FRS radios

John Y Cannuck

John Y Cannuck

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The Conservative part of Ontario
Damn near threw mine in the lake this year.
Range of the supposedly 7 mile, 12 mile, or whatever radios. Is in reality, sometimes measured in feet.

Granite plays havoc with the signal.

None of our guys are more than 2 miles apart, yet, sometimes we can't get the guy 600 yards away.
Relaying information takes time, and depends upon an unbroken chain.

If, like this year, two moose are seen by two different guys at the same time, and there is only one tag.... Things could get messy.
 
Are they Cobras? (Cobras SUCK!!)

I've had better luck with Motorollas. Regardless, if they say they are 28km range, they are....standing on flatland in the desert.
Other than that, hills, rocks and other irregular land formations will prohibit a long range connection.
I'd say with the best of FRS radios, you'll probably get a mile of 2 out of them in the thick stuff. Other than that, you could try different technology that'll cost more, work better, and possibly piss off the coast guard! ;)
 
Even when locked on a certain channel, I have experiened, that while hunting and going through the woods and hills, these otherwise great tools for hunting together with partners, have changed channels, and thus made it impossible for your partners to get in touch with you.

I am looking for some solid/padded container for the frs walkie talkie's, and hopefully prevent any future accidental channel changes while hunting. Some models appears to be more sensitive and prone to accidental channel changing.
 
This year at the moose camp, for just over $100, my partners bought some Cobra FRS supposed to be 40km, well, lets say that they brought them back to the store as they did not perform nothing close to what they should be doing. We had a pair of old Motorolla 14ch no sub chanel 2 miles range and they worked better :eek:, I hate the fact that they need to be "line of sight" to work ok. As soon as we hit the woods, they are a real POS. I think that there are lots of false advertising concerning their reach.
 
Get your amateur radio licence and pic up a UHF for VHF amateur hand held radio. You'll get way better range, then those crappy family FRS channels.

We use the hand held 5 watt in our cars and in the bush we could get over 15 kms aleast off road. On road with a 40 watt unit we were able to get over a 100 kms from Cache Creek to past 100 mile house in BC.

Sorry but here's a shameless plug:

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=189461
 
I'm using the large 3 Watt Cobra GMRS/FRS radios. Range is shortened in heavy timber/valleys/mountains, but when on a height, I'm getting the ranges they're advertised for (mine are supposed to be good up to 28kms, I've reached a buddy on a longliner out on the water as far as 40km away). I've got zero complaints with Cobra and these are my third set of cobras (bought new as the technology/power advanced).

We tagged out a nice 8 point bull moose this weekend and those same radios helped me collect a couple of buddies who were home at the time, to take to the woods and help us get the 400+ worth of moose quarters aboard our boat and back home. They were at least 12kms away and two high ridgelines away and they still picked up my call!
 
our cobras with 14 channels no subs work fine but are about 1 km away from each other. what we find a pain is that there always seems to be someone else on every channel we choose.
 
Wrong Way said:
Because we are limited to like 1 watt power or something stupid like that here in Canada, it would be irresponsible if someone were to reccomend you go on ebay and buy a set of midland GTX 550's from the US at 5 watts output....even if they do come accross the border without problems.....
Click to expand...

I have the GXT 600 Midland's and they seem to toss out a little more power, but you do not reach 5 watts on FRS it is only on the GMRS channels that run from 15 up to 22 channels.
 
communication

As 308BAR said, the way to go is by amateur radio. For you non-hams I will point out a few facts.
UHF means "ultra high frequency," the frequency range your little radios work on. The frequency range for UHF ham radio is in the 450 megahertz range (meaning the ac frequency goes from plus to minus 450,000,000 times a second, as compared to your 110 volt house current which changes polarity 60 times a second.
VHF means "very high frequency," a frequency in the 144 to 148 megahertz range for ham radio. Polarity change 144,000,000 to 148,000,000 times a second.
Both are considered line of sight, but the lower VHF is better at "bending a bit", than is the higher UHF. The mountains reflect the VHF signal very good. It is not uncommon to be virtually surrounded by mountains and still be in communication with someone behind a mountain.
Power does not mean all that much. If 5 watts won't get through, then 25 probably won't, either. Lots of times we will only use 1 watt on our handhelds, to save the battery. The mobile VHF in my 3/4 ton Dodge has power settings of 5, 25 and 50 watts. I never set it higher than 25. I have been right in Clinton and could talk with someone in Salmon Arm, by going through the Salmon Arm repeater on Fly Hills. The two points are definetely not in line of sight. Try it, 308BAR, at 146.760, with the standard 600 down. The only problem is it is not used too much and maybe no one will be on.
It is no longer a requirement to know the morse code to get an amateur licence. If anyone wants the details, PM me.
 
As to brands, one guy has a Motorola, a few have high end Cobras, I have cheapy cobras.

Last year I thought the Motorola was better, this year, his sucked. I didn't se a difference between my cheap set, and the high end cobras in our area.

I was tempted to throw mine in the lake that stormy Friday, but finally got a line of sight connection across the lake to the Motorola guy.
Saturday, I could not talk to him, but could talk to two guys nearly a mile in line the other side of him.
They couldn't raise him either, and when we checked later, his radio was on the right channel, and working fine.

Very frustrating.

Cell phone coverage is also hit and miss
 
H4831 said:
As 308BAR said, the way to go is by amateur radio. For you non-hams I will point out a few facts.
UHF means "ultra high frequency," the frequency range your little radios work on. The frequency range for UHF ham radio is in the 450 megahertz range (meaning the ac frequency goes from plus to minus 450,000,000 times a second, as compared to your 110 volt house current which changes polarity 60 times a second.
VHF means "very high frequency," a frequency in the 144 to 148 megahertz range for ham radio. Polarity change 144,000,000 to 148,000,000 times a second.
Both are considered line of sight, but the lower VHF is better at "bending a bit", than is the higher UHF. The mountains reflect the VHF signal very good. It is not uncommon to be virtually surrounded by mountains and still be in communication with someone behind a mountain.
Power does not mean all that much. If 5 watts won't get through, then 25 probably won't, either. Lots of times we will only use 1 watt on our handhelds, to save the battery. The mobile VHF in my 3/4 ton Dodge has power settings of 5, 25 and 50 watts. I never set it higher than 25. I have been right in Clinton and could talk with someone in Salmon Arm, by going through the Salmon Arm repeater on Fly Hills. The two points are definetely not in line of sight. Try it, 308BAR, at 146.760, with the standard 600 down. The only problem is it is not used too much and maybe no one will be on.
It is no longer a requirement to know the morse code to get an amateur licence. If anyone wants the details, PM me.
Click to expand...

Thanks I just recently got into it this year I didn't know that we could use the Salmon Arm repeaters like that. Very interesting will PM you for sure to pick your brain..
 
Go out and buy a VHF. Thats what I did and I got all the logging companies, trucking companies, and repeaters for them both in mine.
 
if you are serious about it, I would recommend the garmin rino 530HCX.
if you get the american one it has 5 watt gmrs output. the range even in the bush is amazing. plus it has full mapping and polling capabilities, so you know where your partners are at all times on a full colour, full topo map. its tough to go back to the old way after you have hunted with these units
 
I've had a pair of cobras for years, figure that they are line of sight. FM Radio waves don't do very well going through solid objects like mountains.
 
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