atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information 2-way Radio Recommendations

Thanks for all the suggestions! I've tried the nextel direct talk feature (the off network walkie talkie) and find it has about the range of my FRS/GMRS radio's, at least the couple of times I've used it. I'm looking into the Icom types because it seems to be a almost "no frills" type radio which is something else I'm looking for. Don't need weather alert and voice scrambling that I've found on a lot of the ones I've checked out
so far. Also looking into "black box" brand, again no frills. Has anyone had any experience with these?

(May even consider going up to 4 watts verses 2 just to give it that little extra push. That claim of 30 floors verses 20 floors is just too tempting!)

After re-reading your question, I realized you are wanting FRS radios. Ours are on the school's frequency, along with the police, transportation, and maintenance. I'm not sure if they are UHF or VHF. So it's a different situation because we have repeaters throughout campus.

I have a pair of Icom IC-F30GS that I use with my fire department and they are great.

Motorola, Kenwood, Icom are all good.. I would stay away from the Ritron stuff. Bendix-King is another good one.

All make radios with 1 to 500+ channels, depending on how much you are willing to pay.

My personal preference is Motorola. I have a batch of HT1000's.

One thing to think about is how much they are going to be used, batteries have a finite lifetime, and most of mine are dying. If you use the radios infrequently, you may want to find some that take standard AA batteries.

The older Icom's had a AA pack available, I don't know about the newer units. Most of the Motorola radios don't have that option.

Motorola,Kenwood,Icom and the Jobcom are all good. if you want something that will handle multiple floors you will need something other than the FRS radios. Also if you are working around hospitals be aware of the added shielding involved in those buildings due to Xray,MRI's etc.
If you do go with the FRS units make sure you get the one with the added CTCSS channels. Thaey will help eliminate interference from other users nearby.
Your best bet is a commercial radio like the Moto, etc.

We use Kenwood here in the hospital. They are very functional except have some static in Imaging Center. Overall a good product. Gave $325ea for these, but work floor to floor and over a 10 acre area are clear.
(We have a repeater for our maint. crew for wider ranger {FYI})

Once again I'm in a different situation out here in the middle of nowhere (we have our own 300' tower with repeater, gives us somewhere around 120miles of range) so in town we get it anywhere but the type of radios we use are motorola, had a couple of kenwood also but 90% of ours were moto and they seemed quite good, also took some pretty bad abuse as well.

From the cost / performance / abuse / quality perspective, I do not think you can beat a good Kenwood radio. For the type of environment you describe,a 4 watt UHF radio (450 or 800 MHz range) would suit you best. You will pay ~ $249or better for these radios, but they will take the abuse and last a long time.

Just my $0.02.
KCDD

Anyone consider MURS radios? 2 watts, at 151Mhz. The frequency is much better than UHF when it comes to penetrating walls etc.