top-cat Posted January 4, 2015 Posted January 4, 2015 For instance, I remember reading that some of the imported American 'gmrs' radios (think same as our 446 type service) were in fact on the same freqs as many of the uk fireground channels, used by the uk fire services. So they could be interfering with the fire service, and not know. If this is true at all, it will be very much out of date now. Nowadays the fire service use Terrestrial Trunked Radio which is more similar in how it operates to mobile phones, than it is to UHF radio. The emergency services have not operated on standard single-frequency radios for a considerable amount of time... Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) gives them a lot of useful facility, one of which - due to it's 'frequency hopping' system, is that it secures traffic very effectively. If you want to read more - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_Trunked_Radio ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airwave_Solutions If you're seriously worried that your techs will be spending their time retuning their radios to emergency services frequencies and causing a nuisance there, you need new techs, not new radios.
paulears Posted January 4, 2015 Posted January 4, 2015 Battery management is the big problem, if you just bung them on the charger, there's a possibility the next user picks up one that is charging after being totally dead, rather than one that's been on for a while. NiCad batteries had terrible memory effects, and people had to do lots of cycles of charge and discharge to maintain the life between charges, but the newer types are better and the new types that have replaced NiCads are much better at not suffering these problems. Instigating a system people work to is more reliable than a random chuck on the charger process that for practical reasons is the more common one!
Jivemaster Posted January 4, 2015 Posted January 4, 2015 Imported wireless does come into the UK with unsuitable frequencies. There were some radio mics that were somewhere in 108 - 136, and IIRC Macdonalds did have some wireless mics in the middle of a military band. It's possible that new designs still use nicads but other technologies are better. NiMH and Li-Ion are both popular. Just that the charger for one doesn't usually charge any other type.
top-cat Posted January 4, 2015 Posted January 4, 2015 Imported wireless does come into the UK with unsuitable frequencies. There were some radio mics that were somewhere in 108 - 136, and IIRC Macdonalds did have some wireless mics in the middle of a military band. Yes they do. There's no denying that imported radios are often capable - if not pre-programmed - of working in bands which are not cleared for public use - licensed or not. It's not the big danger it's hyped up to be. Military radio operators are trained to deal with deliberate jamming so some theatre tech talking on a cheap chinese radio should not cause them much of a problem; and listening isn't a problem either, sensitive communications are always encrypted. The bottom line is that any idiot can be irresponsible with communication equipment, so it is probably better not to employ such idiots in your theatre, rather than basing your radio choice on the possibility that they might try to mis-use it.
dbuckley Posted January 4, 2015 Posted January 4, 2015 As a Kiwi, it would be remiss of me not to suggest the Tait TP8100, as a very tough conventional WT. If you need to drop the radio on the deck with regular monotony, then Tait make the radios to drop. The TP8100 isn't quite as tough as the TP9400, but then, very few radios are. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRnfd5f8Vns If you want the ultimate tough with the TP9400, then that is a P25 radio, which I don't believe does simplex. Going P25 over simplex will only (only, he says!) add about £6K to the bill for the base station repeater, and then one can use the TP9400 handhelds. And that will interface with the tecpro AD903 to connect the radios to the comms!
emsgeorge Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 As a slight off topic - indeed, the uk fire service still use analogue handhelds for 'fireground' applications - they use tetra for control to engine comms, and each engine has an analogue repeater in it for the handhelds used by the fire fighters. It was far too expensive to equip each firefighter with a terra handset. Back on topic : Have you had any of the gp's checked or serviced ? - occasionally they can go out of alignment and so you get one receiving next to the other one that won't ! Also, what does your licence permit ? - it depends on what type of licence you have, as to what you can replace them with. If you have a uk general (now called uk simple) licence then you will be able to switch between UHF and VHF as to your needs and budget. If you have a specific allocated frequency (called 'technically assigned') then you will have to go and apply for a new licence and be allocated a new frequency again if you change from UHF to VHF
GaryNattrass Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 I have several baofeng and TYT units and they are generally cheap as chips and do the job OK. To get the best out of them get yourself a private business radio licence as it gives you full 5 watt VHF and UHF frequencies as well as the un-licenced PMR 0.5 watt frequencies. They also have FM radios fitted and that can be useful for listening to radio 2 during tedious sporting events, the headset flips to RX when a transmission is received via the VHF or UHF. Motorola, Kenwood and Tait are all pro units and generally bombproof as they are used on most OB and TV applications but they come at a cost where the baofeng units, batteries and headsets are very low cost via e-bay or the official baofeng UK outlet.
danburns Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 Just as a thought on the radio channels - you say they are all tuned as 1 channel only. When you get the new ones, you could always get a couple programmed up for 1 channel only and the remainder have a choice - then just mark up the ushers radios. Have done that in the past to give "easy/idiot proof" to one group of users, and a few more channels to those who could do with it.
eamon Posted January 8, 2015 Author Posted January 8, 2015 Hi Thanks for all the replies and thoughts. Am looking to proceed with kenwoods subject to price negotiation. I think I will leave the units as 1 channel. Have to check that with the intended supplier. Prefer the fuller proof system etc. Must confirm the UHF versus the VHF Cheers Eamon
paulears Posted January 8, 2015 Posted January 8, 2015 Having a couple of channels can be handy, simply so if you need to, two conversations can work at the same time.
scjb Posted January 8, 2015 Posted January 8, 2015 Why not get 2 or 4 channel radios, and just program ALL channels to be on the same frequency\codes, so even if people play with the channel knob, they're still on the one single net.Then, as and when you wish to separate users out into different nets, you won't have to replace your kit again...?
TomHoward Posted January 8, 2015 Posted January 8, 2015 We have a couple of GP200s, which are fixed 1ch radios - no selector dial - which are great not because our users are technically challenged - but over-enthusiatic students - so it stops them having a conversation on our maintenance's dept UK Business Light channel when they're supposed to be on our followspot channel..
abbotsmike Posted January 8, 2015 Posted January 8, 2015 Sorry to 'hijack' the thread.... But has anybody else seen these radios? http://www.baofengradio.co.uk/bf-f9/ We've just bought one for the boy for xmas (he wants it for AirSoft). I know they are Chinese tat .... but for the price they give my GP340's a run for their money! Almost disposable at that price! Adrian I have a few baofengs that I use for climbing and scouting activities. The really cheap ones (sub £15) work but aren't great. The £25-£30 stuff is pretty impressive. I have a UV-5R which was the cheap chinese radio benchmark for some time. It's survived a lot of abuse! The currently considered 'best' baofeng is the UV-B5. Available around £25 and fixes some of the issues with the UV-5R (poor stock antenna, receiver easily overloaded)
eamon Posted January 17, 2015 Author Posted January 17, 2015 Hi all Being meaning to follow up with this topic. I have spoken to the intended supplier and we have discussed the UHF/VHF issue. Because I have an existing VHF license, he had quoted me for one! He would normally advocate a UHF product for my intended use but as I had not raised the issue till post this forum, we both did not think of it. Case of me telling him what I had and him selling what he thought I wanted. Anyway, it appears UHF is the way forward. He will drop me two radios to test out for reception in the building and we will go from there. With regard to multiple channels for different dept's, I have spoken to comreg (Ofcom in Ireland) and I have only being renting 1 x license. If I wish to add channels into the mix, I must pay them some money. Did not push the cost as I am doing well to get the radio's tbh. I have to apply for a change of licence from VHF to UHF but that will be easy enough. Thanks again for all the help and advice. eamon
Andrew C Posted May 10, 2017 Posted May 10, 2017 More on Baofeng. I've got 6 on my desk as their chargers have been failed by PAT company. Yup - crap, hair thin, single insulated cables from wall-wart to cradle, and 13A fuses. Fixable, but definitely NOT compliment with anything.
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