wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

OK seems daft but i want something i can communicate with my two staff when i see things i want them to do or? Any ear piece or watches or anything that will allow me to communicate quietly to my staff.

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

Motorola CP200 radios with a surveillance headset. They are very cheap to rent in the states, I'm sure you can find a rental house in your neck of the woods.

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

In the US we have FRS radios (Family Radio Service) that go about a mile, they are $30-40/pair and you can put an earpiece on them so only you can hear. I assume the old country has something similar?

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

Whatever you get Steve, make sure you are within regulations for your particular system. There are a myarid of transceivers being sold on ebay that will transmit anywhere in the spectrum and if you pick the wrong frequency\band then you could end up in serious trouble for interference to commercial or worse, emergency services. Some people don't even know they are interfering. There are lots of low power UHF devices for sale here is AUS that transmit on the INPUT band of the Australian UHF amateur radio band. Most repeaters now have CTCSS incorperated which is a inaudible tone transmitted with your carrier to trigger the repeater. If the repeater doesn't hear the specific tone it won't trigger, so that has reduced a huge amount of interference. We used to use repeaters on the UHF CB band here and the INPUT to those repeaters are channels 31 to 38, the outputs are ch 1 to 8, anyone talking between 31 and 38 could be talking over the repeater but don't know because they can't hear the other side (ch 1 to 8) its a bit complex but happens all the time. So my advice is, if you get a public band system you are probably pretty safe, although anyone else with those radios can chime in as well UNLESS you set them up for the before mentioned tones CTCSS tones they are called. if you get anything off ebay or whatever, make sure you check the frequency band they operate on, not only causing interference but if you are on a ham radio band for examp0le you need to PASS AN EXAM and BE LICENCED to operate on those bands. We have Australian Communications Media Authority here in AUS that look after frequency spectrum allocations and the like, not sure what your equivalent is over there but chase them up and check out your VHF\UHF band plan allocations. There are power limits for the different bands as well.

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

Hi Steve

The sets that Roger has just bought for GBP49.00 work on the 2.4GHz band and they also allow you to talk back to the transmitter via an earpiece so maybe ask Roger to test that function for you???

Post is just a few down from here

Chris

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

Hi Steve,

The wireless system that I bought would certainly do the job and could be used with your video, but as the others have mentioned, the little personal radios are ideal for what you are talking about, are legal without a licence in the UK and are as cheap as chips. The eBay company that I bought my set from also do the PRS radios at a good price, I'll see if I can find a link when I have walked the dog.

Roger

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

OK Steve, found the link, if you want cheap and legal, these should do the job. The company appears to be based in China, but my wireless lav that I bought from them came the next day from Southall, West London.
NEW 4pcs Walkie Talkies UHF 400-470MHZ 5km Range 8CH PMR 2-way Radio Interphone | eBay

Roger

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

Sorry for late reply guys, that's absolutely brilliant lads thanks for replies and thanks Roger the dodger, cheers what a help. I did see some wrist watches on here a few years back but i may be wrong but those will do it cheers brilliant.

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

I've considered something like these but they'd hardly be suitable during a ceremony etc. sometimes my partner drifts into my frame and I have no way of communicating to her, I also considered those dog collars that emit a shock to control dogs barking, that'd move her!

:-)

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

Roger, can you use a head set or lav mic with the linked walkies talkies, sometimes i want to be really quiet say in the ceremony and speak low, rather than hold a button down and talk. steve

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

What ever walkie talkies you choose, make sure you can turn off the "roger beep"

Not legal as they are out of the box, but the Baofeng ones get very good reviews.

It is possible to retune them to PMR bands, however as I understand it they won't be 100% legal even if you do.

2PCS Baofeng BF-888S UHF 400-470 MHz Walkie Talkie Two Way Radio+Free earpiece | eBay

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

+1 Rob, thats what i need some kind of shock to our staff system to nudge them to move haha

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

Hey Daniel thanks they have the ear piece with them, maybe they will do?

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

I haven't seen the real thing, only the website, but would think that they probably don't have the headphone and mic facility. There are dozens of different types that you can Google though, so you should have no difficulty finding the ones you want. I have a set with voice controlled TX that I have used for years, I think they are Binatone.

Roger

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

cheers mate the ones Daniel says are not bad with good reviews on amazon, i just want to press a button talk quiet so partner can move or do what i want him to do say at the back of the church or venue room? steve

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

I could be wrong, but a quick look at the specs on the one that Daniel linked to, makes me think that they may not be UK legal.

Roger

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

Yes Roger they are not legal so i am searching for another unit that has ear piece headset? Cheers for your time.

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

Correct, I did point that bit out. You can buy a usb lead and download some software to reprogram them, there is loads of info on how to do it online.

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

Steve, for £12 each, plus £2 per surveillance headset, you can have licensed, reliable walkie talkies. I have used similar models in the states, and every major motion picture and television show here uses them.

UK Walkie-Talkie Hire Centre - Radio Hire Pricing Information

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

For what it is worth, the Baofeng radios can be perfectly legal, IF, you have the appropriate license. The harmonisation with the EU means the old MPT specifications are now blended in with virtually identical CEPT ones. The upshot is that equipment must meet these standards, but the old individual model testing seems to have been abandoned, because it's quite easy for modern equipment to meet the spurious emissions and frequency stability specs, and drifting really isn't an issue any more. This gives you a choice of frequencies, a bit like your radio mic license, and you can programme these in, add some CTCSS codes for a bit more resilience to other people on your channel, and they are actually pretty nice radios, and by all accounts pretty reliable.

The stories about them being illegal are just a misunderstanding with the non-business, free to use PMR446 system. This spec has 6 channels, operating lower down in the UHF spectrum. The Baofeng radios will operate on these channels BUT they are NOT legal when used there. Two main reasons. Too much power, and a detachable aerial. PMR446 cannot have a connection to a better/higher aerial, so they are fixed in place, which limits range. The PMR 446 channels are also slightly offset, so using a higher power transmitter can wipe out more than one PMR446 channel.

The old stuff about disturbing emergency services is largely obsolete advice too now. The old emergency service allocation between 451 and 453MHz is now virtually closed down. A few prisons, and a few legacy fire service units still have equipment in that allocation, but Airwave took the traffic away a long time ago now. The only other emergency service in there would be the coastguard in marine band.

The remaining channels in the UHF spectrum are empty, or used for data services. VHF has similar services in it. Operating in the authorised band rarely causes any grief as you are essentially operating locally. I have quite a few radios I'm licensed to use in the VHF and UHF bands, and nowadays, even if I get interference, there's no point complaining - there's not a local investigation unit anywhere near me, and frankly they're not bothered by business radio or PMR446.

Key features are how you transmit. Press to Talk is a bit of a pain, but the alternative, VOX is a pain - transmitting when you speak, but cutting off the first syllable of every over. Many of these things can have remote mics, and lots have an earpiece socket, so you stick the radio on low power (so it doesn't interfere with your audio), and clip the mic to somewhere where you can talk into it. I have Icom, Kenwood and Motorola equipment - and a few Chinese bits of kit. The only real difference is that the expensive ones bounce and work. My Chinese ones have cracks in the cases, a few have battery packs that fall off, and one has a dodgy battery, charge wise. However, at their price, they're great when you know they will be abused. Smash an Icom and weep, smash a Baofeng and buy another!

Re: wireless walkie talkie watches or?
 

Thanks guys all great points