Even cheaper than the already great price:
Uniden Mini UHF Handheld Radio Triple Colour Pack $39.50 + $5 Delivery ($0 C&C) @ The Good Guys Or $37.92 Delivered [eBay Plus]
Also additional 15% cashback from CashRewards
Note that this is model UH35 which doesn't have kid-zone and rechargeable port
otherwise its similar to the advance model UH45
Does anyone have the UH45 that can comment on the kid one feature?
If it’s just a gimmick then I’d grab these but if it actually stops your kids hearing anyone else talking then the extra $40ish is a no brainer to me.
I've got a 3x set of the UH45. Provided the kids leave the feature on, then it works exactly as advertised and the units will simply ignore anything that is sent by a radio without the feature. I picked them up for $50 delivered not that long ago, so they do come up for sale as well.
Bing Lee eBay has them for $64 delivered if that makes it more palatable.
I was about to hit the buy button on these a few weeks ago, then the inevitable upsell recommendations to get the UH45 came in, but then I fell for the double upsell and bought the baofeng uv-5r. Not much more expensive and crazily more powerful in every regard. Sure it's over-complicating what was once a simple request from the kids, but this way I get to play with them too.
That’s probably a bit of overkill for me, let alone my 6 and 8 year old kids.
Can I ask where you got them from and how much? I'm interested!
Put this number into your ebay search box: 284147276709
I had read these (baofeng) were not legal to use in AU?
they are legal as long as they do not exceed 5W transmit
They're not set up correctly to work legally in Australia, but with correct configuration they're fine. Probably worth reading up on: https://www.wia.org.au/licenses/foundation/about/
Maybe stick with the uniden if you don't feel like fiddling with something.
They are illegal to possess and use if you're not a licensed amatuer.
They are not type approved for CB use.
Having said that if you stick to the uhf cb channels you're probably not going to get into trouble.
I would be very wary about giving these to kids - 4w of RF near their ear is not something I would recommend.
Also one press of the VFO button and they can transmit on any frequency.
They also transmit and receive further than the Unidens so more likelihood of getting talked to by strangers.
Yes, you can program in DCS and CTCSS tonesquelch to overcome this.
Huh? Why woudl they not be legal. This actually makes me more interested in getting one
There are restrictions on which bands and frequencies a non-license holder, foundation, standard and advanced license holder can operate on. The UV-5R comes pre-programmed with chinese channels which shouldn't be used by a non-license holder in Australia. It's not hard to correctly program the device and use safely, but it shouldn't be used as-is. There's a long discussion about them here: https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/thread/2296959 and here's some more info on the channels in different countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio_frequency_alloca…
One of the main concerns is that a user with a misconfigured device can broadcast over official channels such as fire, police & rescue
Pretty risky to give a UV5R to a kid, if they key up a commercial or safety frequency on it you will get unwanted attention pretty quickly, I use one for scanning and amateur radio, its a great radio for the $35 I spent on it a year ago, you just need to keep legal :)
I lock them and this kids can't mess with them…. well at least till they get older, but they are so complicated as soon as they unlock and press something they no longer do what they want so tend to leave them as is.
As fatty says, you can lock them down pretty well. My kids know not to touch any of the buttons on the front, not just because they don't want to get in trouble but there's a 100% likelihood that they'll stop it working and I'll need to fix it ie. they lose their walkie talkie.
If the device is set up right you can't just stumble across an off limits channel. It's probably worth enabling DCS and CTCSS so no other signals can be picked up.
So yes they're riskier, but with a bit of configuration, the additional battery life and range compared with the uniden products make it worth it. Plus learning about radio is really cool.
I live in a rural area prone to bushfires, so having these on-hand and knowing how to use them is great.
mate are you a ham? 73
How useful would these be for communication in a blackout? I'm in suburban Sydney with HFC NBN but seem to have at least 3-4 power outages a year where the backup batteries on the local Telstra and Voda towers run out of get overwhelmed.
That takes out our mobiles and VoIP, leaving us with no way of calling for an ambulance or other help. A couple of family members have complex health issues that can require quick hospitalisation and I've been wondering if CB might be an good fallback?
Maybe consider a landline? Works in a blackout (make sure your NBN box has a battery backup if your on NBN) and allows you to call triple 0.
As i understand it, HFC NBN relies on power to various network equipment. At least, that's been my experience when i had my HFC box and router connected to my UPS.
can anyone enlighten me about the leagality of these, like for an application like camping where it is required to communicate between the family members.
Bought one last week. they are pretty good actually.