Ancestors

Written by Profoundly Nerdy on 2025-01-05 at 22:09

Can someone recommend an FRS radio that doesn't suck? I have a pair of Midland FRS radios with 10 minute battery lives and dodgy PTT buttons.

I need:

• As much battery life as possible.
• A PTT button that a child (or a boomer) can work reliably.
• USB-C charging would be a nice bonus.

[#]frs #gmrs #hamradio

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Written by Technodad on 2025-01-06 at 16:37

@profoundlynerdy Can you say a bit more about how / where they'll be used? I personally like the Baofeng UV-9G for outdoor work, as they are fairly rugged, waterproof (IP57), and come preprogrammed with GMRS, FRS, and Weather frequencies. Might be overkill for non-outdoor use. (Oh yeah, boomer here…) #gmrs

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Toot

Written by Profoundly Nerdy on 2025-01-06 at 20:07

@technodad Yeah, sure...

During power outages, most likely caused by inclement weather. Most usage would be indoors, but not all. I'm trying to get about a mile out of them in reasonably flat terrain several residential buildings apart.

I'm trying to see how difficult something like this:

https://radiorelay.org/sos/

Would be to implement in my neighborhood if it ever needed to happen.

I have a GMRS license. I don't expect all of my neighbors / friends to get one.

Make sense?

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Descendants

Written by Technodad on 2025-01-06 at 21:26

@profoundlynerdy Makes perfect sense, especially given recent examples of cellular unavailability during disasters. We are developing something similar in my town, and are looking at RRI’s “I Am Safe” program. See https://www.neighborhelpingneighbor.net . A mile should be easy for #GMRS, FRS will need testing but probably OK in flat terrain. Good luck!

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Written by AI6YR Ben on 2025-01-06 at 21:27

@technodad @profoundlynerdy The SOS Radio Network scheme is a great one, if you can get enough of your neighbors wired in. I suggest you try to find a FRS/GMRS radio with AA batteries (not easy) because recharging in an emergency is a BIG issue, but everyone always has AA's available.

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