@kbaum17@phendrick@yakkoTDI Police 2-way radios have a higher transmission power, they use base stations (typically multiple ones) with relay capabilities, they’re seldom on frequencies shared with a nearby agency they don’t need to communicate with, and they generally have better hardware than these engineered-down-to-a-price-point consumer models. It’s a Humvee-to-H3 comparison.
@phendrick@werehatrack@yakkoTDI UTTER NONSENSE ! everything you have said is completely wrong. Police operate on Channel 9. It’s readily available for ALL citizens to use. Nothing proprietary about it… Furthermore, I said NOTHING about signal strength. I said they use a 2-way radio. you are so far off you might as well be driving a Pacer…at least it was made by the same original manufacturer of the Humvee
@kbaum17 Yep. I had to buy a trunktracker scanner and program it to be able to listen to CB channel 9 to get all the deets on what my local LE was doing.
@kbaum17 Oh, you were serious.
Ok, well, as someone who has actually worked on the radios in police, sheriff, and Highway Patrol vehicles for the last ten years, I can tell you that your information is way out of date and you don’t fully understand the term “2-way radios.” Most states and cities use trunked systems nowadays, many of them in the 800MHz range. VHF and UHF trunked systems exist as well and they are usually cheaper for lower income communities or regions that pool public safety resources. All of this is done by using a 2-way radio (a radio that can transmit and receive) Some are hand helds (aka, walkie talkies); some are base stations that sit on a desk; some are mobile radios that get mounted in a vehicle; some are large repeaters on towers. All of them are 2-way radios. The radios on offer today are also 2-way radios. They use a different frequency band than what police use and it is also much different from CB radios.
The only reason Staties have CB in them is so they can monitor that emergency channel (9). Yeah, they might chit-chat on it, but that’s not their main communication. Think of it like Marine channel 16, don’t use it unless you really need it. To say they “operate” on that channel is a major stretch of the meaning of that word.
@werehatrack was correct in saying that police use different radios than these and the radios they use are much more powerful and better quality than the radios that are on offer today.
I’m an open book so, feel free to ask me more questions if you want to know more. Maybe next time you won’t sound like an ass when you talk about something you know very little about.
@werehatrack@Willijs3 LOL. SMH I said they were 2-way. I said they use Channel 9… all 100% true. Ooooh, you mean they don’t those THESE handhelds sold by Meh for this work?? oohhhhj. NFS
@werehatrack Doesn’t “Up to 20 miles.” function as their guarantee that it WON’T work more than 20 miles? Not every company guarantees the maximum usefulness of it’s products!
@phendrick@werehatrack In my limited experience, you’re actually on the money. In a perfect situation (flat, no obstructions, etc) you might get max range. In normal situations it’s well less than half that. Mountains? All bets are off.
@stinks and cruise ships since your phone won’t work on a cruise ship unless you use their crazy expensive roaming charges we decided to try portable radios and even better one than these and all you got was static
@stinks@ThyProphet Because ships are made of metal and your all on different levels and rooms what did you expect?? LOL. go outside on bow and one on stern, and I guarantee they work perfectly
… go outside on bow and one on stern, and I guarantee they work perfectly
On the larger vessels, unless you’re both on the top deck, that’s not a given. I know it didn’t work on one of RCL’s Oasis-class ships earlier this year. Handheld radios not routing through the ship’s comm were pretty much useless, even along the length of the lifeboat deck in direct line of sight; that might as well be a metal tunnel. On the upper deck, between line-of-sight points, they worked well enough. Bow and stern aren’t in line of sight. (A couple of people were discussing it at lunch one day.)
@fuzzmanmatt Isn’t that just for specific channels? Seems like some of the channels are fine unlicensed, but it’s been a while since I did any research on this stuff.
@fuzzmanmatt@phendrick Looks like it’s just based off of power now? Are these greater than 2W?
FRS radios will now have 22 channels: These expanded capabilities now include usage of channels 8 – 14, and previously GMRS only channels 15 – 22, in addition to the existing FRS channels 1 – 7. It is important to note that each FRS transmitter type must be designed such that the effective radiated power (ERP) on channels 8 - 14 does not exceed 0.5 Watts and the ERP on channels 1 - 7 and 15 - 22 does not exceed 2.0 Watts. Part95 - eCFR
You will be allowed to use reclassified FRS units for personal or business reasons: People have been doing this for a while, but now it is legal!
@fuzzmanmatt@stinks I tried to find xmit power, but it’s not listed anywhere I looked (on line user guide, web sites selling it, even motorola site), just battery requirement. There were several places where it mentioned that these were usable under the new FRS standards, but I couldn’t take those as more than opinions. But I’m guessing so. With all the comments on the limited operating range, I don’t think it would be much of an issue anyway.
I’m getting a set, to replace some that got taken from my place several years ago.
@fuzzmanmatt@phendrick@stinks Much like what happened to a far less benign extent in the ‘70s, the FCC decided that rather than asking for the funding to enforce rules that weren’t going to get obeyed no matter what they did, they’d change the rules to just allow the most common things that the original rules classified as misuses. It made much more sense to not waste either their or the courts’ time trying to enforce things that would not do anything significant to promote public interests. I recall when the original CB frequencies were quiet, and you had to obtain the (inexpensive, nontechnical) license before you could buy the radio. Then some manufacturers petitioned the FCC to allow them to sell the radios with the application included in the box, and their paid lobbyists did what was required to make sure the FCC granted the petition. What followed was predictable. Today, FRS/GMRS is far less likely to go down a similar road because we’ve nearly all got better ways to achieve the useful ends most of the time. (And Google Maps warns of speed traps with an accuracy rate similar to the best that CB ever managed, which is not all that high.)
@fuzzmanmatt - No license required (an unmodified T200 falls within FCC’s FRS specifications - there was a time apparently when FRS radio makers would include frequencies/power levels that required a license, but they’ve been banned from doing it for several years so this device is genuinely license free unless you modify it)
@phendrick@stinks@werehatrack OK, so, pedantry, but these aren’t GMRS radios, they’re just FRS radios. Old stock, don’t meet the rules for GMRS though the boxes say GMRS. Day late and a dollar short. WRQU881
These will have to do until someone comes up with something better LIKE TEXTING on your cell phone!!??!?! Actually I’m getting these for the emergency pack. When cell goes down after China and Russia nuke us these will be handy.
@bugger@drz@mbersiam Faraday cages and EMP have become much more widely understood in the past couple of decades. And, yes, sometimes misunderstood, in the case of EMP.
@drz I have a faraday cage for all electronics. I’m serious, this is the worst I’ve ever seen at least in our lifetime. At least we all know what it was like to live in 1940s and a major crazy person was trying to take over the world but instead we have a major crazy idiot is trying to give our world away.
@bugger@drz The danger a nuclear EMP presents to tiny electronics with tiny traces and tiny components is vastly over-stated. Much like the frequencies this radio operates at, the frequencies needed to fry tiny devices are those that attenuate when they hit just about anything. You’d need very close proximity to the detonation for it to be a major issue, and then you’ve got more pressing concerns.
It’s long wires that act like antennas for lower frequencies that are most at risk outside of the immediate blast zone. The power grid, barbed wire fences, transformers with very large coils, etc. Those frequencies don’t attenuate as easily and some have longer wavelengths than any object that could attenuate them.
Ah, breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck
You got a copy on me, Pig Pen, c’mon?
Ah, yeah, 10-4, Pig Pen, fer shure, fer shure
By golly, it’s clean clear to Flag Town, c’mon
Yeah, that’s a big 10-4 there, Pig Pen
Yeah, we definitely got the front door, good buddy
Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy
@Hanky@Kidsandliz
Roger that, good buddy, glad you got your ears on. What’s your 20, breaker 19er; I think you’re about to get to ol’ Smokey? And, QRZ, again?
You two do realize that all of that '70s CB crap was ditched during Solar Max when 27MHz became essentially useless, right? The channels are surprisingly silent these days, both on the old CB and the newer FMRS. And nobody does speed trap warnings over two-way radio anymore.
OBTW, as CB lingo was on the way out, the meaning of Good Buddy shifted.
@Hanky@phendrick@werehatrack I don’t “do” CB stuff so I have no clue what the state of this, what you are apparently telling us, lost art is about. On the other hand, young kids without cell phones would likely love to play with these things.
@ThyProphet Some of my grandparents’ siblings might have had descendants who were guards there, for all I know. Others might have been part of other factions in the general region. If I find out that the former was the case, I will not be surprised, but I certainly won’t celebrate it. Most of the past is best used as a source for reasons why we shouldn’t repeat those mistakes. Loads of people think the CB crap of the '70s is still around; it’s not, and the truckers (as just one group among many) are glad of it.
@Hanky@wood8176 Some of the chuckles, for some of us, are about all the background of it for the guy who wrote and performed it. At the height of its popularity, he couldn’t readily cash in via public performances because of the rules his day job imposed on him. I sincerely doubt that the CB craze would have gone as far as it did, had he not had that hit single.
@werehatrack We’re approaching a solar max right now, and the higher HF bands are opening up, not becoming useless. During the day, you can already “operate skip” on higher frequencies than 11m CB. (Operators on those frequencies don’t call it operating skip, though, because it’s just operating to them.)
@ThyProphet You must be a super nice person lover.
Next time you’re without cell signal after a storm, you’ll be the first to be helpful and kind to others.
@gdorn Solar max made CB useless for its intended purpose of local communications; the skip and the noise just drowned out everything. People running a linear and working the skip intentionally (particularly on SSB) became numerous enough that useful local range often fell to under a quarter mile. Sometimes a lot less than that, despite the 4W output that most of the units could manage.
@bfg9000@Lynnerizer I think you are probably right that younger kids would love to talk to each other while pretending whatever it is they are pretend playing at the time.
@bfg9000@blaadnort No Apples involved. The Jitterbug parent company started off as GreatCall; later changed their name to Live!y (a health service notification company which they acquired) and is currently owned by Best Buy.
I haven’t seen one for almost 15 years when I bought a pair for my parents, who loved them - including my dad, who was sliding into Alzheimer’s at the time.
@bfg9000@blaadnort@rpstrong Lively’s Jitterbug is still around, but those phones don’t port to other carriers. Blu makes a super-cheapie ($33) big-button that is probably worth not a single cent more, if my experience with their prior models is any predictor. Nokia is still around and still making a flip phone with a basic camera and zero app capability. Kyocera does, too.
@bfg9000@blaadnort@werehatrack A key Jitterbug feature was their monthly service. It wasn’t cheap, but it not only provided them with such features as an operator who called you by name, but also allowed me to help maintain their phone books (via their web site) from across the country. I don’t think there was much competition at the time.
Plus, when you opened them, the speaker played a dial tone until you pressed the first digit - now how cool is that?
@bfg9000 Next time you’re without cell signal after a storm, you’ll be the first to run over to the other 1 bedroom apartment in your building and ask to use their CB handheld.
@kbaum17 And who will they talk to? I’m in the fourth largest city in the country. CB is 100% unmonitored here today. REACT, an all-volunteer organization, originated the use of Channel 9 for emergencies, but they have only a few scattered places around the country where they are able to regularly (or even irregularly) monitor that channel today. None of my local police departments, fire departments, or emergency management agencies monitors 9. Not. One. A small number of the state troopers have a unit, but they seldom have it turned on. Having a CB in a DPS vehicle was never required and it’s been 40+ years since it was common. Hell, I’ve still got an old 40-channel transceiver up in the attic, but I don’t even bother hauling it out to test anymore. There’s actually a lot more monitoring (private, volunteer) of things like 2-meter Ham than any part of CB. As for using CB for an emergency report … good luck with that. You certainly won’t have to be concerned about having a responder turn out to be a jerk who acts like they’re sending the cavalry and then vanishes, nossir, never happen. (That used to be an occasional thing quite a while back in places, though. Lots of assholes in the world.)
Never say over and out together, they pounded that into my head in basic and it still bothers me when I hear it. Over means “I am done talking, I have let go of the button and I am listening for your response now” Out means “I am ending the conversation and walking away from the radio.” Also, you probably shouldn’t say “out” at all if you are talking to a superior, that is basically like slamming the phone on your boss in the middle of a phone call… https://tenor.com/view/the-more-you-know-gif-26317296
@bfg9000 I know I have them for the Democratic inspired emergency here in Chicago where it’s not safe to be near downtown especially the popular tourist spot Millennium Park.
@bfg9000@Larry1977@phonepole
Here ya go: not sure which party governs which area but you can check.
Top ten murder rates per capita by US States/Territories
(latest 2020 annual data)
Top 10 cities with highest murder rates:
St. Louis, MO (69.4)
Baltimore, MD (51.1)
New Orleans, LA (40.6)
Detroit, MI (39.7)
Cleveland, OH (33.7)
Las Vegas, NV (31.4)
Kansas City, MO (31.2)
Memphis, TN (27.1)
Newark, NJ (25.6)
Chicago, IL (24)
9 democrat mayors and 1 independent (who used to be democrat)
A criminologist named Gary Kleck conducted a survey in the late '90s involving the defensive use of guns and prevailing laws. Parts of his techniques and conclusions have come under (probably justifiable) attack, but a point of interest is that he analyzed his data on a county-by-county basis. He believed that the state-by-state comparisons were dramatically skewed by the very localized effect of big cities. Looking at city-by-city numbers would be ideal, but just not viable - counties were about the smallest geographical areas for which certain data was available.
@Bigbearballs Maybe, on a good day, outdoors, in an unobstructed-line-of-sight location. But only maybe. And that “up to 20” is an even less credible “maybe”. Over the ten miles between the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon, there was no joy when a couple of friends tried it using units with specs pretty much identical to these. Between vehicles on the Interstate, even on the flat and level, we got way less than a mile most of the time.
@Bigbearballs@themicah Can confirm that the Motos I had worked much better and ran much longer on alkaline than NiMH packs. I see no reason to think that this would have changed.
@ciabelle I think we should all do an homage (oʊˈmɑʒ) to the (anonymous?) person who came up with “Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosie”.
My go-to answer when someone asks “Which way to turn the ______?” [wrench/screwdriver/radiator cap/fire-plug-valve]
@ciabelle These aren’t walkie talkies, though. Walkie talkies were large backpack units. These are closer to what would have been called ‘handie talkies’ because they are a small transceiver that fits in the hand. (No idea why ‘walkie talkie’ entered the modern parlance but ‘handie talkie’ did not)
FRS radios I purchased 20 years ago have 36 channels. I believe these are just GMRS radios.
They used to be very popular on cruise ships to find your family when they’re lost, but we figured that out with cell phones didn’t they?
My Motorola radios only went to miles because of those pesky things called houses that got in the way at that frequency.
At best backyard, toys camping.
@craigcush@ThyProphet That’s not what he’s referring to… he’s talking about ship Wi-Fi and instant messaging people via the cruise line’s app or whatever. But that service costs about as much as these walkies do, and mindless kids aren’t always going to see the push notification. I’d rather have the walkies.
According to the doctors in Illinois who have called and awoken me on several Saturday mornings, pagers are still a thing. At least they say I paged them. I think they mean they saw a missed call from my number. Then they get an attitude when I tell them that a robocall must have called them, because it wasn’t my sound ass asleep self. Had one shout me down “it’s not a damned robocall!”
Dating myself but who remembers Nextel phones with the walkie talkie service on them?
@djslack Pagers are still a thing in the medical field because supposedly they get much more reliable reception when you’re deep in a building/around a bunch of interference.
@brennyn well if someone is actually old school paging doctors with my number between 6 and 7 am on Saturdays, they are devious assholes, but a certain part of me has a little bit of admiration for that. I assumed the “paged me” language just stuck around.
If it happens again and I have the presence of mind I’ll try to find that out.
@djslack I hung onto my Nextel for as long as I could. At that time I was involved with public safety and a nice perk was being able to click the call button and have it do the “bleep bleep” and say that I had to go from someone being long winded.
As someone else pointed out, to use the GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) channels legally, you need to get a license from the FCC, which costs $70 per household which now lasts 10 years, if by yourself, still $70 which is a rip-off for one person. The radio puts out more power and goes further on the GMRS channels. The FRS (Family Radio Service) channels don’t go as far, more like a kid’s walkie talkie, maybe a quarter mile at best, and no license needed to use FRS. There should be a license application inside the box with the radios. Mileage given are for the best circumstances across wide open spaces.Trees, buildings, hills, houses, and mountains will drastically cut down range.
You can get ones with up to 35 miles range on GMRS, that’s across open spaces with no obstructions or radio interference, under ideal conditions. These only claim 20 miles. Above about 35 miles, you need a base station with a better antenna that puts out more power, but I think there’s a legal limit. On FRS, what you get in the walkie talkie is the limit as base stations, extra power or better antennas are not allowed on FRS.
We used this technology twenty years ago when we took our children with us to science fiction conventions. The children were allowed to roam freely within the convention as long as they checked in periodically over the radio.
We got lucky during the first few years. The conventions were held in hotels where the buildings were not good faraday cages at FRS frequencies. Our children were teenagers when we first encountered a hotel where the radio waves didn’t propagate between floors. They were old enough that we didn’t need electronic tethers to make sure they ate lunch. [Autocorrect tried to dramatically change the meaning of that last sentence. Instead of "childrenatelunch", it made it "childrenarelunch". We are not pro-cannibalism.]
Technology has moved on. A few years ago, I saw a seven year old using a wristwatch 3G cell phone to talk with their parents. It is harder to lose something strapped to a wrist.
FRS radios probably still make sense at camp grounds without cell service.
@hamjudo Yes, they’re very useful within a campground or resort that doesn’t have cell service.
On a recent vacation to a fairly remote area, we stayed in a separate bungalow from our kids (highly recommended, btw), and a pair of walkies very similar to these made it much easier to coordinate everything: checking in with kids at bedtime, meeting up for meals, allowing them to call us if they needed anything late at night, etc.
But the range on these is a tiny fraction of the advertised “up to 20 miles.” They worked great within the main grounds of our resort, where we were rarely more than quarter mile or so apart. But when we went hiking, we lost radio contact when I’m pretty sure we were still less than a mile apart.
Dunno if any of you have seen the utter garbage that is a kids walkie talkie. The nieces & nephews had some “official” super hero ones that couldn’t reach across the house and ate batteries like candy while (not) doing it.
I got super cheap chinese FRS radios for them that worked from the house to the pasture and even to the neighbor kids’ house about a quarter mile away. They died over about six months. I suspect these would probably last much longer.
Absolutely worth it for the under-10 crowd.
Probably also worth it for anyone who goes camping. Or to renfairs. Or apple/pumpkin picking. There are still plenty of rural areas where cell service is spotty to non-existent.
@jamesmcp I had those old school kid walkie talkies when I was a kid. GI Joe ones. Absolute garbage. That was before they came out with FRS. These will be perfect for my five year old and her friends to play with.
@jamesmcp You’re so right. I just bought a set of vtech kid walkie talkies at Ollie’s for $8. Not even worth that. I can barely hear my son and half the time I can’t even hear him.
These are also good if driving with someone in another vehicle following rather than keep your phones on a call all the time, especially if there are several cars involved.
They’re still pretty handy for lake activities. The range is great over water. We used to send out our kids with them all the time before the days of cell phones. Even after, because we warned them if they dropped their cell phone in the lake, it was on them.
@plymouthdave you are correct. These are great for boating. They will travel over very large lakes for many miles. Great way to communicate between boats.
@Trinityscrew The current ones are over 10 years old and finding replacement batteries has been difficult. These have a AA battery option which is a nice backup plan if needed.
Absolutely worth buying just so you can sit across the house and say “10-4” after everything. This until the receiver of the messages either dies of giggles, or beats you to death with their handset!
@BelleGunness@Trinityscrew The manic grin and the bloodshot eyes as they approach you with one arm concealed behind their back is usually the cue to run to the loo and scramble out the window.
The kid in me REALLY wants these. The adult in me is spanking the kid in me for being impulsive and impractical.
Now if the kid in me can just stay up past 8:45 PM, the adult in me will have nodded off while while watching Bob Abishola, then that kid in me will show that adult in me who’s boss! (if they don’t sell out)
Specs
What’s Included?
Price Comparison
$74.06 at Amazon for 3
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Apr 24 - Wednesday, Apr 26
Can you hear me now?
Also, who gets to be the silent third on a two way radio?
@yakkoTDI WHAT?
@yakkoTDI i think 2 way radios just mean that one person can talk and everyone can listen as long as that person talking is finished
@yakkoTDI Specs don’t say it, but I think the “Best By” date on these was July 20, 1969.
@phendrick @yakkoTDI Police still use 2 -way radios. they work great
@phendrick @yakkoTDI they’re good for hunting parties too.
@kbaum17 @phendrick @yakkoTDI Police 2-way radios have a higher transmission power, they use base stations (typically multiple ones) with relay capabilities, they’re seldom on frequencies shared with a nearby agency they don’t need to communicate with, and they generally have better hardware than these engineered-down-to-a-price-point consumer models. It’s a Humvee-to-H3 comparison.
@phendrick @werehatrack @yakkoTDI UTTER NONSENSE ! everything you have said is completely wrong. Police operate on Channel 9. It’s readily available for ALL citizens to use. Nothing proprietary about it… Furthermore, I said NOTHING about signal strength. I said they use a 2-way radio. you are so far off you might as well be driving a Pacer…at least it was made by the same original manufacturer of the Humvee
@kbaum17 Yep. I had to buy a trunktracker scanner and program it to be able to listen to CB channel 9 to get all the deets on what my local LE was doing.
@kbaum17 I really can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or just stuck in 1968…
@Willijs3 https://www.rightchannelradios.com/blogs/newsletters/cb-radio-frequencies-and-channels
@kbaum17 Oh, you were serious.
Ok, well, as someone who has actually worked on the radios in police, sheriff, and Highway Patrol vehicles for the last ten years, I can tell you that your information is way out of date and you don’t fully understand the term “2-way radios.” Most states and cities use trunked systems nowadays, many of them in the 800MHz range. VHF and UHF trunked systems exist as well and they are usually cheaper for lower income communities or regions that pool public safety resources. All of this is done by using a 2-way radio (a radio that can transmit and receive) Some are hand helds (aka, walkie talkies); some are base stations that sit on a desk; some are mobile radios that get mounted in a vehicle; some are large repeaters on towers. All of them are 2-way radios. The radios on offer today are also 2-way radios. They use a different frequency band than what police use and it is also much different from CB radios.
The only reason Staties have CB in them is so they can monitor that emergency channel (9). Yeah, they might chit-chat on it, but that’s not their main communication. Think of it like Marine channel 16, don’t use it unless you really need it. To say they “operate” on that channel is a major stretch of the meaning of that word.
@werehatrack was correct in saying that police use different radios than these and the radios they use are much more powerful and better quality than the radios that are on offer today.
I’m an open book so, feel free to ask me more questions if you want to know more. Maybe next time you won’t sound like an ass when you talk about something you know very little about.
@werehatrack @Willijs3 LOL. SMH
I said they were 2-way. I said they use Channel 9… all 100% true. Ooooh, you mean they don’t those THESE handhelds sold by Meh for this work?? oohhhhj. 
NFS
@werehatrack @Willijs3 You sound like a dipsheeeet.
@Willijs3 You my 2 replies after your 2 replies?
It is important to note that 25 ft is within the range described as “Up to 20 miles.”
@werehatrack Doesn’t “Up to 20 miles.” function as their guarantee that it WON’T work more than 20 miles? Not every company guarantees the maximum usefulness of it’s products!
@phendrick @werehatrack In my limited experience, you’re actually on the money. In a perfect situation (flat, no obstructions, etc) you might get max range. In normal situations it’s well less than half that. Mountains? All bets are off.
@werehatrack Exactly. Like my dating profile said “up to 10 inches.”
@stinks and cruise ships since your phone won’t work on a cruise ship unless you use their crazy expensive roaming charges we decided to try portable radios and even better one than these and all you got was static
@stinks @ThyProphet Because ships are made of metal and your all on different levels and rooms what did you expect?? LOL. go outside on bow and one on stern, and I guarantee they work perfectly
@kbaum17
On the larger vessels, unless you’re both on the top deck, that’s not a given. I know it didn’t work on one of RCL’s Oasis-class ships earlier this year. Handheld radios not routing through the ship’s comm were pretty much useless, even along the length of the lifeboat deck in direct line of sight; that might as well be a metal tunnel. On the upper deck, between line-of-sight points, they worked well enough. Bow and stern aren’t in line of sight. (A couple of people were discussing it at lunch one day.)
@werehatrack Meant top deck
Don’t forget to get your GMRS license before using those channels! Everybody else is, aren’t they?
@fuzzmanmatt oo whats that?
@fuzzmanmatt Isn’t that just for specific channels? Seems like some of the channels are fine unlicensed, but it’s been a while since I did any research on this stuff.
@fuzzmanmatt @stinks FCC: FRS/GMRS rules
@fuzzmanmatt @phendrick Looks like it’s just based off of power now? Are these greater than 2W?
@fuzzmanmatt @stinks I tried to find xmit power, but it’s not listed anywhere I looked (on line user guide, web sites selling it, even motorola site), just battery requirement. There were several places where it mentioned that these were usable under the new FRS standards, but I couldn’t take those as more than opinions. But I’m guessing so. With all the comments on the limited operating range, I don’t think it would be much of an issue anyway.
I’m getting a set, to replace some that got taken from my place several years ago.
@fuzzmanmatt @phendrick @stinks Much like what happened to a far less benign extent in the ‘70s, the FCC decided that rather than asking for the funding to enforce rules that weren’t going to get obeyed no matter what they did, they’d change the rules to just allow the most common things that the original rules classified as misuses. It made much more sense to not waste either their or the courts’ time trying to enforce things that would not do anything significant to promote public interests. I recall when the original CB frequencies were quiet, and you had to obtain the (inexpensive, nontechnical) license before you could buy the radio. Then some manufacturers petitioned the FCC to allow them to sell the radios with the application included in the box, and their paid lobbyists did what was required to make sure the FCC granted the petition. What followed was predictable. Today, FRS/GMRS is far less likely to go down a similar road because we’ve nearly all got better ways to achieve the useful ends most of the time. (And Google Maps warns of speed traps with an accuracy rate similar to the best that CB ever managed, which is not all that high.)
@fuzzmanmatt - No license required (an unmodified T200 falls within FCC’s FRS specifications - there was a time apparently when FRS radio makers would include frequencies/power levels that required a license, but they’ve been banned from doing it for several years so this device is genuinely license free unless you modify it)
@fuzzmanmatt utter nonsense
@phendrick @stinks @werehatrack OK, so, pedantry, but these aren’t GMRS radios, they’re just FRS radios. Old stock, don’t meet the rules for GMRS though the boxes say GMRS. Day late and a dollar short. WRQU881
These will have to do until someone comes up with something better LIKE TEXTING on your cell phone!!??!?! Actually I’m getting these for the emergency pack. When cell goes down after China and Russia nuke us these will be handy.
@bugger I think I’d prefer ice cream.
@bugger You will need to keep them stored, shielded in a Faraday cage - if you don’t want them fried by the EMP.
@bugger @drz is it weird that not only I understand this sub thread, but am minutely excited that others are also discussing it?
@bugger @drz @mbersiam Faraday cages and EMP have become much more widely understood in the past couple of decades. And, yes, sometimes misunderstood, in the case of EMP.
@drz I have a faraday cage for all electronics. I’m serious, this is the worst I’ve ever seen at least in our lifetime. At least we all know what it was like to live in 1940s and a major crazy person was trying to take over the world but instead we have a major crazy idiot is trying to give our world away.
@bugger @drz The danger a nuclear EMP presents to tiny electronics with tiny traces and tiny components is vastly over-stated. Much like the frequencies this radio operates at, the frequencies needed to fry tiny devices are those that attenuate when they hit just about anything. You’d need very close proximity to the detonation for it to be a major issue, and then you’ve got more pressing concerns.
It’s long wires that act like antennas for lower frequencies that are most at risk outside of the immediate blast zone. The power grid, barbed wire fences, transformers with very large coils, etc. Those frequencies don’t attenuate as easily and some have longer wavelengths than any object that could attenuate them.
@bugger cell phones don’t work in lots of areas, especially when off shore. get a clue
Hmm. So you are presuming I can walkie and talkie at the same time. I’ll test that theory first with gum. It’s cheaper. Over and out.
@Kidsandliz 10-4
@Kidsandliz Roger, Roger.
@Kidsandliz @TheMonkeyKing What’s our vector, Victor?
Ah, breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck
You got a copy on me, Pig Pen, c’mon?
Ah, yeah, 10-4, Pig Pen, fer shure, fer shure
By golly, it’s clean clear to Flag Town, c’mon
Yeah, that’s a big 10-4 there, Pig Pen
Yeah, we definitely got the front door, good buddy
Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy
@Hanky @Kidsandliz
Roger that, good buddy, glad you got your ears on. What’s your 20, breaker 19er; I think you’re about to get to ol’ Smokey? And, QRZ, again?
@Hanky @Kidsandliz @phendrick
You two do realize that all of that '70s CB crap was ditched during Solar Max when 27MHz became essentially useless, right? The channels are surprisingly silent these days, both on the old CB and the newer FMRS. And nobody does speed trap warnings over two-way radio anymore.
OBTW, as CB lingo was on the way out, the meaning of Good Buddy shifted.
@werehatrack You must be a blast at parties regaling everybody with your stories about fluffy bunnies
@Hanky @phendrick @werehatrack I don’t “do” CB stuff so I have no clue what the state of this, what you are apparently telling us, lost art is about. On the other hand, young kids without cell phones would likely love to play with these things.
@Hanky Reminds me of this song.
Cledus Maggard - The White Knight
@Hanky @Kidsandliz @phendrick @werehatrack CQ CQ.
@ThyProphet Some of my grandparents’ siblings might have had descendants who were guards there, for all I know. Others might have been part of other factions in the general region. If I find out that the former was the case, I will not be surprised, but I certainly won’t celebrate it. Most of the past is best used as a source for reasons why we shouldn’t repeat those mistakes. Loads of people think the CB crap of the '70s is still around; it’s not, and the truckers (as just one group among many) are glad of it.
@Hanky I still play that song for a laugh on road trips.
@Hanky @wood8176 Some of the chuckles, for some of us, are about all the background of it for the guy who wrote and performed it. At the height of its popularity, he couldn’t readily cash in via public performances because of the rules his day job imposed on him. I sincerely doubt that the CB craze would have gone as far as it did, had he not had that hit single.
@werehatrack We’re approaching a solar max right now, and the higher HF bands are opening up, not becoming useless. During the day, you can already “operate skip” on higher frequencies than 11m CB. (Operators on those frequencies don’t call it operating skip, though, because it’s just operating to them.)
@ThyProphet You must be a super nice person lover.
Next time you’re without cell signal after a storm, you’ll be the first to be helpful and kind to others.
@gdorn Solar max made CB useless for its intended purpose of local communications; the skip and the noise just drowned out everything. People running a linear and working the skip intentionally (particularly on SSB) became numerous enough that useful local range often fell to under a quarter mile. Sometimes a lot less than that, despite the 4W output that most of the units could manage.
These were kinda cool before iPhones.
@bfg9000 Are Apple’s Jitterbug Premium phones considered cool outside of the under-20 and over-75 crowds?
@bfg9000
I think they still might be cool to an 8 year old who doesn’t have a cell phone yet! I’m thinking about going for it…
¯\(ツ)/¯
@bfg9000 @Lynnerizer I think you are probably right that younger kids would love to talk to each other while pretending whatever it is they are pretend playing at the time.
@bfg9000 @blaadnort No Apples involved. The Jitterbug parent company started off as GreatCall; later changed their name to Live!y (a health service notification company which they acquired) and is currently owned by Best Buy.
I haven’t seen one for almost 15 years when I bought a pair for my parents, who loved them - including my dad, who was sliding into Alzheimer’s at the time.
@bfg9000 @blaadnort @rpstrong Lively’s Jitterbug is still around, but those phones don’t port to other carriers. Blu makes a super-cheapie ($33) big-button that is probably worth not a single cent more, if my experience with their prior models is any predictor. Nokia is still around and still making a flip phone with a basic camera and zero app capability. Kyocera does, too.
@bfg9000 @blaadnort @werehatrack A key Jitterbug feature was their monthly service. It wasn’t cheap, but it not only provided them with such features as an operator who called you by name, but also allowed me to help maintain their phone books (via their web site) from across the country. I don’t think there was much competition at the time.
Plus, when you opened them, the speaker played a dial tone until you pressed the first digit - now how cool is that?
@bfg9000 Next time you’re without cell signal after a storm, you’ll be the first to run over to the other 1 bedroom apartment in your building and ask to use their CB handheld.
@kbaum17 And who will they talk to? I’m in the fourth largest city in the country. CB is 100% unmonitored here today. REACT, an all-volunteer organization, originated the use of Channel 9 for emergencies, but they have only a few scattered places around the country where they are able to regularly (or even irregularly) monitor that channel today. None of my local police departments, fire departments, or emergency management agencies monitors 9. Not. One. A small number of the state troopers have a unit, but they seldom have it turned on. Having a CB in a DPS vehicle was never required and it’s been 40+ years since it was common. Hell, I’ve still got an old 40-channel transceiver up in the attic, but I don’t even bother hauling it out to test anymore. There’s actually a lot more monitoring (private, volunteer) of things like 2-meter Ham than any part of CB. As for using CB for an emergency report … good luck with that. You certainly won’t have to be concerned about having a responder turn out to be a jerk who acts like they’re sending the cavalry and then vanishes, nossir, never happen. (That used to be an occasional thing quite a while back in places, though. Lots of assholes in the world.)
Never say over and out together, they pounded that into my head in basic and it still bothers me when I hear it.
Over means “I am done talking, I have let go of the button and I am listening for your response now” Out means “I am ending the conversation and walking away from the radio.” Also, you probably shouldn’t say “out” at all if you are talking to a superior, that is basically like slamming the phone on your boss in the middle of a phone call…
https://tenor.com/view/the-more-you-know-gif-26317296
@Jasonf1984 I am having trouble with my gif tonight.
@Jasonf1984 Roger Wilco
@Jasonf1984 “over and out” is like saying “it’s your turn to talk but I won’t be around to listen to you”
@Jasonf1984
@Jasonf1984 makes sense. Over & Out then
@Jasonf1984 @khearn I loved those games!
I believe I have this set stashed somewhere for some republican inspired emergency.
@bfg9000 I’m glad we’ve got this current utopia.
@bfg9000 I know I have them for the Democratic inspired emergency here in Chicago where it’s not safe to be near downtown especially the popular tourist spot Millennium Park.
@bfg9000 @Larry1977 Never mind that 8 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates are…I won’t mention which party
@bfg9000 @Larry1977 @phonepole
Here ya go: not sure which party governs which area but you can check.
Top ten murder rates per capita by US States/Territories
(latest 2020 annual data)
@bfg9000 @Larry1977 @pedrostee @phonepole all of which aside from two are Republican led states
@bfg9000 @Larry1977 @pedrostee @phonepole @ThyProphet let’s just get the MO governor to call in the state’s national guard to STL… He can do that, right?
@bfg9000 The great state of Tennessee does not stand for such a low ranking. We “aim” to be #1!
@bfg9000 @Larry1977 @pedrostee @phonepole
Top 10 cities with highest murder rates:
St. Louis, MO (69.4)
Baltimore, MD (51.1)
New Orleans, LA (40.6)
Detroit, MI (39.7)
Cleveland, OH (33.7)
Las Vegas, NV (31.4)
Kansas City, MO (31.2)
Memphis, TN (27.1)
Newark, NJ (25.6)
Chicago, IL (24)
9 democrat mayors and 1 independent (who used to be democrat)
@bfg9000 @Larry1977 @pedrostee @phonepole @Trinityscrew Thanks for posting - my immediate thought was to wonder about how smaller geographic area stacked up.
A criminologist named Gary Kleck conducted a survey in the late '90s involving the defensive use of guns and prevailing laws. Parts of his techniques and conclusions have come under (probably justifiable) attack, but a point of interest is that he analyzed his data on a county-by-county basis. He believed that the state-by-state comparisons were dramatically skewed by the very localized effect of big cities. Looking at city-by-city numbers would be ideal, but just not viable - counties were about the smallest geographical areas for which certain data was available.
@bfg9000 always some A-hole liberal that has to turn a product sale into political nonsense
What about 2 mile range?
@Bigbearballs Maybe, on a good day, outdoors, in an unobstructed-line-of-sight location. But only maybe. And that “up to 20” is an even less credible “maybe”. Over the ten miles between the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon, there was no joy when a couple of friends tried it using units with specs pretty much identical to these. Between vehicles on the Interstate, even on the flat and level, we got way less than a mile most of the time.
@Bigbearballs I wouldn’t count on these having 2 mile range. In most conditions they’ll probably start to drop out before you get a mile apart.
Note that they work better (longer battery life and better range) with alkaline AAs than with the proprietary NiMh battery packs they come with.
@Bigbearballs @themicah Can confirm that the Motos I had worked much better and ran much longer on alkaline than NiMH packs. I see no reason to think that this would have changed.
If the person who named Walkie Talkies named everything
Stamps = Lickie Stickie
Defibrillators = Hearty Starty
Bumble bees = Fuzzy Buzzy
Pregnancy test = Maybe Baby
Bra =Breastie Nestie
Fork= Stabby Grabby
Socks = Feetie Heatie
Hippo = Floatie Bloatie
Nightmare = Screamy Dreamy
— Antonia (@Flaminhaystack) March 25, 2018
@ciabelle I think we should all do an homage (oʊˈmɑʒ) to the (anonymous?) person who came up with “Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosie”.
My go-to answer when someone asks “Which way to turn the ______?” [wrench/screwdriver/radiator cap/fire-plug-valve]
@ciabelle I love that!
@ciabelle These aren’t walkie talkies, though. Walkie talkies were large backpack units. These are closer to what would have been called ‘handie talkies’ because they are a small transceiver that fits in the hand. (No idea why ‘walkie talkie’ entered the modern parlance but ‘handie talkie’ did not)
@ciabelle @nklb we have a collective love of rhymes
@ciabelle @phendrick Unless you are removing/replacing a table fan blade.
@ciabelle @detailer @phendrick
Or the lug nuts on the left side of a really old
car or pickup, particularly a Chrysler product. By the mid-'70s, that was all history.
Hello Moto, Do you Copy?
/image rick and morty walkie talkie die hard
FRS radios I purchased 20 years ago have 36 channels. I believe these are just GMRS radios.
They used to be very popular on cruise ships to find your family when they’re lost, but we figured that out with cell phones didn’t they?
My Motorola radios only went to miles because of those pesky things called houses that got in the way at that frequency.
At best backyard, toys camping.
That’s if you stay in the campground
@craigcush actually no, Cell phones don’t work on cruise ships unless you use the on board cell tower which sends your phone into roaming.
I didn’t know this on our first cruise so I didn’t think anything of it when my wife was using her phone came home to a $4,000 phone bill
@craigcush @ThyProphet That’s not what he’s referring to… he’s talking about ship Wi-Fi and instant messaging people via the cruise line’s app or whatever. But that service costs about as much as these walkies do, and mindless kids aren’t always going to see the push notification. I’d rather have the walkies.
@craigcush @ThyProphet
According to the doctors in Illinois who have called and awoken me on several Saturday mornings, pagers are still a thing. At least they say I paged them. I think they mean they saw a missed call from my number. Then they get an attitude when I tell them that a robocall must have called them, because it wasn’t my sound ass asleep self. Had one shout me down “it’s not a damned robocall!”
Dating myself but who remembers Nextel phones with the walkie talkie service on them?
@djslack The good part about dating yourself is that you seldom have long, drawn out “where do you want to eat?” discussions.
@djslack Sure do. Used them for many years on the job…install/service for Hughes Network Systems. Handsets were near indestructible.
@detailer @djslack And God knows we tried!
@djslack Pagers are still a thing in the medical field because supposedly they get much more reliable reception when you’re deep in a building/around a bunch of interference.
@brennyn well if someone is actually old school paging doctors with my number between 6 and 7 am on Saturdays, they are devious assholes, but a certain part of me has a little bit of admiration for that. I assumed the “paged me” language just stuck around.
If it happens again and I have the presence of mind I’ll try to find that out.
@djslack I hung onto my Nextel for as long as I could. At that time I was involved with public safety and a nice perk was being able to click the call button and have it do the “bleep bleep” and say that I had to go from someone being long winded.
@detailer @djslack At my old job, one was indeed killed after being ran over by a forklift.
/image Nextel Motorola Lingo
Then the guy lied and tried to hide it. He was fired shortly after for a different reason, however.
As someone else pointed out, to use the GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) channels legally, you need to get a license from the FCC, which costs $70 per household which now lasts 10 years, if by yourself, still $70 which is a rip-off for one person. The radio puts out more power and goes further on the GMRS channels. The FRS (Family Radio Service) channels don’t go as far, more like a kid’s walkie talkie, maybe a quarter mile at best, and no license needed to use FRS. There should be a license application inside the box with the radios. Mileage given are for the best circumstances across wide open spaces.Trees, buildings, hills, houses, and mountains will drastically cut down range.
@danexton not anymore, Rules have changed
@danexton Can you please summarize the new rules (changes) as clearly and concisely as @ThyProphet did?
You can get ones with up to 35 miles range on GMRS, that’s across open spaces with no obstructions or radio interference, under ideal conditions. These only claim 20 miles. Above about 35 miles, you need a base station with a better antenna that puts out more power, but I think there’s a legal limit. On FRS, what you get in the walkie talkie is the limit as base stations, extra power or better antennas are not allowed on FRS.
@danexton Is the range of these radios better than for these?:
We used this technology twenty years ago when we took our children with us to science fiction conventions. The children were allowed to roam freely within the convention as long as they checked in periodically over the radio.
We got lucky during the first few years. The conventions were held in hotels where the buildings were not good faraday cages at FRS frequencies. Our children were teenagers when we first encountered a hotel where the radio waves didn’t propagate between floors. They were old enough that we didn’t need electronic tethers to make sure they ate lunch. [Autocorrect tried to dramatically change the meaning of that last sentence. Instead of "children ate lunch", it made it "children are lunch". We are not pro-cannibalism.]
Technology has moved on. A few years ago, I saw a seven year old using a wristwatch 3G cell phone to talk with their parents. It is harder to lose something strapped to a wrist.
FRS radios probably still make sense at camp grounds without cell service.
@hamjudo Yes, they’re very useful within a campground or resort that doesn’t have cell service.
On a recent vacation to a fairly remote area, we stayed in a separate bungalow from our kids (highly recommended, btw), and a pair of walkies very similar to these made it much easier to coordinate everything: checking in with kids at bedtime, meeting up for meals, allowing them to call us if they needed anything late at night, etc.
But the range on these is a tiny fraction of the advertised “up to 20 miles.” They worked great within the main grounds of our resort, where we were rarely more than quarter mile or so apart. But when we went hiking, we lost radio contact when I’m pretty sure we were still less than a mile apart.
Dunno if any of you have seen the utter garbage that is a kids walkie talkie. The nieces & nephews had some “official” super hero ones that couldn’t reach across the house and ate batteries like candy while (not) doing it.
I got super cheap chinese FRS radios for them that worked from the house to the pasture and even to the neighbor kids’ house about a quarter mile away. They died over about six months. I suspect these would probably last much longer.
Absolutely worth it for the under-10 crowd.
Probably also worth it for anyone who goes camping. Or to renfairs. Or apple/pumpkin picking. There are still plenty of rural areas where cell service is spotty to non-existent.
@jamesmcp You’re right about that. Cell service is very spotty once you’re an hour or two away from major metropolitan areas.
@jamesmcp I had those old school kid walkie talkies when I was a kid. GI Joe ones. Absolute garbage. That was before they came out with FRS. These will be perfect for my five year old and her friends to play with.
@jamesmcp You’re so right. I just bought a set of vtech kid walkie talkies at Ollie’s for $8. Not even worth that. I can barely hear my son and half the time I can’t even hear him.
These are also good if driving with someone in another vehicle following rather than keep your phones on a call all the time, especially if there are several cars involved.
They’re still pretty handy for lake activities. The range is great over water. We used to send out our kids with them all the time before the days of cell phones. Even after, because we warned them if they dropped their cell phone in the lake, it was on them.
@plymouthdave you are correct. These are great for boating. They will travel over very large lakes for many miles. Great way to communicate between boats.
We use these when winterizing our cabin. The current set are going dead, so these are perfect.
/giphy productive-moody-fire
@w3kn Couldn’t you just replace the batteries in the current set?
@Trinityscrew The current ones are over 10 years old and finding replacement batteries has been difficult. These have a AA battery option which is a nice backup plan if needed.
Absolutely worth buying just so you can sit across the house and say “10-4” after everything. This until the receiver of the messages either dies of giggles, or beats you to death with their handset!
@BelleGunness Or both, depending on how long you keep doing it.
@BelleGunness @Trinityscrew The manic grin and the bloodshot eyes as they approach you with one arm concealed behind their back is usually the cue to run to the loo and scramble out the window.
The kid in me REALLY wants these. The adult in me is spanking the kid in me for being impulsive and impractical.
Now if the kid in me can just stay up past 8:45 PM, the adult in me will have nodded off while while watching Bob
Abishola, then that kid in me will show that adult in me who’s boss! (if they don’t sell out)
These would be great to take to the mall…oh wait, what mall?
Pulled the trigger. I don’t know why. I have nobody to talk to.
famous-sturdy-rhinoceros
Needed a set of these
/giphy worrisome-wicked-flag
nice…
/showme worrisome-wicked-flag
@mediocrebot meh