Best 2 way radios

[ChadSchu]

Looking to get some advice on the best budget two way radios everyone uses. I do hunt in very heavily wooded area so I wanted to get everyone's advice.


Thanks,
Chad

 

[GotDraw?]

Suggest searching this site for prior radio threads...

Here's one with lots of posts that are on point:

http://www.rokslide.com/forums/gear/49346-quality-radios.html?highlight=baofeng

 

[n2horns]

For radios outside, use VHF. Best bet all get HAM tickets. Next best are any of the black box radios ie., Motorola BPR40, you dont need more than 4 channels. These radios are better than bubble pack stuff by 1000times. You can use free frequencies in the MURS range without paying for licensing. Stick with VHF, the taller the antenna the better.

Your range is still line of sight and is only about 1 to 2 miles. Terrain like hills dont play well with radios other than going through HAM ticket with repeaters.

Remember everything you say is listened too by someone. I had Border Patrol (near Nogales Arizona) jump on our MURS frequency and started talking too us.

 

[RockWest]

I agree with N2horns for the most part. I got into the ham radio world a bit and did a bunch of reading. Regulations are slightly different here in Canada.

The crux of the matter is that no radio punches through hills. Doesn't happen. Even on the first ocean, it's the curvature of the earth that limits your radio distance quite drastically more than the power of the radio. The higher you can get, the farther you can transmit. You need a repeater of some sort of that's what your doing. In essence that's why cell phones have cell towers and satellite phones need satellites. Signals are mostly all just line of sight. It is possible in some cases to bounce radio signals off the atmosphere and back to earth without a repeater, but your working at very low frequencies and geeking out. It's not a practical possibility for hunting.

Given that, I set up my group with reprogrammed and retuned commercial Kenwood radios in the UHF range. UHF has less theoretical range than VHF, however it's signal is much more capable of penetrating thick forests and foliage than VHF. It's a trade off between range and penetration.

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