2 way radios

tophopper

tophopper

The resident asshole
Joined
Aug 27, 2010
Messages
1,247
Location
Minneapolis
Im looking for input on 2 way radios to use for treework such as doing crane jobs. Im not interested in cheap ones, looking for good quality and durability, as well as ease of use for a climber to communicate to ground personnel. Good battery life and good reception is a must also.
 
Here's the radios I run, and where I bought them. I have 2 set up with a speaker/mic. Not overpriced, and they've been bulletproof. They run for two or three days before needing to be charged. (I also have three Kenwood ham radios, and they're equally bulletproof and reliable.)

http://www.buytwowayradios.com/products/kenwood/kenwood-tk-3300-u16p.aspx

The audio on these is excellent. You may recall I'm hard-of-hearing, and I can still hear perfectly clearly what Mike (or whoever I'm subbing for) is saying over the noise of the grapple, chipper, and my engine running the PTO.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3
Which do you prefer? Ive convinced my manager to consider the purchase, Ive also convinced him we do enough crane work and technical removals, that we shouldnt skimp, and get a "quality" set.
 
And I'm a fan of Vertex Standard/Yaesu, :lol: Nothing wrong with Kenwood or Icom either, Motorola is pricing themselves out of business IMO! But be ready to open the wallet a bit, good comes at a price!
 
What do you mean "which"? Didn't the link work? It should bring up the Kenwood TK-3300-U16P. That model is UHF. It's 16 channels, which I like for when you have multiple crews on-site handling different parts of a job, and it has digital encoding, if you're worried about scanner listeners. (I don't use it, but it's there.)

Edit: They'll also run on VOX, if you so desire. ;)
 
sawinredneck said:
And I'm a fan of Vertex Standard/Yaesu, :lol: Nothing wrong with Kenwood or Icom either, Motorola is pricing themselves out of business IMO! But be ready to open the wallet a bit, good comes at a price!
Click to expand...

Motorola is overpriced; Kenwood has the same quality for less dough. Yeasu/Vertex is also good, but I find the support lacking. ICOM batteries are notoriously lacking in longevity.
 
Those bluetooth headsets look like the cat's ass for riding, but bluetooth only has a theoretical range of about 30 feet.
 
I am thinking I am going to be needing some radio head sets in the near future... I want Rob to be able to hear me if I need him when he is chipping. Blue tooth would probably require me to have cell phones and they don't work for shat up here.
 
I don't think the BT headsets he posted do not require a cellphone; they just use the BT band and protocol. :)
 
Their website says the effective range is up to 900 meters. Even if that is only half true, 450 meters should be enough. Those headsets look nice.
 
Dave, seems folks are interested in your Bluetooth muff dealios... do they have voice activation and do they offer OK hearing protection for big saws etc. What is your take on the range..

I might seriously need to look into those....
 
I saw that, but it doesn't make sense. If they're really BT, they wouldn't be type-accepted with that kind of range, because of the FCC specified limits on BT technology.
 
I would guess they'd be pretty good at blocking noise, if you're gonna chat on a Harley. :lol:
 
Haven't had a problem with a Yaesu radio yet, and hope not to, so I don't know the customer service yet.
Bluetooth it OK, but really seems to be a battery hog to me.
It also falls under part 47 CFR with the FCC, allowed 1watt with up to 6db gain antenna, http://www.tapr.org/ss_15_247.html, that's pretty decent range.
They make a BT adapter to hook up to a two way radio, but for the money I can't see it would be worth it? http://www.advdesigns.com/sesrbltwraad.html
 
Mark the crane owner op. Who we use just got a new set. Best quality I've used they had a background cancelling system of some sort. The headset fit like it was made for my pretzl roc.
See if can get a link from him.
Just food for thought but with the technology in cell phones I have been wanting to use tango with the operator he could visualy see the cuts.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #20
I dont need the op to see the cuts, but to hoist when I say hoist and stop when I say stop. Besides, the op should have his eyes on the load not the cut
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #21
Thanks for the feedback everyone....... ive got some research to do
 
I have a set of these for camping and outdoor stuff, no need for them in the work I do. I know Erik and I think also Andy were suspect of the durability though.
http://www.buytwowayradios.com/products/midland/midland-gxt-1000-vp4.aspx

racija-midland-gxt1000-kiev_rev001.jpg
 
You get what you pay for; those Midland's aren't bad for consumer quality, and it wouldn't be reasonable to expect commercial quality for two radios with all the accessories for $70.
 
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