2 way radio recommendations

What are the better radios out there now? I saw, what looks like, a decent pair at BJ's for a decent price recently and was tempted.

I have the Motorola T5710. They work very well. I think they were around $50 a few years ago.

What are the ranges on these radios? For instance, if I'm on Bear Mountain at Killington, could I contact Andyzee at Ramshead?

BeanoNYC said:

What are the ranges on these radios? For instance, if I'm on Bear Mountain at Killington, could I contact Andyzee at Ramshead?

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My radio says 5 miles but....I think really depends on the area your in. I don't think I get anything close to 5 miles in the mountains. On open water they might but I never tested it. As far as Bear to Ramshead I don't think they would reach that far.

The range claims made by various manufactures are a little like a resort writing their snow reports for next winter now in April.

UHF radio wave propagation (FRS and GMRS are UHF) is very terrain dependant. UHF is pretty much line of sight. If there is something significant (say Bear Mountain) between you and the other radio, you're out of luck...most of the time. sometimes odd things happen, such as knife edge diffraction, where a ridgeline or building will diffract or splinter the wave downward...don't plan on this happening when you need it.

The pure FRS (Family radio service) radios are limited to well under a watt in output (500mW, I think). This doesn't change from brand to brand. Some makes have more efficient antennas and more sensitive receivers, which will buy you a little more distance.

Some radios now are "Dual Service", they work both in GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service - formerly "Class A Citizens Band) and FRS. FRS and GMRS share some channels (the lower numbered FRS channels), however GMRS requires an FCC licence, but allows you greater output power. (Midland is now selling a 5 watt radio, claiming "14 mile" range.)

Going to a higher power radio will gain you some distance, but there is no guarantee on what that distance will be. I've talked from Killington to Mt Washington on 5 watts (with a commercial public safety grade radio) and I've installed repeater systems to cover a 9 story building because their five watt radios had dead spots without the extra help.)

One down side to the higher power radios...they use more power. They'll either have to come with a bigger battery pack, or you're going to be changing them often.

Wow. Thanks for the detailed explanation, Medic.

I moved this into its own thread, I hope you don't mind...

For a more detailed discussion on GMRS usage check out this thread over at SkiMRV.com. Apparently some folks get real irritated at un-licensed folks using the GMRS channels...

bvibert said:

I moved this into its own thread, I hope you don't mind...

For a more detailed discussion on GMRS usage check out this thread over at SkiMRV.com. Apparently some folks get real irritated at un-licensed folks using the GMRS channels...

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I don't mind at all, Brian...thanks. I read that thread on SkiMRV with interest. It seems to me that the licensing law for those channels is quite antiquated. The thought of the FCC chasing a family down in a ski resort and fining them for using the GMRS channels, that come with their talkabouts, is ludicrous. :argue:

BeanoNYC said:

What are the ranges on these radios? For instance, if I'm on Bear Mountain at Killington, could I contact Andyzee at Ramshead?

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I think that may be difficult since I rarely ski Ramshead.

andyzee said:

I think that may be difficult since I rarely ski Ramshead.

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I dig swirl when the conditions are right. My friends like that terrain park over there too.

BeanoNYC said:

I dig swirl when the conditions are right. My friends like that terrain park over there too.

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We'll do Header for a quick warm up first thing sometimes, that's about it. OK sorry, don't mean to hijack your thread.

BeanoNYC said:

I don't mind at all, Brian...thanks. I read that thread on SkiMRV with interest. It seems to me that the licensing law for those channels is quite antiquated. The thought of the FCC chasing a family down in a ski resort and fining them for using the GMRS channels, that come with their talkabouts, is ludicrous. :argue:

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I agree, its all pretty stupid. The guy's argument, or lack there of, was quite funny IMHO...

Yeah, the radios pretty much come with no doccumentation and just say which chanles are FRS, and which are GMRS. It is up to you to know which you can legaly use. It seems to me that the Manufacturer could just post a notice that for the GMRS frequencys you need a liscence and give information on getting one.

Another option can be to use a VHF radio programmed to one of the channels in the Multi Use Radio Service (MURS). No licence required, commercial grade radios, slightly better transmission around terrain features and you're far less likely to run into others using "Your" channel. (Although we found that we were sharing the channel we were using with housekeeping at Alta a few years ago.)

The down side is that you don't have the compatability with all the FRS/GMRS users.

sledhaulingmedic said:

Another option can be to use a VHF radio programmed to one of the channels in the Multi Use Radio Service (MURS). No licence required, commercial grade radios, slightly better transmission around terrain features and you're far less likely to run into others using "Your" channel. (Although we found that we were sharing the channel we were using with housekeeping at Alta a few years ago.)

The down side is that you don't have the compatability with all the FRS/GMRS users.

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A VHF radio sounds like a great idea, that way if you ever did get hurt on the mountain somewhere, or stuck somewhere, you could go on channel 16 and call for help etc. There are good marine radios that hold up well in all conditions. The VHF's are expensive though, so I got a pair of motorolas T6500 for $49.00 at radioshack. It's hard to hear the page though while you're skiing, so unless you're both on the lift when you page the other person it's a hit or miss. Now the radios stay in the car most of the time.

I use cobra. They are really old 2mile radios but I have communicated up to 5. I bought some new ones but went back to the old ones because while they were slightly less powerful, they were a million times easyer to use.

Most important is that they have sub channels, not only so you can have less frequency traffic, but also so you can radio channel 9 sub 11. Many ski patrols monitor that station and you would definately want to have it on yours.