7+KM coverage, great price. Selling for $50+ elsewhere. Can try to price beat with Officeworks
7km coverage is what I have on my 5w handheld in real life conditions versus theoretical
How would this go on a cruise ship? Would there be too much interference from walls etc?
Should be fine.lot of people had this unit in the ship and did not seem to have any problem.you just get other people on same channels
Why do you have/ need one on a cruise ship
@stickymoo: No phone signal, you can keep in touch with whoever you are on the cruise with. It can be impossible finding someone on a big ship.
hi, what would you say is a useful usage scenario for the 1W product?
I used to have 0.5w ones.
Out in the open, I could talk to someone that I could just see with my unaided eyes, or that I could see with binoculars.
From one car to another adjacent car I could talk - with some fuzziness.
But once the car was a few cars ahead, in a straight line, I couldn't understand them.
100% correct. No way will a 1W get even half that distance unless you're in the middle of nowhere with a direct line of sight and perfect weather conditions. I used to work out on country road works and we used Vertex Standard 5W 2 ways. They would struggle to reach 2kms in hilly areas. Do not get sucked in with this misleading claim. Total B.S.
Range is heavily situational dependant.
I'm sure most people know this, but i'm not sure most people know just how situational it is.
With a 500mW unit i once covered 44Km, but that was from a high location to a repeater tower 44Km away (the repeater allowed contact with someone ~ 120Km from it).
This however is all best case scenario.
With the same radio from inside one house to inside another 400m away we were not even close to making contact.
7Km i'd say is a reasonable average for a typical 1W unit, but it would probably be better if it were conveyed as being 100m to 50Km, situation dependant.
Then again with such a wild variation in range being quoted it probably wouldn't help their marketing.
So many factors to consider.
Temperature, humidity, terrain, obstacles, propagation quirks (eg;Tropospheric ducting, knife edge propagation etc..).
A propper antenna rather than the dummy load these things come with would make a reasonable difference, followed by adding more power.
Ultimately @ 477MHz, 1W will cover good distance… until something gets in the way, and then it all goes down hill very very quickly.
Might be obvious, sorry if it is, but if I buy two they can talk to each other?
Yes if on the same frequency
Yes just need to set both to the same channel
Officeworks won't price beat clearance items. Or at least they have denied me in the past for that reason
Ive been looking pretty hard at what handheld radios to get after useless Aldi 500mW were returned. One of the better deals seems to be Aussie brand GME 2W radios with a pair costing about $180. If you Google/ebay search Baofeng you find cheap 8w chinese radios for about $55 each but they come with a discussion about legality and programming. I reckon a good pair of walkie talkies that last a while (eg GME) are better than cheapies that barely transmit, and then only last a year or two (that opinion based on reading lots of reviews of different makes amd models v my own experience).
I've been using a Baofeng BF-F8HP about a year on various outback trips. No issue at all. Programming is easy with a few dollars cable. Transmission power can be set to 5w with one button. Distance and sound quality smashed most sub $150 handhelds on the market. Considering to get an UV-9R for the rainy days now.
Just a friendly warning, the Baofeng are HAM radios and you do need a license to operate them.
Yes, you can program them to use CB channels and have the power restricted to 5w, however if you are caught you might get in trouble.
Yippee! I got the last one at Big W Liverpool. Now, how do I talk to my wife on one of these things?
Just kidding, I also got the last one of these, also reduced to $30: https://www.bigw.com.au/product/uniden-uh35-uhf-0-5w-cb-hand…
just set it to the same channel and you're good to go.
Yeah, no. Not even close on a 1W unit. You'd have to be standing on a 7KM tall tower and you MAY be able to hit the ground directly below IF the weather conditions are perfect.