I wanna get a pair for using on the ski field. I looked in Tandy at some Uniden ones for $50 - 3km distance, 40channels, used repeaters... 3AAA batteries. The display was really simple and I think just showed the channel and not even the battery life. I couldn't find any other brand around the Indooroopilly area.

Anyone know another store I could look at different brands? The fella and Tandy said that Uniden isn't the cheapest one and I should be able to find something better for about the same price.

I have those uniden ones you saw... they're crap.
Range is not 3KM, you'd be lucky if it was 500M.

mongie speaks the truth. These are 0.5watt
I would recommend at least 1.5watt units, they will be able to do a kay or two.
Spend about $100+ each for the win, otherwise you're wasting your money.

We use those uniden ones on site (quarry), and I have to say the quality does not impress me. You're constantly getting static, and seem to receive bursts of static for no reason, plus half the time when someone is speaking you can't understand what they are saying. The machine operators have better quality radios in their vehicles, and everything comes through crystal clear, so I attributed the crapness of the sound quality to these uniden radios.

Are you just trying to avoid mobile phone call costs while on the slopes, or are you worried about no reception for your phone? Ski resorts tend to maintain good reception if that is your concern.

A friend of mine used motorola units when he was in Canada, and he reckons they worked quite well.

I want something that my buddy and I can use for when we are in separate places on the mountain. I don't want to be paying for mobile calls. I can't really afford to pay $100 each. Max I would pay is $100 for two. Can you guys tell me shops where I can check them out? I've been to Dick Smith's, Tandy, Harveys.

the range will be governed largely by the output rating, for cheapie handhelds it's not even usually 1 watt which means you'll need pretty good line of sight or you'll just suffer a lot of breakup/noise

if you're prepared to spend a couple of hundred bucks on a decent gme handheld you can get them up to about 5 watts which is rivalling many in-vehicle units despite the stubby little antenna you are limited to in a hand-held.

when my wife got a 4wd she didn't want to fork out for an in-car unit right away, so she bought a decent handheld instead and is actually finding it very good so far. an example a few months back, we went to cityview4x4 park which is about 10k's west of beaudesert. she left ahead of me and I called in thru the maccas drive thru in beaudesert and was getting a clear read from her handheld from there, while she was in the hills 10k's away. I've got a 6 watt output on my in-car unit plus a hefty antenna, so if I'd had the same hand-held as hers it wouldn't have been as good a signal, but you get the picture. my antenna helped me pick up her lower-output signal, and also helped my return signal get back to her. but for a handheld to reach me that clearly over that distance unboosted in the first place is great

this is the unit she has, it's a 2 watter:
http://www.gme.net.au/land/transceivers/tx630.php

heh I started typing that before I saw your response re: $100

jaycar sell cheapies, from memory they were do a cheap twin set for something like $80 a couple of years ago

$100 :S I wouldn't be expecting anything that would work on moutains for any significant distant.

chub would use the force instead

http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/469195f20a7ddf522740c0a87f9c0778/Product/View/D1846

Got 3 packs of these between 6 of us for last year at Perisher.

They are tiny so easy to carry and pretty cheap.

Just plugged them in each night to charge them for enxt day.

One of the best things they have is the hands-free stuff. You get a earpiece with mic so you can have walkie in pocket and while skiing along just press button near face and talk to others or hear them talk without doing anything. Also it has VOX which detects talking and about 1.2 a second later starts transmitting. So you can make a noise, wait a tiny bit then talk and your hands never even had to move. Pretty cool and handy.

Found these to be ok over most of Perisher/Blue Cow area. Not the most powwerful but worked 90% of the time we needed it, which was mostly meeting up for lunch.

Or you could buy a pair of these. Light and portable.

http://www.members.optushome.com.au/gpahl/fone.jpg

Thanks for all the info fellas. Jim - do you need a license for something that powerful? Mantis, that looks exactly like what I'm after... Dick Smith's at Indro didn't have them so I'll hunt around. Cheers.

nope no license required

i went skiing this week and we both had our phones and never had to use them, keep in mind ihad a bright yellow jacket though XD

Jim perhaps you can help me here.

I was going to do some solo offtrack hiking through Lamington National Park. I'm skilled enough with a compass/map not to get lost, but this will be my first time going offtrack solo and I'm a bit worried if I get a serious injury and I'm stranded (mobiles won't work in the rainforest obviously)... then I would be up s***creek.

I'm probably going to ring up the EPA and ask them what their Rangers use.. but honestly I have no idea about any sort of communication device. Would you use something GPS related?

I'm don't actually know anything about comms, I only have a uhf radio so I can talk to other vehicles I am out 4wding with - I'm not aware of any available civilian 2-way communication via gps. It's probably worth trying a nice powerful handheld UHF, might be a decent chance of being able to reach someone provided you're not stuck in a steep gully. See if you can get a portable EPRB, in fact I'd strongly recommend it regardless of whether you can find a suitable portable communications device or not.

Try attaching a note to your boomarang Chub

Well that might be the case Jim (stuck in a valley).

I'm going to have to suss something out. Everytime we've gone offtrack in groups someone has farked up their ankles and we had to carry them out.

there's probably hiking forums that have a section on stuff that hikers typically do for that type of thing, but my guess is the best failsafe device would be an eprb

also, exercise your ankles a lot, wear supportive socks and boots and most of all look where you're putting your feet :) might be able to greatly reduce the chance of the painful experience even happening at all

Try attaching a note to your boomarang Chub

HAHAHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAA

post of the day

EPIRB?

I would say so mongie, the other didn't return any search results.

That sounds pretty skizto :) Like I'm drowning at sea or something.

Surely there's some sort of device that's local to the Rangers in the park that says "I'm offtrack, I'm f***ed, come help me" without sending a massive distress beacon :)

Flare guns, and plenty of them.

Couldn't they start a fire?

I would have thought so, yes.

Well that's no good :P Can't hurt the ecosystem, would rather army crawl back to camp.

fire is a natural part of the ecosystem

Not when it's started by flare guns, a man made invention.

Duh!

so is chub

http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?Acronym=EPRB&Find=find&string=exact
http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?Acronym=EPIRB&Find=find&string=exact
http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?Acronym=EPERB&Find=find&string=exact

http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?Acronym=OMGWTFBBQ&Find=find&string=exact

Booo!

My walkkie talkie reaches pretty far. We used it down the coast when driving aimlessly was still cool & got more than 500M out of it for sure. Aren't the range estimates line of sight though? As in, 2 people who can see each other on a flat piece of land with nothing to interfere with the signal, just like the estimates for wireless routers/network cards are normally nowhere near what the manufacturers claim.

Model UH-040XR

edit: I thought so
* Range varies depending on the environment. 3km range is noted in a flat open environment.

last edited by whoop at 19:11:24 09/Jul/07

RED CORIDAL THIS IS ORANGE JUICE. OVER. SHCHSHSHCHCHC

its a good idea, but you get the s***s after 20mins. everyone one else has the same idea, and every 5 seconds you get random s***.

then when your buddies try to contact you, you miss it.

better off just getting a pay as you go sim from the country your in. easier.

units with ctcss help overcome that, like the one I linked

its not that f***ing expensive to make phone calls or if you are real stingy use texts (they s*** me to tears).

Say you spend $80 (and you split this with your buddy, that is $40 each) I can't see you spending more then that on calls, the calls should last less then 1min if not 2mins... hey I am here, meet you here in 15mins or what ever...

if you are on one of those $49 cap plans or whatever why even bother?

Pre-pay aint that much more expensive.

If it's for your NZ trip, just get a pre-pay sim over there, when I was there it was free voda to voda texts at different points of the day / weekends...

bleh sleep time

yeah, what heardy said. or dont be gay, ride fast and your mates will follow. solved.

or just heli board :P

http://www.lucascullen.com/images/griffle-xray3.jpg

last edited by mooby at 19:50:42 10/Jul/07