Walkie-Talkies

[Harv]

Although my immediate need is only tangentially a tractor safety issue, I will post it here because it might easily serve that purpose.

Not to go into any detail about why I might have to be ready to be called back to the house from my tractor on a moment's notice next weekend (3 days, actually), but my need for a good set of walkie-talkies has suddenly risen to the top of my wish list.

When I'm out tractorin' the property (42 acres), I am frequently as much as a half-mile into the woods away from the house. What I had planned on buying for my own safety was a simple coach's whistle in case I got myself in a bad situation that I needed help getting out of (should never happen, right? /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif) The whistle would just fit into our current budget (euphemism for "financial crisis") and would serve as a one-way emergency signal device, assuming I was able to blow the dang thing.

Now the need for instant two-way communication has arisen, even though our budget hasn't, so we considered just springing for a second whistle, but concluded that voice communication is what we really need. It is important enough that we could go as high as $100 (for a pair), but don't want to spend it if we can get the job done for less. I am well aware that truly good ones run much higher than that, but I was wondering if any of you folks have any first-hand recommendations for a "sensibly" priced pair of units that would cover the distance reliably. If it weren't for the trees, we would almost be talking line-of-sight for the most part, but the terrain is such that a hill might accidentally get in the way.

So, would less than a hundred bucks for a pair get us nothing but junk? If so, how high would we have to go to have something reliable? I'm hoping there will be enough left over to still buy the whistle. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

What's wrong using a cell phone...?

 

[cowboydoc]

Harv,
I do the medical for a huge soccer tournament for the local club here twice a year. We had the same needs to be able to have radios for about 20 people at one time. It was essential that we had good clear communication especially when people needed medical attention, 12 different fields at the complex, or when I needed to radio for additional help. We used to rent the motorola radios for a weekend. This year we bought the $39.95 motorola two way radios, small like a cell phone. They worked excellent. From one end of the complex to the other is about 3/4 of a mile and clarity was excellent. I would recommend a set of these for yourself.

 

[deere4600]

Harv, a year ago I purchased 4 of the Motorola Talk-about 250 radios for the family. They are advertised to be work in a two mile range. They might go 2 miles if there were no obstructions but work very well for a mile or so. We use them when I take the kids to the fairs and other events where they can get spread out. It works pretty well to keep in touch. I paid $80.00 each but now see they have dropped to about $60.00. Midland and Cobra also have the family band radioes that are as low as $40.00. They probably work as well as the Motorola. I also bought rechargable batteries (they take 3 AA bateries). Keeping all of the batteries charged is rather inconvenient. I would recommend trying to find radios that use a batter charger that you can just set the radios in. Motorola makes a bigger (clumsier) unit call the Distance which advertises a 5 mile range. I believe you can set the radio in the charger to avoid having to swap batteries. The radio is over $200.00.

 

[Von]

Harv,
I have two of the Motorola Talk-about 250 radios, got them about two years ago. We use them when hunting and they work great. I got mine off of ebay and paid $65.00 each with extra mics with earbuds. The price has dropped way down, so check ebay for a good deal. You can use just batteries and they will last 30 hrs. I find all kinds of uses for them and kids play with them all the time. So they are tuff, and can take the rough handling.

 

[2710Fan]

Harv,

Any of the FRS (Family Radio S?) radios are a good bet. They range in price from about $60.00/pair to a couple of hundred bucks a piece. They are like anything else...more features more money. The advertised range is 2 miles, but I would figure up in the mountains that you would get a lot less or a lot more depending on line of sight.

I have a pair of Motorola FR-60's which I got at Best Buy for under $100.00 for the pair last year. I've seen at Wal-Mart a pair of Motorola FR-50's for less than $60.00 a pair. The newer models come with weather band. I have been eyeballing a Ranger-10 with WX for $60.00 at KMart.

Thanks,
JB

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Harv,
Why waste your money on a reasonably priced set? It'll just wear out in 10 years, loose its resale value and not have all those neat ergonomic buttons on them. No, if you're going to buy a set go down to Joe's Tractor Imporium and buy the same product with the John Deere or Kubota name on them, it only costs 3x as much to go first class.

I know your need in immediate but lets think about the long haul here price should never be a consideration. Did I mention the Kubota walkie-talkies comes with an embossed leather carrying case?

Or you could just go to RadioShack.

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

Harv,

I'll second (or third or forth) the Motorola Talkabout. I have two (the yellow ones) clarity is amazing if your reference is Citizen Band and range is quite good but terrain driven. I purchased two at COSTCO @ $59 each. I have seen them a lot less expensive, other brands, don't know how well the less expensive ones work.

A few details from the manual:

Power: 3 AA batteries
Battery Life: 3 hours of talk and 27 hours of standby.
Channels: 14, with 38 privacy codes
Frequency: ~462 -467 MHz

Accessories: earphones/microphone headset

Al

 

[JonLeonard]

This past Christmas K-Mart ran a sale on Cobra walkie-talkies. For $59.99 you got 2 radios, ni-cad batteries, and a charging base that holds both radios. They advertised a 2 mile range as well. Unfortunately they had sold out by the time I got there /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Dont know if they still carry them, but I would bet that the normal price would be in the $79-$89 range.

 

[patrickg]

FRS radios with 500 miliwatt/2 mile range can be had for as low as $49/pair. Go to Radio Shack and or a discount chain, even Lowes sells them. Standard features include 14 channels, sometimes it costs just a bit more to get privacy codes (38/channel). Get someting that can use AA cells as life is better than AAA. Rechargable batts are ok but unit should accept standard alkaline AA as a backup. Avoid units using 2 cells, opt for 3 or 4. Good features not neccessarily costing more are:

external power jack, could be used from 12 volt tractor battery and never run out of juice.
provision for external mike and earphone to permit hands free operation. You don't have to pay extra up front for VOX as Radio Shack sells an add on but you do need jacks for earphone and mike to use the add on.

Some units have a low power transmit option that saves on xmit power/batt life when reliable comms don't require full power.

Radio Shack recently closed out a good accessory but this will only tantalize you, probably, as you may not find one except at a ham radio swap meet or something like that. They sold a real cheap "simplex repeater" which you could plug into a walkie talkie and put in a high place. If you and your other person are line of sight with the repeater but not each other you could go to the channel that the repeater was set for and talk to it for a short while. When you unkey the mike the repeater (contains a digital recorder with solid state memory) transmits what you said. The other person basically hears a silent period as long as your message then hears the message coming down from the repeater. When the reply is transmitted the same thing happens to you. First a period of silence then the repeater retransmits the message to you. You know it is working because after transmiting your message you hear it repeated back just like the other person does. This alows both parties to be sure there message is making it to the repeater if there were a question on that.

Smoke signals might be a cheap alternative to radio. If you enjoy raising small animals, consider homing pidgeons.

Patrick