On May 27, 5:15*pm, "Bob F" wrote:
Pat wrote:
On May 24, 1:13 pm, "Ulysses" wrote:
"Stormin Mormon" wrote in
message
...
Within the last several years, FCC authorized "Family Radio
Service". I know that many stores have great success with
them. Though, they are not legal for use by business. Just
families. Still, many stores use them.
They are seriously cheap on Ebay. And can be bought with
rechargable batteries, and charge stands. So you're not
spending piles of money on batteries.
Cheaper than using cell phone minutes for everything.
I like my gadgets. And FRS walkie talkies are on my list of
neat gadgets I like to play with. Who has used them, and how
did they work?
My major experience has been picnics. From picnic base to
firewood team, they are good for chit chat. The only time
I've used them for anything real, was one time I was pincic
with a friend. His daughter wandered off. He went to look
for her, and I stayed at the base.
Used them while working on a heating and AC job. They were a
serious help, there. We could have guys in the cellar, or in
the attic, and saved a lot of running around.
--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.
I got some with a 3 mile range and they didn't work from my house to
the back of my property (over a hill about 1000 feet). I got some
with a 7 mile range and they didn't work as well as the 3 mile
range. About the only time I actually use them is while working on
something when someone has to monitor one thing while someone else
is 500 feet away working on the problem.
I was hoping they would work well enough so my wife or daughter
could call if they got stuck in the mud where there is no cell phone
service. It's less than a mile to the bad area and they don't work.
That might be better suited for CB radios and/or walkie talkies. *More
power. *Better antennas.
More to the point, CB's used a lower frequency that worked around hills and
other obsticals. The modern ones are pretty much line-of-sight with the high
frequency they use.
Back in the 70's, a friend of mine in Detroit had a conversation using a
standard 5 watt CB one day with a guy in Venezuela. Skip was amazing sometimes.- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
Yup that was/is phenomenom of the frequencies used for CB Citizen's
Band (around 27 megahertz). Very close to the 10 metre (28 to 30
megahertz) Radio Amateur Band). But CB is also relatively low power
(about 3 watts). Licensed radio amateurs use variuos output power and
modes of transmission. Skip conditions depends on sunspots/solar
radiation etc.
My neighbour a trucker, here in Eastern Canada once had an interesting
'contact' with a State Trooper rushing to an emergency in central USA!
So under certain conditions very low power can transmit great
distances.
Looking up to say the space station with nothing intervening (no hills
in space!) very low power would work.
But to get all the radio frequency space or 'channels' needed
equipment has gone to higher and higher frequencies. Using frequencies
that would have been impossible to achieve, especially for cheap
'consumer electronics' only 50 years ago!
Our 900 megahertz cordless telephone works quite well for a couple of
hundred feet; but maybe somewhat affected by the aluminum foil in
walls of our house!
We once had a house trailer and despite the high power of the TV
transmitter a few miles away, TV would just not work at all inside
that metal shell!
And that's how radio goes; or doesn't.