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O/T: Two-Way Radios and practicality of such...

I

IHMANKY

Member
Anyone on here using two-way radios on the farm? I'm talking Midland/Motorola/Uniden handhelds, the ones that claim 24,26,32 miles or so? As the crow flies, We are spread out at most, 8 miles with a moderate hills and timber. I have no doubt any of these would work well for say, calling for a grain cart frmo the other end of the field, but is there any handheld out there that's gonna get me 4-8 miles to the shop or bins form the field? I don't want to spend a couple hundred bucks on a four-pack of radios, only to use them in a place where I could flash my cab lights and summon the grain cart or seed tender.... I know better than to expect the mileage the radios claim, but to buy a 32 mile advertised radio.. I would really expect to get half that since they're advertising it. The FCC should stop these claims, skydiving is the only time you could have those types of conditions!!
 
Most of the hand held two-ways will do about half the distance advertized on a regular basis.

If conditions are right they will reach the advertized distance.

Worst part about them hand held radios are battery life.

I don"t think you can make through the day on one charge. We use them here (it"s legal) for coyote hunting. About 5 or 6 hours is it for one charge.

I use CB radios in the truck, combine and catch tractors. Other than a little skip once in a while they work for me. They run off your 12 volt system. A $40 CB with $20 antenna will get you 4 to 5 miles. Worst part is mounting them in the cabs.

You may be able to find 12 vlot chargers for the two-ways??

Gary
 
Subscribe to a network that uses a repeater tower. They can usually reach at least 40-50 miles if not more. And it's way cheaper than paying for a couple of cell phones.
 
I know its not quite as handy, but we just use our cell phones. As long everyone has the same provider, minutes are free. I think some providers have the "push to talk", so that makes the phone kind of like your CB or two-way
 
We use Motorolla and Kenwood handhelds on the fire department. Newer Kenwoods seem to have much better battery life than the older Motorolla's we have... but still need to keep a spare with you on a long day.
I don't know what their exact range is from portable to portable because we're bouncing off a repeater that's 4-10 miles away... but there's very few places thet don't work. When they don't work it's generally because of topography... and the mobiles (truck mount) and cell phones don't work either.

Rod
 
we had motorola 2 ways where I used to work and they went 10-15 miles in rolling farmland, a good battery would easily last a day but we had 12v chargers in the service trucks, these were not cheap radios, had a couple of units from radio shack, they worked up to a mile or so and were not very expensive.
 
A lot of farmers use to type of radios you are asking about. Cell cover is not that good. Still have them in trucks. When a wide load is moved on highway must be able to contact all involved with move.
 
My neighbor is spread out something like 25 miles. I think he uses a marine radio. It is not a hand held, it looks more like a CB. It has 16 channels. Cost around $100 or so plus an antenna. They work great and I recommend them.
 
Those motorolas your talking about that went 15 miles worked off a repeater tower didn't they.

That's a good way to go, but expensive.

What does tower rent cost?

Gary
 
In rolling hills the 450 Meg herz radios will get you about to 8 miles, without repeater. Good in flat country. But here in WV about 3 to 4 miles. If you can find some in the 150 meg range would be better.
 
What kind of licencing & antennea & repeater are you folks talking about?

I haven't found anything handheld & 'consumer buy & own and no extra fees' to go more than 2 miles reliably???

More info on what exactly we are talking about!

--->Paul
 
Get the new MURS radios.
FRS radios are limited to 1/2 watt and will usually only reach about a mile at best.
MURS radios are 2 watt, with excelent range.
Will reach 10 miles easily, no licence needed.
MURS
 
Here in the Ozarks, with the hills we have, the distance on any two way radio is usually less than a mile. I suppose we could get something spendy and do better. The cheap ones in the store also seem to have batteries that get worn out too soon and new batteries cost about as much as the radio. We don't live terribly remote and have decent cell phone coverage, so we just use prepaid cell phones and that works well for us.

Christopher
 
I had CB"s for a couple of years, worked very poorly. In 1980 I bought the first two mobile Johnson PPL6000 units- about $800 apiece then. Soon they went to automated mfgr so as I bought more units the price came down to about half. These are UHF-FM, over 490 frequency. Call Guard is a separate frequency that "unlocks" our radios when calling, so we hear only ourselves, no one else hears us, unless a mike is left unhooked. I built my own tower, and at 70 feet, no repeater, can typically call home from a vehicle at 40 miles. One mobile to another (tractor to pickup), have talked almost 25 miles. Portable is a Maxon brand, about $500, and have talked with that while driving, over 20 miles. Terrain here is slightly rolling, mostly open farmland. Maintenance has been little, always the same mobile unit. I"ve seen similar setups at farm auctions where you can get multiple units (same frequency) for about $100 per unit. Motorola and Johnson have the biggest market share because of their dependability. Safety issue when driving a machine or vehicle: easier to grab a mike and talk than use a cell phone.
 
The radios we used would work to sioux falls sd from home . about 60 miles We did not use a repeater tower. But did have a 75 ft.antenna tower as long as the tower is higher then hill or tree obstructions they will work.
 
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