UK Walkie-talkies 2017

[sethorly]

Hi guys. I'm new to comms and need some walkie talkies.

I need 4 of them and they need to work within woodland over a distance of half a mile or so (on a slope - no intervening hills).

So far my research has lead me to the Cobra MT975 PMR446 walkie talkies, but I thought I'd throw my search out to you more experienced chaps.

Cheers, S.

Ideally I'd like to recharge from solar so if a USB recharging option would be ace. However, the primary function (as above) is more important.

[harrypalmer]

Half a mile in woodland is not easy to achieve

[Straight Shooter]

i have .....silvercrest twintalker 4810 had them given me by a mate ....these will do the job i would think ...also got some tandy wt these are old but work fine range is about 1/2 miles, but i am no expert S ....i think LIGHTSPEED covered this topic ...have a look through the files or old posts S

[sethorly]

Thanks both. Hmmm.

[harrypalmer]

Seth, walki talkes work best when in 'line of site' the moment you start putting buildings or trees in the way the range drops. You might be better off using mobile phones.

[sethorly]

Cheers Harry.

[Lightspeed]

100% with Harry on this.

[Lightspeed]

BTW I was amazed when a friend who I suspect of having Prepper leanings showed me the walkie talkies he has.

They are PMR446 units, but they are from the much respected ham and commercial manufacturer Icom.

We've agreed to do a few tests with these in the coming weeks. I'll update here if there are any performance benefits to be had by choosing this sort of high end gear.

FWIW I expect any advantages to be minimal and hugely extra cost will be buying reliability and ruggedness and longevity.

[SteveG4wwk]

[quote='Lightspeed' pid='100330' dateline='1498722334']
>BTW I was amazed when a friend who I suspect of having Prepper >leanings showed me the walkie talkies he has.
>
>They are PMR446 units, but they are from the much respected ham and >commercial manufacturer Icom.
>
Forget all 446PMR sets
Easiest way into VHF 5 watt walkie talkies is go to Maplins and buy a pair of MITEX Sport vhf
http://mikeromeo.org/resources/MITEX_BUS...RADIOS.pdf
on 164MHz - 173Mhz 5watts

Although i'm not sure maplins still sell Mitex Sport VHF, they seem now to only list Mitex UHF?
Lots of other dealers sell them
In the box you will find the simple business licence application form
(£75 for 5 years)

Then if you need more than a pair of VHF walkie talkies, add cheap Baofeng UV5r, etc, to your network, your licence covers many

[Lightspeed]

Just looked at Maplin's site £165 for a pair (UHF)

That's a good deal steeper than Baofeng UV5rs which will cost around £50 PER PAIR.

I've not looked at the licensing requirements that you mention, but from the spec of the MITEX Sport units it seems like Baofeng BF888 units ought to be compliant... and these can be had for around £10 each. They are rated 3w, so slightly down on the Mitex units, but that power difference will be hard to detect in real-world usage.