Those of you that have been out in a convoy of Scoobys will be familiar with those cheap walkie talkies. They can be great fun but they usually run out of range after a couple of miles and dispite having 4 of them rattling around in the car you can garentee the batteries are dead or they've been stamped on and don't work.

What I want to know is can I get something more permanant like one one of the old CB radios to work on the same frequencies?

Just gearing up for the summer convoys

 

Im pretty sure the crappy range (think its 2 miles) is to do with licence laws and limiting there wattage.

You can get more powerful ones but im not sure if they are compatible with the shorter range ones??

Mark

 

Most of our crappy radios are still going strong, over 1 year on. The fact that they get out of range withing a claimed 3km, but more likely as you say around 2 miles is actually a good thing. If the convoy your "supposed" to be in suddenly goes crackly or dead on the radio, it means you've lost them
Ask mark above, as driving an audi, this usually happens to him
As for getting cb's, I'm sure they're still about, but would everyone in your group want to go to the expense of having proper cb's fitted, I know the tight fisted SMACS lot wouldn't, as most of em borrow my radios as it is
chris.

 

[QUOTE=cw42]
Ask mark above, as driving an audi, this usually happens to him [QUOTE]

tut tut tut!!

wheres my mate 'The Chief' when i need him

I have to agree with the Chris the 'short' range radios are perfect for run outs, and like Chris said they only go off or fuzzy when you get lost or get left behind, although despite what Chris has said mines never gone fuzzy

Mark

 

The handheld radios your talking about come under the PMR446 European standard which are free to use, the radios are on a certain frequency 446Mhz with a fixed antenna and transmit at 0.5 watts, with the limited power your unlikely to get much further than a couple of miles with a clear line of sight. Without a licence this is the only option.

CB radio is a completly different kettle of fish and can not be programmed to use the same frequency, 27Mhz compared with 446Mhz. You could use CB radio but then you need to get a licence (believe it or not) and have a stupid antenna on your car!

 

cheap ones are a waste of time in a noisey car. Tried them two weeks ago on the way to the ring. Ok in traffic but a waste of time on the move.

Gary

 

Just got a set of Motorola T4502 delivered yesterday, cheap and cheerful.
Standard no licence required 8 channel walkie talkie.
3 mile range and not that bad really

 

I had a chat with a bloke in Arizona the other morning using 2.5 watts. That was amateur radio though, with a good aerial. Surprising what you can do at times with good conditions.

Les

 

Hello

I have a pair of these:



http://www.uniden.com/productpop/00_...de=GMR1088-2CK

with a claimed range of 10 miles. Realistically they will do several miles in the city.

Steve.

 

Thanks for yur comments guys, I obviously wasn't expecting all my club to get CB's I was just hoping CB's tuned into the same frequency or they made a fixed in car vertion of the handhelds.

I've since found out a way of increasing the handhelds range conciderably but its highly illegal. ... humm now wheres my soldering iron

 

lol @ nwmark