two way radios

brushcreek

Active Member
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Any ideas on two way radios for a Colorado elk / deer hunt? have a group of 5 hunters, would like to be able to communicate in areas with no cell service. What is a reasonable range to expect on a good radio? 3 miles?
 
For GMRS/FRS- mostly depends on topography. If you have line of sight (or nearly) a good GMRS radio can certainly go that far. But I've seldom found elk/deer hunting with lots of line of sight. We tend to use them in two ways- at agreed upon times ("I'll be on that ridge top, you'll be on the other, let's call at noon") or monitoring from camp (someone coming back late, finds line of sight to camp, let's folks know they are ok). Without a direct path, the range is extremely limited...
 
Motorola is good with ear buds so they don’t make any noise and spook game figure range about two miles line of sight as long as your not deep in a canyon.
 
Beanman is correct.
Two way radios are a joke so don't believe it when they say 35-40 mile range.
It's more like 1/3-1/2 mile AT BEST.
The FCC limits GMRS/FRS radios to 5 watts of power and when coupled with the inadequate antenna, you don't have the power to transmit far, nor will that cheap antenna pick up a signal at any distance.
I got tired of those crappy radios, and believe me I've had a bunch of them and got my amateur radio license.
I purchased dual band radios, running at 8 watts.
When programmed to a repeater, I can talk to others over 100 miles away. And my 8 watt radio can hit the repeater 12 miles away from my house.

If just talking directly to my hunting partners on uhf, 3-5 miles is more the distance if in heavily wooded areas.You can also purchase aftermarket antennas that will increase your distance to transmit as well as receive.

I just got back from an archery hunt and was communicating regularly to one of my partners 2.6 miles away, through a very thick forest. I'm sure the radios are capable to reach further out.

PM me, I may have an suggestion for you.
 
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Motorola CP200d best we have used and they work all over the place try them you won't be sorry
Do you have to program these radios?
Does it matter if they are analong?
We have been using the Garmin’s but they are inconsistent within mountain ranges, sometimes they work, sometimes not
Thanks
 
Do you have to program these radios?
Does it matter if they are analong?
We have been using the Garmin’s but they are inconsistent within mountain ranges, sometimes they work, sometimes not
Thanks
Out of the box and brand new, they likely need to be programmed as it has no buttons or menus. You will need an interface cable and software. Some radios will only work with OEM cables, others aren't so finicky and will communicate through a generic cable.

As far as software, I've had minimal issues programming various radios using CHIRP (freeware).

To be safe, you want analog (they can be upgraded to digital later). Most Digital (DMR) configurations require a software and yet another license plus a digital repeater.
 
Out of the box and brand new, they likely need to be programmed as it has no buttons or menus. You will need an interface cable and software. Some radios will only work with OEM cables, others aren't so finicky and will communicate through a generic cable.

As far as software, I've had minimal issues programming various radios using CHIRP (freeware).

To be safe, you want analog (they can be upgraded to digital later). Most Digital (DMR) configurations require a software and yet another license plus a digital repeater.
Thanks so much for reply
Appreciate it
 
Any ideas on two way radios for a Colorado elk / deer hunt? have a group of 5 hunters, would like to be able to communicate in areas with no cell service. What is a reasonable range to expect on a good radio? 3 miles?
Radios are only good is your in line of site
 

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