Walkie Talkie recommendations for someone brand new to them?
Posted by bigcalvesarein@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 22 comments
Hello preppers. I am looking for some advice on picking a walkie talkie to keep in my, and my wife's, cars. I am looking for relative ease of use for my wife. I am eager to learn but find that there are tons of options online so it can be overwhelming. What radios would you recommend for a metro/suburban area with a reasonable range of 10-20 miles?
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Electrical-Pie549@reddit
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Unlikely-Thing2514@reddit
Hi I just bought the retevis RB48P GMRS walkie talkies for a trip were taking and wondering if there is a antenna upgrade for them or if it's not worth it to do so . Also I want to stay in the shorter antenna zone as we'll be caring them in small bags and on our person ya know . Any help would be appreciated.
AdjacentPrepper@reddit
Unless your car has a 150 feet tall tower in the back, 10-20 miles is in an metro/suburban area is a complete fantasy.
I did a range test a while back with a 5 watt handheld (which is pretty typical power output) and was able to go 0.6 miles from my house to the grocery store before it cut out. I was actually surprised it made it that far, in north Austin right on the edge of Pflugerville. Video of the test.
The vast majority of radios are line-of-site and everything that blocks your line-of-site degrades the signal (the exception being shortwave that bounces signals off the upper atmosphere to be picked up in other continents...not what you're after and you need really long antennas to do that).
I did this video a while back on different radio options (and licensing). GMRS is your best bet, but still getting 10-20 miles range ain't happening. Depending on the interference you might get a couple miles at best, half mile is more realistic though.
I went over some basics of the different options (and licensing) in this video.
dittybopper_05H@reddit
Also, might I make a suggestion? Consider getting a GMRS license and buying mobile radios for the two cars. You'll get more range car-to-car than you would with just handhelds, especially if you get the more powerful mobile radios (up to 50 watts). The single $35 license covers everyone in your household, and there is no test.
Plus get one for your home, and put it up as high as you practically and legally can. Communication distance at UHF frequencies is dominated by height above average terrain, and the higher you can get your antenna, the father away you can talk.
So if you could get your antenna up 20 feet in the air, and your car is 5 feet tall, you could expect to have a communication distance of
(1.4*sqrt(20)) + (1.4*sqrt(5))
6.3 miles + 3.1 miles = 9.4 miles
But that's over flat ground like Florida or Kansas. Terrain may improve or make it worse.
Mountain_Position_62@reddit
Leave this sub and join the tactical subs and ask about coms there.
Led_Zeppole_73@reddit
Any hand-held radio will perform poorly inside a metal caged vehicle. I’d go with a mobile CB with nice external antenna, could setup brand new right around $100 minimum. Extra $25 for SWR meter to tune the antenna.
sadetheruiner@reddit
Look for a GMRS walkie, they’re typically more powerful and have better features. But you need to get a license from the FCC(Which is stupid easy). You can even have a large antenna you can switch to for longer range easily.
bigcalvesarein@reddit (OP)
Yes I checked the wiki and will look at licensing tomorrow. Thank you!
ranchpancakes@reddit
There is no test for licensing. I think it’s $10 now and one license covers everyone in your family.
sadetheruiner@reddit
No problem! I have an older Cobra, don’t recall the model off the top of my head. Got it at a garage sale for a couple bucks and it’s never let me down.
silasmoeckel@reddit
Since the answers thus far seem to be from people that dont understand how RF works.
The RF horizon 2m off the ground is 3.6 miles your not getting RF very far through dirt.
So yes you can get 20 miles if your both facing each other in tall buildings thats not realistic. The numbers the sales guys quote is if you were both facing each other on the side of mountains with nothing but air between you.
GMRS repeaters can do this because you have a radio in the middle at a high point. Your now reliant on a repeater still working.
Now you can make this better a couple vehicle mounted radios give you potentially a better antenna than anything you can stick on a walkie talkie.
Moving to lower frequencies and bigger antennas CB will get you further without the aid of anything else and no licence required. Downside the people that use CB day to day make the guy that comes up to your car yelling the end is comming look sane by comparison.
Past that you need ham licenses so you can use a mixture walkie talkies to you car and then shift to bigger antennas different frequencies from there.
EffinBob@reddit
10-20 miles is not a reasonable range for walkie talkies without a repeater in the area. To use one of those, you need a license. Sounds from your post. GMRS might fit what you want to do.
thegr8lexander@reddit
Boafeng UV5r
g-rocklobster@reddit
Most of the specs for walkie-talkies that mention long(ish) distances like 10, 20 or 50 miles are referring to perfect conditions point-to-point or line of sight. In a metro or suburban environment you will get signficantly less range due to terrain, buildings and electronic interference.
u/sadetheruiner advice of GMRS is probably your best option for the scenario you're referring to. And also do some pretty throrough searching on this sub - you'll find a crap ton of helpful information faster than it will take this thread to populate.
Good luck.
Fit-Lion-773@reddit
https://www.amazon.com/Midland-X-TALKER-Channels-Resistant-Communication/dp/B0C9JHNYVP/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?crid=21BFF3LDJ1Y1G&keywords=walkie+talkies+for+adults+long+range+50+miles&qid=1698961570&sprefix=walmie%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfYXRm&psc=1
bigcalvesarein@reddit (OP)
Thank you I’ll check these out!!
Homeowner_BBQ@reddit
I'd read the reviews/Q&A about the range on those .. a lot of ppl saying maybe 1/2 mile in suburban conditions.
Fit-Lion-773@reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/comments/l7oa33/walkietalkies_10km_urbansuburbs/