Is 65 watt enough?

[Hubbleman]

Those who remember, last year I got couple of “high powered” walkie talkies. These were only 5 watt and on the box it said they have a distance of 25 km. They didn’t work even for 2 km between me and my buddies house.


So, I was checking online stores last night and they got a new transceiver in stock. It’s a 144Mhz transceiver. Only 200 pounds and with guess how much power? 65 watt!

The only disadvantage is that they don’t come with a power supply and I need to purchase 2 separately for 70 quid a piece.

I always dreamed of owning one of these so I am going to order 2 transceivers 2 power supplies and 2 antennas.

What do you think?

 

[BudToaster]

144 mhz ... that brings back memories of being a ham radio operator. this is the 2 meter band. a license is required to use this band in the US and i had to demonstrate proficiency with Morse Code to get a license back in the day (mid 1960s). i had a "benton harbor lunchbox" for a 2m rig. my main rig was a heathkit SB100 that covered the more typical bands 10, 15, 20, 40 and 80 meter.

when i got my Apple ][ in 1979, i hooked the SB100 speaker output to the Apple analog input and wrote a program to decode Morse and display the text on the screen.

this is a "line of sight" frequency, although "skips" of 100s of miles is possible. or get a big ass antenna. my 2 meter rig was only 5 watts but could go 20+ miles no problem. i had a directional antenna up about 30 feet. Also: it is farmland flat where i lived.

 

[babelfish]

Now you just need something that will encrypt your voice traffic, and decrypt on the other side and you could have real fun

 

[MJPassion]

65 watts should get you talking all around the globe but as mentioned it's a line of site band.

Id check your local laws previous to purchasing those. You may need to get a license to operate (transmit, not receive) it and you may need to take a test in order to obtain said license.

A longer wavelength (lower frequency band) will bounce off of the ionosphere better than a shorter one, allowing you improved skip.

If you're not familiar with HAM type radios I'd suggest doing some serious research if you're serious about communication. There are a broad spectrum of radios to choose from ranging in size from the size of a little larger than a cell phone up to units that need their own room for all of the equipment.

 

[Hubbleman]

"this is a "line of sight" frequency"
and
"as mentioned it's a line of site band"

I was told that is the fact for UHF radios. This one is VHF which is good for uneven terrain communication, am i right?

 

[BudToaster]

VHF propagation characteristics are ideal for short-distance terrestrial communication, with a range generally somewhat farther than line-of-sight from the transmitter (see formula below). Unlike high frequencies (HF), the ionosphere does not usually reflect VHF waves (called skywave propagation) so transmissions are restricted to the local radio horizon less than 100 miles. VHF is also less affected by atmospheric noise and interference from electrical equipment than lower frequencies. While it is blocked by land features such as hills and mountains, it is less affected by buildings and other less substantial objects than UHF frequencies.

check the Wikipedia article on "VHF" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHF -- portion quoted here

 

[Hubbleman]

"it is less affected by buildings and other less substantial objects than UHF frequencies"

 

[BudToaster]

right, but you asked about uneven terrain -- did you mean hills and valleys, or buildings?

 

[Adze]

Hills and valleys, buildings and other uneven terrain substantially affect the 2-meter ham band (144mhz). If you’re going to use a ham band why not try one of the lower frequencies? The walkie-talkies work on the 28-meter CB band and should have worked better over the short distances you were trying. You are sure they were functioning correctly?

 

[Hubbleman]

right, but you asked about uneven terrain -- did you mean hills and valleys, or buildings?

Buildings

 

[BudToaster]

lots of hits on Google for that model. evidently not many hams on ICmag.

 

[Hubbleman]

What u mean lots of hits? is it a good thing?

Also i wanted to ask ya, do u need a license for this thing? It doesnt say on the website, but, if u do need a license, what happens if i dont get one, can they track me?

 

[Tudo]

Now you just need something that will encrypt your voice traffic, and decrypt on the other side and you could have real fun

We could all use that device! Where are they sold?

 

[BudToaster]

What u mean lots of hits? is it a good thing?

Also i wanted to ask ya, do u need a license for this thing? It doesnt say on the website, but, if u do need a license, what happens if i dont get one, can they track me?

what i meant by hits is there is a lot of information about this unit available on the internet -- reviews and user experiences. i'm a fan of reading reviews -- particularly the low reviews to see if their concerns are important to me in my situation, etc.

are you in UK? don't know about license requirements these days, i'm not a licensed ham anymore and cellphones/internet pretty much killed any interest i had in ham radio. you will need to search to answer that question -- or check wikipedia.

 

[BudToaster]

We could all use that device! Where are they sold? View Image

pretty sure NSA can hook you up.

 

[babelfish]

pretty sure NSA can hook you up.

lol normally it would be built into the radio/handset.