Best Walkie-Talkie For Club Tours?

[pgerhardt]

In an earlier thread I shared a video of my model A club on a fall tour. There was a suggestion that the club acquire a few walkie-talkies to improve communications. Does anyone have a suggestion on a make/model of walkie-talkie that would be a good choice?

[wallster]

I manage a sign company and we'll have people outside in a bucket and a person inside back bolting threaded rod so we used cobra walkie talkies for communication but nowadays we just use our cell phones.

Wally

[SeaSlugs]

when they say 2 miles or 5 mile range cut that by 1/3... and dont go cheap - they are cheap for a reason.

[Cape Codder]

I don't know if they are the BEST but several club members have purchased BAOFENG VHF/UHF two way radios. I bought the extra long aerial (8") which is good but don't expect to have much more then ONE mile reception, although SOMETIMES we can get thru depending on what is around us. Very useful for communicating as we usually have five cars on a trip and try to stay close together. Can be bought Amazon.com in the range of $35-$40.
Just my one and a half cents worth.

[Synchro909]

When we do our outback trips, we have a fixed CB wired into the car. With a good aerial, we can get about 5 miles easily enough but in freak conditions, we once heard one of our group for a short time and he was about 80 miles away. When we are in convoy, a hand held radio is OK (ish) but as has been said above, don't go cheap. A cheap radio that doesn't work well is money wasted and so is no saving at all. We use Uniden.

[Divco one]

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I bought Motorola RDU4100. Over $200 each, but they really work.

[700rpm]

Why not just use cell phones?

[C26Pinelake]

dont buy the cheapest and if it says it is good for 12 miles expect 4 or 5. The Cobra worked fine for us and they were about $40 a pair. Wayne

[Ted Duke]

Some areas of the country do NOT have cell service away from the interstates.

[CarlG]

We use cell phones. We just have to put up with the "no service" areas, but we know where they are and allow for that.

[Jacksonlll]

Our whole club uses hard wired CB's. Whenever someone tries to go the cheaper way with a Hand Held, they flat out don't work. The CB lets everyone hear you. Cell phones in special situations.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Just do Morse Code with your HORN or LIGHTS.
Capt. Bill W.

[nhusa]

Bill,
Loose wires can result in the wrong message being sent.

I know from personal experience.
After I changed the motor in my 1941 Ford coupe in 1961 I didn't tighten the wires on the dimmer switch.
The blinking lights got the attention of a police officer.
He detained me because he thought I was signaling others that he was trying to catch speeders.

[Bruce Adams]

We have found the CB radio with a fixed antenna will do five miles or more, and a hand held CB plugged into a magnetic antenna will do over two miles. A hand-held using the rubber antenna goes about 1/4 mile.

I have heard mixed reviews on the UHF FRS "Family Band" Radios. They claim 65 miles range.

Cell phone comms are a lot tougher when driving and shifting.

[coupe1942]

I used a pair when at a Decatur swap a few years back and also during a move from KY to Tx years back. The problem I ran into was that a ton of other kids and such were on the same band at Decatur and it was pretty useless there. On our move, i had problems with a trucker who didn't like the chatter. Words were exchanged and if we had actually met at the time, them more than just words would have been exchanged I am sure.

My cell phone would probably work better and actually be less cumbersome to handle and store when not in use, but the darn thing is hard to see on the screen these days. I am going back to an old nerdy flip phone as soon as I can. My cell phone may be better than a long string tied to a pair of oatmeal cans though. :-)

[eagle]

Go on Ebay and get some good commercial quality radios. Buy Motorola, nothing else comes close to performing like a motorola radio. Have the radios programmed on a VHF frequency. Get an FCC license. Do it right. Or to "get by cheap, buy a motorola VHF talkabout radio. Don't need a license but your range will only be about a mile.

[updraught]

Ariel might make a difference

[[email protected]]

Years ago most members of my Model A club had CB radios for use on our tours. It was great as we had chatter going on during the whole trip and made for bonding of the participants with jokes, stories, and to be on the look out for the old tractor coming up at the farm to the left of the road. If we saw a garage sale we would do a quick straw poll and determined if the whole group wanted to stop or not. We were able to not lose anyone at city traffic lights and never lost anyone from making the wrong turn. If there was a mechanical issue it was often diagnosed before having to stop and then made for a quick fix with the needed part there instantly. We bought cheap used CB radios and ran them off of 6 to 12 volt buck boost invertors or a motorcycle battery that would power the radio all weekend and would be charged in the hotel overnight if needed

Now the new club members are just wanting to use their cell phones. Now we have seen members having a break down and being in a dead zone for cells. Lost people on tours is now common and it is very hard to get a quick straw poll done for a serendipity stop at an antique store or for ice cream. Cell phones have worked best when the tail end car is chatting with the lead car on making sure the gang is all accounted for. We also used to request that the tail end car would drive with their headlights on so the leading cars would know that the group was all together.

I vote for using CB radios....

[ronn]

I know from personal experience.
After I changed the motor in my 1941 Ford coupe in 1961 I didn't tighten the wires on the dimmer switch.
The blinking lights got the attention of a police officer.
He detained me because he thought I was signaling others that he was trying to catch speeders.

that is funny! you just cant make that stuff up!

[abachman3]

A few years ago - 1 or 2, a Federal Judge ruled that it is not illegal to blink your lights.. to warn oncoming traffic of something, be it an accident or a policeman in hiding.. Thus no city/state can override that decision. I couldn't find my copy of the law as I recently changed computers and can't find much.