Walkie talkies (1 Viewer)

Aug 30, 2012
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Home of the war horse
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I had a rummage round garage today found
5 motorola gp340 and 1 360
5 motorola 040
1 icom handset brand new never used
2 icom mobiles both never used
All on UHF
And a ham 2 meter icom handset
Plus 3 block chargers and a load of spare battery's
Didnt even know I had them all so me being me booted up my old laptop and reprogrammed the gp360 to PMR 446 channel 5 on 4 watts and it works
Just got to find cables now to have a go at Icom mobile if it works I am going to fit it in van with with 3 power setting at 1 watt 4 watts and I think I can get it up to 25 watts but that would be not much use really
All other radios are now on charge so let's see what working tomorrow

Proberbly about 2 grands worth on eBay just sat there doing nothing
 

Puddleduck

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Jan 15, 2014
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We have cheapies and they are great for maneuvers in tight places. The driver just leaves the handset switched on and the director has the transmit button pressed in and tells the driver where to go!
 

Scout

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Thanks for all the info, I will have to investigate the best for my needs. Are there any traders I can go to, the internet is great for price if you know what you want but I prefer face to face if it's something im unfamiliar with.


personaly I would bite Larrywins hands off, I would not sell mine that cheap there a bargin

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Oct 24, 2013
446
292
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We have two in the motorhome. Come in very handy upto 10Klm range. Got them from curry's. (the other half has a longer range)
 

bernardfeay

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Nov 18, 2009
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When one vehicle is deciding the route it is all too easy for the following vehicle to get stuck at a traffic light and visual contact is lost. If this happens it is a breeze to say "we took the first exit on the roundabout" and all is well.

As others have said the range is rubbish but that shouldn't matter.

Very useful when you spot an interesting detour. Without the WTs the following vehicle would have no idea what you were up to without the update.

I do get a bit worried though when our pal knew who I was listening to on my Desert Island Discs podcast when we were not transmitting. I do a lot of gossiping and most of it should not be overheard.

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Aug 30, 2012
4,270
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Home of the war horse
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burstnar T640
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2010
I had a rummage round garage today found
5 motorola gp340 and 1 360
5 motorola 040
1 icom handset brand new never used
2 icom mobiles both never used
All on UHF
And a ham 2 meter icom handset
Plus 3 block chargers and a load of spare battery's
Didnt even know I had them all so me being me booted up my old laptop and reprogrammed the gp360 to PMR 446 channel 5 on 4 watts and it works
Just got to find cables now to have a go at Icom mobile if it works I am going to fit it in van with with 3 power setting at 1 watt 4 watts and I think I can get it up to 25 watts but that would be not much use really
All other radios are now on charge so let's see what working tomorrow

Proberbly about 2 grands worth on eBay just sat there doing nothing


I have sorted though all this lot and all are working and I am keeping
The gp340 myself for work

I thought this may be a good idea

I will give Jim free
3 of the gp 040 plus spare battery's and charger programmed to 16 channels on simple licence
If he agrees to get a simple license its £75 for 3 years then they can be used for Marshells at rally's
plus if any MEMBER should wish to buy radios themselfs as members of the licences holding club they would able to legally use them anywhere in UK once programed
Just note these are not PMR radios totally differant frequency
You do need a license from offcom to use them (club not individual)
And you do not need any kind of amateur license to operate
They would not be legal to use out side UK (but everbody does)

I will put it over to Jim to make a decision once he has got sorted out at home with his family bereavement
Any thoughts
@Jaws @Snowbird @tonka
I have put these funsters in as I know they have coms experience
 

MattR

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Aug 18, 2013
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Thanks for all the info, I will have to investigate the best for my needs. Are there any traders I can go to, the internet is great for price if you know what you want but I prefer face to face if it's something im unfamiliar with.
I have these:

Also sold by Maplin for a few quid more. They are the best of the three types of personal radios that I have.
 

tonka

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Jul 2, 2008
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Got notification that my name was mentioned. :)
Been out the game a long time.. Polarbear (Graham) will be another source of input as he continued with Ham and Pmr after I shot off into Satellite and other things...
I think it's all been said already. PMR446 is used by most as it's freely available and license free. Good for close contact and maybe in certain terrain area's but with 500mw it's limited. CB radio has a better range but not as cheap for handheld units.
The PMR "own frequency" system will give a better range for rallies etc but only the Marshalls and Jim can decide if thats a worthwhile and viable route....
On the "naughty" side of things there are several radios, reasonably cheap that are sold for Licensed radio ham use, that also have the PMR446 band BUT pump out 4w of power for that extra coverage.. Obiously not legal to operate with that power on that band.. !!
10-10

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EzeeRider

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Sep 12, 2007
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We have a couple of Cobra sets purchased from Maplins. They work fine for close contact, motorhome to motorhome. The range is short, 1Km if you are lucky but it is of no real concern. If we loose contact and don't pick each other up again we simply resort to using mobile phones. :)
ezee
 
Oct 29, 2008
5,024
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These are 4watt out of the box on PMR446 but are not the easiest to program. They also work on 70cm so be warned.

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Aug 10, 2012
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cambridge
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We use 4 of these for skiing with ear pieces, loose each other and meet up as required, not more coat tails!!!

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mentaliss

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Nov 2, 2012
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I quite often tour together with my parents in out vans and we have discussed if Walkie Talkies would be useful for communication, I think they would work while parked but I am not sure if they would work while we were following each other, would the engine interfere with the signal. Has anybody tried.
If you avoid purchasing 'Toy' type WT 'S and expect to pay £75++++ you will get good coverage , I purchased a pair of ICOM some years ago and have many times communicated on an open road with my Brother in Law's van well over two miles hence we always take them when travelling abroad, Oh! and, when I have to go Tesco's with the wife:LOL::LOL:..further to that when watching the News during the Iraq war I discovered that the USA infantry had them as their standard issue...what an endorsement:):):cool:
 

tonka

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If your ever in Benidorm they use 446 on set when filming the series..
You could create havoc if you wanted to :doh::rofl::rofl:
 
OP
OP
whereru

whereru

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Jun 16, 2014
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Thank you all for you helpful advice, I will look into purchasing some before our next trip.
As a lone female traveller I might feel a bit safer knowing I can contact my parents quickly in an emergency, not that I have ever had a problem up to now but better to be safe than sorry.

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Jaws

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Sep 26, 2008
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If you avoid purchasing 'Toy' type WT 'S and expect to pay £75++++ you will get good coverage , I purchased a pair of ICOM some years ago and have many times communicated on an open road with my Brother in Law's van well over two miles hence we always take them when travelling abroad, Oh! and, when I have to go Tesco's with the wife:LOL::LOL:..further to that when watching the News during the Iraq war I discovered that the USA infantry had them as their standard issue...what an endorsement:):):cool:
And I am willing to bet pounds to a pile of doodoo they are running 4 watts !
 

JeanLuc

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Nov 17, 2008
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Wow - just looked up Icom. They look excellent but at £133 EACH! you need to do a lot of walkie-talking to justify the outlay.
 

Jaws

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Sep 26, 2008
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And I reiterate .. what ever you go for please do be aware the maximum permissible output is 500mW
I am by nature a bit ( !!! ) of an anarchist but when it comes to these things I have to bow down to the rules... The reason ? because there is an AWFUL lot of equipment that is controlled on or around the 446PMR frequencies
These things range from medical equipment to huge band saws that are remotely controlled.... Not ALL the stuff has wonderfully tight filters and can easily 'hear' transmissions emanating from close by frequencies.
A low power output device ( as in the legal units ) will not put out enough to break through even pretty duff filters.
Imagine this.. You are riding past a factory and call up you mate.. some poor bugger is just cleaning out a machine.. you transmit and matey dies of some real grim injury
Nope.. not scare mongering.. For a long while I did this sort of thing as a job and have seen it .. once was enough but when you see it a few times.... It was enough to make me change career completely :oops:

Of course there is also the small issue of the possible ( though unlikely ! ) prison sentence if you get caught with one.. at minimum though the authorities WILL take em off you

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Jaws

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Sep 26, 2008
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Nope.. not true. Well at least debatable..
The current laws relating to telephones are very specific and state telephones rather than telephony equipment
While it is illegal to use a telephone it is not illegal to use a microphone
The laws were amended several years ago due to a few police getting 'reminded' in open court !
Rather than do the job properly and allow the use of mics by emergency services the parliamentary working committee simply changed the whole thing to allow their use
 
Apr 27, 2008
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The Retivis ones on the link above are illegal, even if reprogrammed to the correct pmr 446 frequencies as they are 4-5w (max permitted is 0.5w) and they also have a removable antenna and could thus be used with a separate antenna, which again is illegal in UK. They are even illegal if you have an amateur radio licence on 446 frequencies.
A pity that these are marketed for children of 4 years and up, a bit irresponsible of the Chinese (probably legal in China).

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Aug 10, 2012
834
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cambridge
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And I reiterate .. what ever you go for please do be aware the maximum permissible output is 500mW
I am by nature a bit ( !!! ) of an anarchist but when it comes to these things I have to bow down to the rules... The reason ? because there is an AWFUL lot of equipment that is controlled on or around the 446PMR frequencies
These things range from medical equipment to huge band saws that are remotely controlled.... Not ALL the stuff has wonderfully tight filters and can easily 'hear' transmissions emanating from close by frequencies.
A low power output device ( as in the legal units ) will not put out enough to break through even pretty duff filters.
Imagine this.. You are riding past a factory and call up you mate.. some poor bugger is just cleaning out a machine.. you transmit and matey dies of some real grim injury
Nope.. not scare mongering.. For a long while I did this sort of thing as a job and have seen it .. once was enough but when you see it a few times.... It was enough to make me change career completely :oops:

Of course there is also the small issue of the possible ( though unlikely ! ) prison sentence if you get caught with one.. at minimum though the authorities WILL take em off you


Yes it's true
I used a walkie talkie in the office once and the aircon started up

Oh we laughed, but it could easily have been something else
 

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