Radio question

T

TSPIRI

CGN Regular
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Location
Montreal, CANADA
Hi there folks, I have a question about communicating in the bush. Where I hunt moose in Quebec we hunt in groups of 3. We don't necessarily hunt together but we must form a 3 man group to harvest 1 Moose. To increase our odds of success we split up to cover 3 areas. If 1 hunter is successful the other 2 MUST stop hunting immediately so we use radios to communicate. 2 of our stands are about 900 yards apart from one hill top to another so we have clear line of sight and communication is perfect but the third area we hunt is almost 1.8km away through the bush. We're using Midland Nautico 3 radios and they work well most of the time but the last area is on the very edge of our radio range.

These are our radios
http://radioworld.ca/nautico-nt3vp-p-10619.html

Does anybody know of a way to boost the range of these radios, could I simply swap out the antenna(s) to increase range?


Thanks
 
Well, it is a 5 watt radio, so plenty of power there to feed a bigger antenna. I'd say it is worth a try, but do your best to avoid knock-off antennas.

I ordered some longer antennas from e-bay for my BaoFeng UV-5R radios and they totally suck.

Another thing to consider is clearing out trees, branches, foliage, etc. in the immediate vicinity of the most remote stand. A lot of energy is absorbed in the first few meters. You could use google earth to plot line-of-sight lines towards your other 2 stands so you have an idea exactly where you need to clear stuff away.
 
We set up 1 guy in camp with a full power base station. It increases our range to miles not meters.

Of course he has to relay some messages sometimes but it works very well.
 
I know this doesn't answer your question but I've used the Garmin Rhino handsets before and they are great. Can locate your buddies via gps and talk to them.
 
Raider556 said:
I know this doesn't answer your question but I've used the Garmin Rhino handsets before and they are great. Can locate your buddies via gps and talk to them.
Click to expand...

If you buy a FRS/GMRS radio of any brand or feature set in Canada, it will be severely limited in output power and (regardless of claims on the box) will not work reliably at ranges of 2km through dense forest.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, I know the specs the manufacturers boast about are in perfect conditions and where we use them the conditions are the absolute worst for radios but we're just on the edge of having a good connection. I'm not expecting these radios to work over extreme range but where we're located should be well within the actual working range of these units.

We have days where the signals get through and others where the signal does not. All 3 stand locations are quite open, with about 100 yards of clear cut all around. So clearing trees isn't really going to change much. We're hunting areas that have recently been logged and like I said one stand is located at the top of a hill so he should be able to relay messages but that doesn't seem to work.


As far as antennas are concerned does anybody have a brand of antenna they could recommend, I'm really not knowledgeable about radios and I've tried to read up on them but what I read was like reading Chinese to me, electronics are really not my thing.
 
TSPIRI said:
Thanks for the suggestions, I know the specs the manufacturers boast about are in perfect conditions and where we use them the conditions are the absolute worst for radios but we're just on the edge of having a good connection. I'm not expecting these radios to work over extreme range but where we're located should be well within the actual working range of these units.

We have days where the signals get through and others where the signal does not. All 3 stand locations are quite open, with about 100 yards of clear cut all around. So clearing trees isn't really going to change much. We're hunting areas that have recently been logged and like I said one stand is located at the top of a hill so he should be able to relay messages but that doesn't seem to work.


As far as antennas are concerned does anybody have a brand of antenna they could recommend, I'm really not knowledgeable about radios and I've tried to read up on them but what I read was like reading Chinese to me, electronics are really not my thing.
Click to expand...

Your radios are good and powerful at 5 watts (compared to max 2 watts for FRS/GMRS radios in Canada). Technically, you aren't even supposed to have those unless you have a license (which I am sure you do).

"Diamond" make good antennas. Make sure it is genuine, though. As I warned earlier, there are plenty of knock-offs out there. Expect to pay between $25 and $50, depending on gain. A $6 antenna will be far worse than the one that is on the radios now. But just because it is $40 does not mean it is genuine - always consider the source.

Attributes to look for:

1) Proper type of connection for your radio
2) Proper length for your band (VHF) (dual-band or tri-band will work as well)
3) Higher gain than your existing antenna

I am no expert either. You might want to find a radio user's forum and do some searching. I am sure this type of question has been asked and answered repeatedly on the Internet somewhere. :)
 
6MT said:
5w output all the time won't give great battery life.
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True, but whether that becomes an issue or not depends on how chatty the users are and the battery technology.

I run my UV-5R radios @ 4w and I get many days of dependable service out of them before having to recharge, but I only talk when necessary...
 
There's only cell reception at a few spots that I know of and even there it's very weak. We're really out in the middle of nowhere... It is absolutely fantastic!
 
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