Walkie-Talkie's

[Olliedawg]

Anyone able to recommend some decent walkie-talkie's/radios for our exam staff? The ones we have are falling to bits & are fairly old now. No budget in mind, although the cheaper the better!

[gumbygaz]

We just have the cheap and cheerful Motorola XT180 ones - on the whole the do the job. The odd battery issue and then a weigh up to replace the rechargeable battery or get new radio.

Just bought some of the new range from Motorola, https://www.radio-solutions.co.uk/motorola-walkie-talkie-xt185-quad-pack.html

[jf812]

The ones posted above are solid units, as are Motorola units in general. These may or may not be sufficient depending on the size of the school, particulary if you're in a large secondary. The PMR446 standard is quite basic and limited, and the RF performance of PMR radios will be pretty much identical. The only real difference will be mic/speaker quality and battery quality. Due to this, it might be worth purchasing two cheap units such as these:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Binatone-Latitude-Radio-Channel-Cancelling/dp/B097CFGLK3/ref=sr_1_5?crid=3BQBGWVRV223T&keywords=pmr+radio&qid=1676974564&sprefix=pmr+radio%2Caps%2C77&sr=8-5

 

Have two of you test these around different areas of the school - this is essentially the only way to truly know if the range will be adequate. If these work, all good - you can use these alongside any other PMR radio and they will be compatible. If not, you can purcahase a license, which will allow you to use higher powered radios, more likely to have adequate range. If I recall, this is around £70 for 5 years, and gives you access to a range of frequencies to use.

 

One word of warning - the PMR radios can of course be used by anybody, so individuals will be able to listen into your communications if they wished to - something to keep in mind

[Olliedawg]

The ones posted above are solid units, as are Motorola units in general. These may or may not be sufficient depending on the size of the school, particulary if you're in a large secondary. The PMR446 standard is quite basic and limited, and the RF performance of PMR radios will be pretty much identical. The only real difference will be mic/speaker quality and battery quality. Due to this, it might be worth purchasing two cheap units such as these:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Binatone-Latitude-Radio-Channel-Cancelling/dp/B097CFGLK3/ref=sr_1_5?crid=3BQBGWVRV223T&keywords=pmr+radio&qid=1676974564&sprefix=pmr+radio%2Caps%2C77&sr=8-5

 

Have two of you test these around different areas of the school - this is essentially the only way to truly know if the range will be adequate. If these work, all good - you can use these alongside any other PMR radio and they will be compatible. If not, you can purcahase a license, which will allow you to use higher powered radios, more likely to have adequate range. If I recall, this is around £70 for 5 years, and gives you access to a range of frequencies to use.

 

One word of warning - the PMR radios can of course be used by anybody, so individuals will be able to listen into your communications if they wished to - something to keep in mind

 

 

We are a fairly small secondary school (just over 500 students), so I would imagine the 1-2KM range would suffice. Thank you for the suggestion though I will keep this in mind.

[jf812]

No worries, the stated range is usually exaggerated, but still probably fine for yourself

[dhicks]

Anyone able to recommend some decent walkie-talkie's/radios for our exam staff?

 

We bought some cheap ones from Amazon - they were handily rechargeable from USB-powered cradles, which made finding power supplies for them a bit easier.

[Olliedawg]

We bought some cheap ones from Amazon - they were handily rechargeable from USB-powered cradles, which made finding power supplies for them a bit easier.

 

We're going to try some from Amazon (£19 for a pair), which somebody linked earlier on in the thread. If they suffice then that will be brilliant, save us some money!

[chazzy2501]

super suggest you get walkie talkies that have a charging docking station! dealing with batteries can be a pain in these things!

[dhicks]

super suggest you get walkie talkies that have a charging docking station! dealing with batteries can be a pain in these things!

 

It also gives staff somewhere to remember to put the walkie talkie back, otherwise they can tend to get left around the building.

[HTCPCP]

I've used the T80 Extreme (I think) (looking at this it has been replaced with the T82 Extreme now) for a series of yearly events, and they have been brilliant. Only down side is that each of them came with their own dock, which was a bit of a pain. That being said, the kit was bullet proof, including in the rain etc.