Motorolas are great, expecially if your going to use headsets / mics as most only work with either kenwoods or motorolas.


But they suffer from the same problems all PMR's do, not least interference.
Also, they won't work with UHF frequancies. So if team members have slightly more gucci radios that work using UHF, you'll have a communication problem :p


Where you use it has a massive effect on it's effectiveness too.
To give you an idea, A PMR with a 3K range would have a range of a 20meters or so in dense woodland...

Which is fine if your in close quarters but useless if your on the move.



But i'd say it's down to how seriouse you want to take your communications. I think people underestimate how usefull radios are, but in my opinnion, a set of decent comms is a good investment.

[steveoz]

Re: radios - looking for advice

Steve's right, Motorolas are great for the price, but like I said, I have a pair of £20 (apparantly 3km but we know that's never going to happen) binatones from curry's. Crap make, cheap price for a pair, and they work mint the whole woodland at my local site which is pretty dense (although true not in the leafy season atm!). They also worked fine in the bristol courthouse through the stone walls.

Downside is they only have 6 main channels, IE 1-6 and not 1.2 / 1.3 etc. Still they do the trick and have headphone / mic jacks on with voice activation, barjin!

My brother has a set of motorolas, and they are a bit more compact, have more channels but work just the same.

[guard-sniper87]

Re: radios - looking for advice

i have motorola Talkabout ,

got them in a pack of 4 for 40 quid off of a well known auction site

5km op range single pin jack for a varity of headset's mic and boom mics

[acheekymonkeyuk]

Re: radios - looking for advice

the motorola i bought is a UHF and a great price. Also listen to security guards at local shopping centre which is fun LOL

[guard-sniper87]

Re: radios - looking for advice

that is good fun but frownd upon soon followed by stumbling onto the channel used for CHARLIE CHARLIE

[badas]

Re: radios - looking for advice

CHARLIE CHARLIE

what?

and thanks for the help guys,

a few more questions though,

i mainly play in woodland environments and from time to time i can be 100 metres to 200 metres at most away from my pals, so can mics still allow clear comms?

what should i be looking at in a radio spec to see what limits distance and clarity of coms etc?

thanks

[guard-sniper87]

Re: radios - looking for advice

the headsets and mics can cut down ambient noise ,

as my throat mic cuts all background noise out , just lets vocal noise to transmit ,

in woodland mate , you will get clear signal for around 700m depending on terrain type

simple phrase , less hills more range of comms
more hills , less range for comms

[badas]

Re: radios - looking for advice

there are some decent sized hills where i play but were not talking about cliffs.... i don't know exactly but i think if one guy was on the lowest part on the ground, another could be 75metres higher, not sure exactly but some parts are of a steep gradient.

the headsets and mic i have seen that come with the OP is like a security style ear piece and a mic i can clip on my collar too.

thanks for the help