Best Walkie-Talkies, 5 mi range?

[Architect]

I am looking for consumer-type handheld radios, with a 5 mi range versus the shorter (approx. 2 mi) range. Small size and reasonable cost rank high in my priorities.

Thanks for your time.

 

[shootin_stars4u]

Midland G-227
- 2 Watts of power, 22 Channels
- Up to 7-Mile Range
- 836 Privacy Channels
- Vibrate Alert
- HandsFree Operation
- Backlit LCD, Water resistant
- 3 year Warranty
- Works with all FRS/GMRS
- Scan Feature, Keylock
- Roger Beep Tone, Auto Squelch
- Power High/Power Low Option
- Optional Battery Pack,Drop-in Charger & Headset (AVP-1 AVP-2)
- Uses 4 AAA Batteries, Durable Belt Clip
- Speaker/Mic/Charger Jacks
I have a pair and they work real well, i'm not sure whether the price is ok for you, but take a look anyway.

 

[Architect]

Thanks for the info - the range looks pretty good. However, I found a killer deal on some Talkabout 5700's, and ended up getting those (5mi range vs. 7 mi) wasn't a big difference for me.

 

[GarageBoy]

Lets wait til the Melacholy Mutt shows up..
He's the Cliff Stamp of radios. (w/o the abuse, of course)

 

[GarageBoy]

not to mention his radio collection equals, if not surpasses our knife collections in size

 

[MelancholyMutt]

Hello,
I've been playing with and collecting radios since I was 6... it amazed me that I could talk into a little plastic box and it would talk back...

Here's the deal... When you play with radios and stuff, you run into legal bull, and performance bull. One thing I hate about certain people in the radio crew is that many of them are rats and will turn your butt in just to be a pain. To them, am FCC license is a license to go out and play vigilante... all that aside, here's my assessment of your best range of walkie talkies...

5 miles? forget it... 7 Miles? a pipe dream... 2 Miles? not with your best 7 mile pipe dream radio. You have about half a dozen things that you have to deal with when you try to get the best performance from radio equipment whether or not it's a portable (walkie talkie), Mobile (in your car) or Desktop (mounted at home with a structure antenna). You deal with...
1) ERP or Effective Radiated Power
2) Antenna height
3) Antenna tuning
4) Battery or Power supply
5) Band and Frequency
6) Surrounding Obstacles including traffic on other frequencies

The lower the frequency, the longer the waves will travel.

The higher the frequency, the the more it will penetrate obstacles and interference.

Using Tone Squelch lowers your range, as does encryption.

The higher the antenna, the longer your waves will travel before it has to deal with earth curvature. UHF travels to the horizon. VHF travels to the Horizon+ approximately 12%. HF (lowband)you can bounce aka signal skip, so you can reach the other side of the world.

You can reach better with 1 watt and a well tuned antenna, than with 100 watts and a badly tuned antenna.

A steady, reliable and FULL power supply is crucial for full ERP performance.

Increasing ERP does not increase range... it increases clarity and readability so that it can be heard. You need to square your power to double your distance. Working with repeaters changes the rules of the game.

Unfortunately, with a walkie talkie, you're sacrificing convenience and portability for negatives on all six factors so your realistic performance in urban terrain with 5 watts with UHF is about 1 mile, VHF, 1/4 mile

The best GMRS radio is the Icom F-21GM which is just as good as getting commercial or Police type Motorola Saber radios programmed to the proper GMRS freq's. It's 4 watts with a relatively well tuned antenna. You can occasionaly find a 5 watt UHF, but you're not getting any significant range for a lot more power drain. It's also repeater capable, CTCSS and DTS squelch... everything you need.

Sorry about going off on a tangent. It might be easier if you asked the questions instead of me going on and on.

 

[Architect]

...Unfortunately, with a walkie talkie, you're sacrificing convenience and portability for negatives on all six factors so your realistic performance in urban terrain with 5 watts with UHF is about 1 mile, VHF, 1/4 mile....

Thanks for the info of course, but I don't think I am sacrificing convenience and portability...I think I am buying convenience and portability and sacrificing performance.

Why do these companies advertise 2mi, 5mi and 7mi ranges when you suggest that 1 mile might be the maximum range?

Presumably, that have some validation somewhere.

Anyway, since I bought some of the so-called 5 mi-range WT's, I will be able to test this theory in about a month. If I can remember, I'll post my experience.

 

[GarageBoy]

That is ideal condition. Flat land, no obstructions.

 

[MelancholyMutt]

yes, architect, about the portability and performance item... you wrote what I meant to write. It was a grammatica error where I accidentaly switched two ideas.
As for the advertised ranges. Theoretically, if one uses the perfect radio, with the perfectly tuned antenna, with the perfect power supply, at the stated ERP, and used in a direct line, in the absense of all obstacles, stray transmissions and radiation, .5 watts can get you 2 miles, one watt can get you 5 miles, and 2 watts can get you 7 miles. Of course, these numbers were probably derived from fromulas derived from short wave transmissions, but as far as advertising is concerned, radio performance is so abstract that they can get away with saying anything (and they currently are).
Of course, you don't know me or what motivates me to say what I do... so I'll leave it at this...

Forget everything I wrote in the above post...

New Post:

hey Architect...
Glad to see you got some great Walkie Talkies... the Radio companies are totally honest and build these totally super radios that let you talk for 7 miles... Use it for all your very important communications.
Have a great day!