This is the cheapest I found them anywhere in the last few days. 1W handheld radios with a 7 kilometre range.
Edit: If it helps, tested calling from the railway station to the residence - 1.5 kms - had to use the "Hi" mode for clear calling.
Uniden UH510-2 1W UHF Handheld Radio (Twin Pack) $69 (Was $99.95) @ JB HI-FI
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When I go bushwalking, often we get out of range of cell service, these work there really well. I'm sure they heaps of other applications. PLus kids still go nuts for these.
Or if you are reinacting die hard
Welcome to the party, pal.
Yippie Kai Yeah!
1w handheld = 7km range, well maybe in space. But still way better than what we had as kids. FYI you can go up to 5watt without a license from memory.
correct. The in car units are 5 watt and you can get 5 watt hand held units.
1w is nothing
It's fine for many applications. The hand held units are hand for caravan reversing instructions from outside the vehicle, for example.
Can I talk to my friend in another suburb with this ahhahha?:-)
Unlikely. UHF signals are severely impacted by objects such as buildings and trees as well as water vapour/rain. If you have direct line of sight, then maybe.
And anyone on the same channel can hear you discussing your drug deals
In all seriousness, you might be able to, but not with these radios.
I got started in UHF CB with a portable, that led to a 5W mobile unit hooked up at home to a high gain antenna up a mast.
Once you're setup like that range is rarely an issue(if you life in a flat area).
Hills will still be a pain, but with such a setup you'll also have a better chance of accessing any available repeaters.
A bit more expensive, but for anyone interested it's good fun.You might even progress to a ham licence, that will then permit other radios, bands and modes.
VHF does a great job of getting around and i can hit about 5 ham radio repeaters from a handheld radio indoors at home.
Looking for a set to use in the USA. Is this "legal" there?
It has become a lawless mess over there so just use them.
If you get questioned just claim the 2nd and freedom of speech over electronic medium.
For USA use I would check out some of the baofeng types from China. You can program them to the legal channels for most countries. Unfortunately they are not legal here even when programmed as they are not C-Tick approved. So even though they are exactly on frequency, they have not been tested for approval. It's red tape but it's the law. Get them sent direct to USA. Or just buy in USA. Then you know they are legit and this stuff's cheaper in USA anyway. To answer your question, I'm pretty sure these will NOT be legal in USA.
No, Baofengs are not legal in the US unless you have an amateur radio licence.
:edit: and even then they are only permitted to be used in accordance with your licence.Same rule applies to Australia, as i happen to be licenced i have several of them.
Having an amateur licence however only covers me for the frequencies and modes covered in my licence, so even i can't use a Baofeng on CB frequencies.::edit2::
Just thought I'd clarify..
Any radio is legal to buy/own and listen to, just not necessarily transmit.
A Jane Blow off the street could buy a 'Baofeng' and use it as a receiver / scanner so long as they do not transmit.For anyone out of the know, 'Baofeng' is a brand of cheap Chinese radios.
They aren't the best, but at the price point they deliver pretty good value.
When someone says 'Baofeng' they are usually referring to the model 'Beofeng UV-5R'
There are other radios available at good value points also, one i have which is a bit of an up market Chineese unit is the Wouxun KG-UV9D(Plus).
Benefit is it has dual receive, can act as a repeater and also covers AM airband for receive only.
No, though there is an equivalent called FRS that is does not require a personal licence.
FRS radios are limited to 2 watts, and 0.5 watts on some channels.
You'll probably find FRS radios are cheaper, but they can't be used here.Ignore anyone suggesting to just go ahead and transmit with whatever, free speech is great but lawlessness and disorganization is not, nor is interfering with emergency services radio (which is what using FRS radios in Australia WILL (not might) do, FRS frequencies in the US are LMR police frequencies in and around most capitals in Australia.
Not sure who you'll be upsetting if you transmit on AU CB frequencies over there.There is another 'licence' in the US that shares some FRS frequencies, but with more power and privileges, this however does require a licence (USD$70), licence is valid for 10 years and covers immediate family as well.
GMRS is the name.
These should be pretty good for the price.
1W is a nice power level / battery life / device size compromise.Range will be well under 500m in built up areas, whilst it will go over 50Km if given perfect line of sight to the other end.
It really is that variable, so don't expect much using these indoors or in among man-made objects or hilly terrain.Best I've done is key the Currajong repeater from Mt Dandenong lookout(129Km) with a 500mw (1/2 watt) unit, though my signal was barely readable at the other end.
UHF CB is one thing we have in Australia that doesn't suck compared to the rest of the world.
The US and Europe have equivalents, but they're usually poorer and more limited.Will really appreciate if someone post a 2W and above deal
This is a decent price for a decent brand (Uniden) 5watt hand held: https://www.ryda.com.au/index.php/uniden-uh750-uhf-waterproo…
I haven't used this particular model, but I did have an in car Uniden UHF for a long time and couldn't fault it.
$322 at JB HI FI Commercial
UNIDEN UH750-2 UHF HANDHELD RADIO (TWIN PACK)
C: UH750-2 SKU: 341308
Same store on ebay they are $177.51 currently (for the single unit) with the TREATS5 code.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Uniden-UH750-5-Watt-Handheld-UHF…
Perfect for 4wd adventures in a group, if you don't want the expense of hooking up a uhf to the car.
I just bought a set of 4 2W Ansoko radios from Amazon. Really impressed and were $79 delivered.
The headsets they ship with are trash and they come with a dinky US to AU adaptor but otherwise excellent.
Good build quality and I got 1km range easily during a test this morning. I'm sure it'd go further.
I hope you have a licence for them.
Their frequency range covers the emergency services LMR band nicely, not something they'd appreciate.
These are most fun if they have the big, rubbery antenna.
How do the battery work? Are they rechargable?
rechargeable NI-MH batteries. Absolutely archaic battery technology, and they won't last long.
You aren't confusing NIMH with NICAD are you wombat? NIMH is probably still the most used rechargeable technology around in consumer land.
To answer Yoman's question - it's in the PDF. As the pic suggests they have their own charger. Individual batteries (3x AA) can be substituted according to their documentation. That means you have the option of alkaline or your preferred rechargeables.
Battery Installation
Your UH510/UH515 unit uses the included NiMH battery pack for power.
The unit can be powered with optional 3 AAA ALKALINE batteries*.
*The TX power is always low for alkaline batteries.To install the batteries:
1. Make sure your radio is off.
2. Release the battery cover clip, then remove the battery cover.
3. Insert NiMH battery pack according to the orientation on the battery pack.
OR
Insert 3 AAA ALKALINE batteries (not included) according to the polarity
symbols inside the battery compartment.
4. Align the battery cover tabs with the UH510/UH515 tab holes then
replace the cover clip.No I'm not confusing them. Both very old tech. Sorry, missed the AA battery bit in the pdf.
Just FYI, these unit have rechargeable Ni-MH batteries. That is super-old and poor battery technology considering what is available today. Ni-MH batteries don't have a good service life and for a product that you'd expect to keep for a long time, that's not good. Expect to be forking out an additional 80 bucks for 2 replacement batteries (https://uniden.com.au/product/bp506/) every couple of years, at best.
Something with lithium batteries would be a much better choice. Heck, even something that takes AA batteries would be better than Ni-MH, to be honest. At least they're cheap to replace and you could buy lithium rechargeable AAs if you wanted to.
Even though these radios are cheap, I would avoid them.
Product PDF says these will run on either the included NIMH pack or individual alkaline (x3) batteries (and presumably individual NIMH rechargeables), neither of which is expensive or difficult to find. Can't see any issue if that's the case. Would wait for sales and get a 5w set myself.
I had a good look. Must have missed that. Still very lame to be selling products like this in 2020 with nimh batteries.
Not lame imo, sensible while we're in a transition period. There is a huge demand for NIMH because of cost and because millions of people have chargers for that technology. These devices aren't in constant use like phones so they really don't require lithium power.
I can confirm that. Will work with individual batteries too - personally, I was impressed with that.
Always wanted these as a kid and always got crappy ones. They seem less necessary with the availability of smart phones.