Need help picking good hunting walkie talkies

Blucy2 · 05-28-2003, 04:47 PM

I would appreciate any help with this. I want to get my husband good walkie talkies for his birthday. He and his friend hunt deer and elk during archery and rifle season. They stalk, so they are up and down the mountains - all over the place. Is there any good radios that they could use in the woods and still have good reception? He does not care about these, but I think if they worked well, it would be a good safety thing to have. Husband will take off and hunt sunrise to sunset, so I never know when to start worrying. I just think if they COULD be in contact outside of camp, this might be a good thing. What sort of technical info should I look for? Do any of them actually work in the woods? I would appreciate any help. Thanks all......

Josh_E · 05-28-2003, 05:05 PM

well Im sure the motorolas work good.. I use the cobra' s and they seem to do pretty well..I would think for what he needs them for you want a range of 2-5 miles.. of course in the mountains your not going to get that.. for hunting you want to look at several things.. first if him and a buddy are going to use them make sure that they have a vibra-alert instead of a beep because that can potentially spook game.. you get up in the more expensive ones you can get a compass, radio/weather, altimeter, that kinda stuff.. also can get VOX which is voice activated.. that comes on almost all of them nowadays.. you can get them that charge in a charger or just replace batteries.. bottom line.. get the vibra-alert, long range capabilites, and if you think he will need it the compass, and altimeter... the rest is just stuff to play with.. I hope this helps.. Good luck!!

RET3006 · 05-28-2003, 09:13 PM

I have 3 Motorola T6400.They have a 5 mile range (under perfect conditions).More like 3 miles.They have all the features listed above.You can catch them on sale at Office Depot for around $39 with mail in rebates.You can get some more exspensive models that have a compass,weather channel,etc, but they will eat the batteries up quicker.

FL-Hunter · 05-29-2003, 06:04 AM

Something else to think about..... I don' t know your budget or if your husband has a gps or not... I' ve been eyeing these.... the rino 110 and 120

http://www.garmin.com/products/rino/

This way he has a radio and a gps built into one.

A few people in our group have been very pleased with these.

JD IN ALBERTA · 05-29-2003, 01:23 PM

I use 4 different sets of Motorolas (old & new)...they are one the best things I can bring in the field with me on my hunts. You are always in contact with someone in your party. I' d recommend any of the Motorola products. JDinAB

Brampton Mike · 06-01-2003, 04:28 AM

I have a pair of Cobra MicroTalks Model FRS315WX & they work great..[:-]..use them deer hunting....Brampton Mike[8D]

PABowhntr · 06-02-2003, 10:50 AM

My big question to you is " How much are you willing to spend?" . For under $100 you can purchase most of the consumer grade radios like the typical Cobra, Motorola or Midland FRS (family radio service) radios but their range is severly limited by terrain due to their short, inefficient antennas and the type of radio waves that they utilize.

Same thing basically applies to their GMRS (general mobile radio service)counterparts, again provided we are talking about the inexpensive " bubble pack" radios found at the local Walmart, Kmart, etc.... Plus, you need a license to legally operate on GMRS frequencies. The license is easy to get as all you need to do is fill out an application but it does cost $75 for five years and would apply to anyone in your family.

If you want something durable and reliable for longer distances than 1 or 2 miles then you are left with some of the more expensive GMRS radios on the market. These models allow you to use more efficient antennas and transmit with more than 2-3 watts. Radio Shack had a 5 watt GMRS model that was popular a year or two back and it sold for around $100 a unit. Other units such as the Pryme PR 460 sell for close to $200 a unit but they will effectively work for 4-5 miles over hilly terrain and closer to 7-8 miles or more under more ideal, flat conditions.

All the info you could ever want can be found at www.popularwireless.com . They have a message board like this one for each of the individual radio services...FRS, GMRS, MURS, CB, etc.... Pop on over there and fire away with any questions. Those folks are very knowledgable and usually pretty friendly. Just make sure you mention that you know about the license issue with GMRS...

If you have any more questions on anything I mentioned then go right ahead.

Sq2Hunter · 06-03-2003, 04:29 PM

I got the motorolas also...they work really great. I would recommend them to you.

Have 2 Hunt · 06-03-2003, 11:17 PM

I have a set of 5 watt Motorolas that I paid a pretty penny for and love them. I also have a rhino 120 that I like but I have not gotten to really play with enough to compare the range. I think this hunting season I will be carrying both atleast until I am happy with the rhino. If Motorola made a 5 watt version of the rhino I would own it.

skeeter 7MM · 06-04-2003, 12:49 PM

Since we can only use FRS where I hunt, we have been using the Motorola FRS for a good number of years and they work great in my experience. If you need more than the 1-2 miles than look at the GMRS and some better quality units. I still suggest Motorola as a brand to start with.

Good Luck