Walkie talkies lidl Thursday

Cheeky monkey

http://www.lidl.ie/ie/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20071129.p.WalkieTalkies

Walkie talkies in Lidl this Thursday, they have a headset so they might be suited for airsoft

Masada

do many people even use walkie talkies? i have some at home but never thought about bringing them to hrta.,

Cheeky monkey

A few do

NakedDex

As a comms elitist I'm gonna come right out and say this. They're dirt.

My thoughts on Lidl/Aldi radios are known here, you're better off holding your money and get something decent later on.

Masada

i thought it was just the marshals.,
them lidl ones look decent though dont they, rechargable and everything.,

Masada

NakedDex wrote: »

As a comms elitist I'm gonna come right out and say this. They're dirt.

My thoughts on Lidl/Aldi radios are known here, you're better off holding your money and get something decent later on.

why? you have any experience with these?
i usually find stiff out of there to be pretty bulletproof.,

NakedDex

I've been working with various comms systems, from seriously high power HF radios to manpack radios to standard 446 radios, for 8 years now. Those radios have questionable build quality from an electronics standpoint and for the most part are no better than those you'd find in a Smyths toy store from what I've found. I've built ones in the past that have had better tx/rx capabilites than the ones you get for cheap in those stores.
Basically they're good for messing with but no more in my opinion

Masada

Hmm, i thought they would be pretty decent, i have a pair of cheapo ones made by binatone i think and they have a good range on them so i thought these would be similar.,
I have 4 little motorola ones somewhere aswell, there pretty good.,

thehomeofDob

What would you recommend Dex? Something that would be compatible with a wide range of other radios.

NakedDex

Binatone is entry level, bargain bin stuff. It is better than what Aldi/Lidl sell but it's not great. Motorola are very good. I use Motorola XTN446's as my general purpose radio. The only problem with Motorola is that it's got a non-standard twin jack connection. The pins are closer together than regular connections, an easy fix with an adaptor for your headset, or with a headset compatible with your Motorola, but it is a pain.

thehomeofDob wrote: »

What would you recommend Dex? Something that would be compatible with a wide range of other radios.

There are a lot of good units out there, it depends on what you want. For a general purpose unit there's no beating the XTX or XTN series from Motorola. Standard 8x36 channel system but with scramble systems available on the XTN as well as the ability to "chip" it to a certain scramble system.
Icom do some excellent units, as do Uniden and Yupiteru. I rather like the Icom series and I'm currently eyeing one to go with my Iasus throat mic. The advantage there is that they all use the standard twin pin system. Almost all PMR radios use the 446Mhz frequency, therefore they will communicate with each other. The ones that are not on the 446Mhz band (or the 81Mhz band) are licence only (with come exceptions, such as AM CB's).

ED E

I have a pair of Activate 446s from argos, E44 for the pair(i got them for 22, 50%sale:D) and they are really good for the purpose. They'll work all over hrta so thats what i need. Just trying to source a compatable headset is a pain in the ass.

Fiach Dubh

NakedDex wrote: »

Motorola are very good. I use Motorola XTN446's as my general purpose radio.

Where did you pick up your XTN446 Dex? I need one for my Calvalvy Elite MkII headset but C.Q. are charging 300 euro for them

deepimpact

Hmm, just found this from Radionics.ie

The company is based in Glenview Industrial Estate, Herberton Road in Rialto

It includes a boom mike.
Could this be any good Dex? Motorola PMR446 plus headset for €39.66?

deepimpact

:mad: The links don't work

This is it
1- Go to www.radionics.ie
2- Type PMR446 into the search engine
3- Open the find function under "Edit" and paste this
Radio,two way,walkie talkie,personal,PMR446,Motorola,CLS446 ,charger,single,UK

Cheeky monkey

Or type in "480-8369" into the search bar

6th

Cheeky_monkey ... your sig is against boards.ie rules.

Fallschirmjager

actually there is always quite a few people with radios at hrta...with the bigger numbers it will become a good laugh the more we get...vital i would say once the play field gets bigger....

fiach, you posh git, cavalry headset, rpgs...jeeze mucho impressed...

Cheeky monkey

6th wrote: »

Cheeky_monkey ... your sig is against boards.ie rules.

How so?

kdouglas

animation is not allowed;

sig rules

Cuddlesworth

Cheeky monkey wrote: »

How so?

Originally Posted by Cloud

* For text signatures: 4 lines normal size OR 8 lines small size, and up to 90 chars per line. Font sizes above 2 are not allowed. Do not use the [.quote] [./quote] tags.
* For images in signatures: 1 image up to 300 pixels wide, 125 pixels tall and 20k in size. No animated images are allowed.



Please make sure that your signature DOES NOT contain profanity, bigotry, racism, or any other content that might be considered offensive by others.

Cheeky monkey

Aww now i gotta find a new sig

Masada

and thats a good one and all., lol,:p

NakedDex

scanlant wrote: »

Hmm, just found this from Radionics.ie

The company is based in Glenview Industrial Estate, Herberton Road in Rialto

It includes a boom mike.
Could this be any good Dex? Motorola PMR446 plus headset for €39.66?

Nice units, basic but reliable. The price is good but I think you need to add vat onto that too. It's a trade site. I have one of those boom mics though, good quality and really comfortable.

Fiach Dubh wrote: »

Where did you pick up your XTN446 Dex? I need one for my Calvalvy Elite MkII headset but C.Q. are charging 300 euro for them

I picked mine up ages ago and I paid a lot more than 300 for it. Though you can get them on Ebay (or Radionics for that matter) for about the 200 mark. If you get it cheaper than that on Ebay, snap it up.

deepimpact

Would the radios be compatible with the XTN446's?
Could be useful.

NakedDex

The 446 in the name refers to it's frequency, 446MHz. All radios on this band are compatible with each other. A boon and a bain in one fell swoop. While it makes it easy to connect to other sets, it also makes cross-channel interference a pain in jacksie.

I was once setting up a stage for a gig and giving directions to one of the riggers to drop some lights into position on the framing above the stage. There was a building site about a hundred yards away that had a small tower crane. The operator heard my instructions because he was on the same frequency and took them to be one of the lads on the site. Apparently he dumped a 20 gallon shifter-bucket of concrete in a place it shouldn't have been because about 5 minutes later I heard a crap load of abuse being relayed over and back. The rigging crew were in stitches laughing as they all had radios too. I had to go down and explain what happened to the foreman.

ronan.michael@g

NakedDex wrote: »

I've been working with various comms systems, from seriously high power HF radios to manpack radios to standard 446 radios, for 8 years now. Those radios have questionable build quality from an electronics standpoint and for the most part are no better than those you'd find in a Smyths toy store from what I've found. I've built ones in the past that have had better tx/rx capabilites than the ones you get for cheap in those stores.
Basically they're good for messing with but no more in my opinion

NakedDex Maybe you can help me. My wife has poor short -term memory (technically dyslectic ,as well, to a terrible degree! )so I'm looking for a walkie talkie with an ability to transmit using speech as the "switch" - do I mean VOX? Must she wear a mic and headset? (Better if not). She forgets to either press the switch to talk or let the switch off to hear. I would use them to keep in contact when going shopping etc. especially when on holidays. I like Motorola (quality but a bit expensive) but am open to suggestions. Many thanks, Michael r.