Motorola Talkabout handheld radios for the farm.

[RPW]

-newbury- Yes I do hold a license (N7GVE) and yes I do get picky with those who flaunt the rules. I've had to deal with the interference from those who have used radios in situations where they were illegal and be accused of creating a problem and having to prove it wasn't me. Some people think that it doesn't matter and they can use whatever radio they can get there hands on not realizing who they are interfering with. Could be a hospital, police, medivac. Many smaller counties don't have the budget for high end communication equipment.

 

[bandaidmd]

My wife and I had a set of those when we lived in an RV over ten years ago. We got them to help guide me into back-in parking spots. They communicated just fine, but I found her instructions confusing and gave up on them. We left them with our hosts at an RV park in Kansas. They used them a couple of times, but found communication spotty between the house and the park 1/4 mile away, and put them in a drawer.

They're still in the drawer, so maybe I'll get them back to try again on our property. My SIL and I could find them handy for talking to each other when trying to use my Brush Grubber. Cell phones don't work well at the property, and we will be working within feet of each other, him on the ground and me in the tractor.

the cure for that is the wife needs to be the driver, My wife used to freak out at the thought of backing up a trailer but now shes fine with our system. Our system is that she (this is going to sound like a control freak thing but its really not) does only what i say with the steering wheel and movement forward and back, the outside person has a much better perspective of obstacles and positioning in tight spots. And for the record my wife is not a submissive person by nature so this took some time to make this work for us.

 

[Happy Gilmore]

the cure for that is the wife needs to be the driver, My wife used to freak out at the thought of backing up a trailer but now shes fine with our system. Our system is that she (this is going to sound like a control freak thing but its really not) does only what i say with the steering wheel and movement forward and back, the outside person has a much better perspective of obstacles and positioning in tight spots. And for the record my wife is not a submissive person by nature so this took some time to make this work for us.

I can see this now :laughing:

 

[newbury]

I'm thinking about using Marine VHF.
I've got 2 handhelds (1Watt/200 milliwatts) and a Base unit (25/1 Watt).
Technically illegal, but...:shhh:

And that's part of the problem - lack of uniform enforcement results in laws being made and ignored.

Marine radios are legally only to be used for marine mobile communications, license required for land stations. Not heavily enforced unless you are reported interfering with Coast Guard or professional mariners. Have read reports of $10,000.00 Federal enforced fines. They take it very serious in some coastal locations. Use a your own risk. KJ4YVZ

So if one is many miles from the water who's it going to interfere with? Perhaps someone should put a bounty on finding the scofflaws, instead of ignoring it like going 10 miles/hour over a 65mph speed limt.

-newbury- Yes I do hold a license (N7GVE) and yes I do get picky with those who flaunt the rules. I've had to deal with the interference from those who have used radios in situations where they were illegal and be accused of creating a problem and having to prove it wasn't me. Some people think that it doesn't matter and they can use whatever radio they can get there hands on not realizing who they are interfering with. Could be a hospital, police, medivac. Many smaller counties don't have the budget for high end communication equipment.

Kudos to you sir. We need to either enforce the rules or change the laws.

 

[Daver1963]

So if one is many miles from the water who's it going to interfere with? Perhaps someone should put a bounty on finding the scofflaws, instead of ignoring it like going 10 miles/hour over a 65mph speed limit.

I just went and looked at what frequencies are used in marine VHF. Depending on how far away you are from where the Coast Guard may use them they may be allocated for military purposes. A few years ago I was trying to get some VHF LMR repeaters for the Air National Guard set up and we were getting Department of Agriculture frequencies that weren't used in the area. The FCC will multipurpose frequencies as long as there isn't a threat of interference.
We were very serious about interference with our repeaters as they could be used for emergency response, aircraft movement coordination, and command & control functions.

 

[coobie]

Motorola came out with model MU350r two radio which states 35 mile range.I am sure that is pushing it.They sell for $119 per pair.

 

[timster2]

Costco has the Motorola MT351R 2-pack Talkabout Weatherproof Two-way Radios Bundle for $70. These are the ones that I have and work great, however, I have not tested the long range capabilities. By the way the 35 mile range is only on some frequencies not all. Motorola MT351R 2-pack Talkabout Weatherproof Two-way Radios Bundle

 

[David_Kb7uns]

And that's part of the problem - lack of uniform enforcement results in laws being made and ignored.



So if one is many miles from the water who's it going to interfere with? Perhaps someone should put a bounty on finding the scofflaws, instead of ignoring it like going 10 miles/hour over a 65mph speed limt.

In many areas away from major waterways the frequencies are allocated to many law enforcement and public safety agencies and non marine/boat use cancels your FCC license by use and makes it unlicensed operation opens you up to major fines.

David Kb7uns

 

[Daver1963]

Motorola came out with model MU350r two radio which states 35 mile range.I am sure that is pushing it.They sell for $119 per pair.

Costco has the Motorola MT351R 2-pack Talkabout Weatherproof Two-way Radios Bundle for $70. These are the ones that I have and work great, however, I have not tested the long range capabilities. By the way the 35 mile range is only on some frequencies not all. Motorola MT351R 2-pack Talkabout Weatherproof Two-way Radios Bundle

Good luck finding two mountains 35 miles apart with no trees and enough elevation to hit line-of-sight so you can talk. :thumbsup:
Or if you have a pilot friend with a really special aircraft, lets see, 35 miles, that's an altitude of 184,800ft. If you can hook a good directional antenna to it, like a helical with an 18 degree bandwidth you can get to outer space on 25 watts or so.
The helical below comes in a manpack version for easy transport.

 

[Monster5601]

By the way the 35 mile range is only on some frequencies not all. Motorola MT351R 2-pack Talkabout Weatherproof Two-way Radios Bundle

I wonder how they came up with the 35 mile range? To get line of sight between the two radios, each radio would have to be above the ground over 800 feet. It would be a challenge to get a 35 mile coverage with most repeaters.