UHF Radio handheld models

Would expect that the Tandy deal woud be quite short in range - price is a good guide. The incar, plus hand held model has merit in my view - I went that way and all seems fine to date - got my 6200 GME (5 watter) for $400 as a show special with fast charger thrown in. A fine unit - in convoy, fellow travellers reported a robust signal for a few km - as clean as our in car Icom 400 Pro - of the 5W hand helds, the GME had the edge on features IMO. We take ours bushwalking as safety backup (if all you want to do is comm at close quarters (parking etc)., an incar unit (for decent longer distance comms) plus a cheapy for local work might be economic.

hi ski er
The way i have gone is to have a uhf in the vehicle with a hand held for the mrss to give instructions for backing int a space for camping i know it is a lot of $ but when you are backing you do not have to have the hand held to your ear
snailbait

I don't know about wise but here's a coupla cents worth.
I have two UHF-CB handhelds - a "base" 5watt GME Electrophone TX6200 with whip aerial - very good range for a handheld.
The other is also a GME, model TX610 1watt - small radio, put it me pocket when fishing and SWMBO can call me when tea is on the table, or used between vehicles in convoy.
On the road I have a small cradle on the RHS of the drivers wheel which holds either radio, and for around town the smaller TX610 is fine. I usually monitor chan 40 to get road reports from the truckies and on the rear windscreen in large letters is CH 40. Got these 2 radios from here:
Site Link
Only took two days delivered to door. Very good service from Prestige and also vg price.
Both sets have 12v trickle chargers (extras).
cheers
Terry R.

Hi there, Spending Kids Inheritance, er we started off with a 2 watt Uniden handheld, then threw a 5 watt model in the Patrol then were that impressed, we bought another 2 watt hand held.
They have a great range for a handheld, and we carry them with us on most trips in the wagon, and at some stage of the trip we are on, they will cop some usage. We also lashed out and bought the small speaker/ mike as well because we find them great up on the mountain when snowboarding. Cheers unc

Hi Skier

Got a few UHFs (well 12) and we use them a lot for "assited parking" and other duties.

If you don't want rubbish over the channel you need to get model with CTCSS which means you only hear another radio also set to CTCSS.

Many models have this although some like GME poorly implement the feature.

Another thing you need to have to really make the things useful is power.

Its a simple fact that power wins over a lot of the rubbish we get here in melbourne on CB.

I wouldn't consider anything less than 5 watts.

I like and use a Uniden UH075 which has a detachable aerial and is somewhat waterproof. This means that it can be used with a magnet roof mount or other portable aerial when bush.

It has a seperate charger and the setup is not as good as some to both charge and talk at the same time.

These radios cost a lot more than the twin packs.

We use radio in our family everyday and the above feautures, done well are the difference between a novel toy that the wife soon gets sick of and a reliable means of communication over short distances (1-5km).

Robin Miller

G'day SKI er,
yeah hand helds are good value, early last year we bought 2 TX610 GME Electrophones. They have been great both on trips and on the property. Bought them on-line through the Electrophone/GME web site came with two charges(electric) 4 re-chargeable batteries. I did buy the car-charge kit as an extra. From memory I got change from $300. They have a good range,very clear, we live in amongst the mountains and I can still hear my wife from 4kms on the otherside of a mountain.

Good luck
andy

The little cheapo handhelds will do all that you are asking about.

DSE/Tandy have their own brand, small, White in colour, 0.5 watt, pair of handhelds with rechargeable batts, charger etc for about $70 for the pair.

Supercheap and the like do them on their own for about $20, but then you have to add batteries and a charging device (this is the way I went so I could 12 volt charge).

Anyway, these little things will give you range of at least 2 km on the open HWY where there is nothing to interfere.

ATB,

Jim.

I have used or been in convoy with people using most makes & models and find that you do not need to go to the expense of a 5 watt hand held. The two watt hand held and a 5 watt in car is all you need. I often have them both on at the same time in the vehicle, one set to the channel that we are using for our convoy communications and the other on scan so that you can may get an early warning of approaching vehicles that may be using a different channel. I would also recomend that your handheld use rechargeable standard AA size batteries rather then a built in proprietory battery. If the batteries go flat on you you can swap out from torch / camera / MP3 / etc etc.

Caution re. some of the new hand helds. Some of these units only have 38 of the 40 UHF CRS channels (frequencies). For reasons which we won't debate at this point they do not include Channels 22 and 23. IMHO if I bought a new 40 channel UHF I would want it to do all 40 channels.

Yes, I think David has asked Santa to bring him a pair of 5 watt handhelds (doesn't care what brand) - for reason that 5 watts is the same power rating as the installed types so just as good, but more flexibility of use. We see loads of benefits in having handhelds when travelling, additional to our installed unit.