Hey Lemmings. I’m looking for a decent budget walkie talkie.
My use case is pretty casual. Nothing crazy like survival situations or long-distance missions. Mainly for small hikes and some work communication where my phone isn’t ideal.
Criteria: • Budget: up to ~50€ (ideally a set of 2 or more) • Region: Europe (putting this here for shopping options.) • License-free frequency
I’ve been eyeing a few options: • Motorola 42. The blue kiddie vibe kinda puts me off lol • Retevis models seem to have decent reviews for the price • Jucjet 4-set for around 44€ looks tempting for the pack deal
Has anyone used these or got other recommendations? Rockie Talkie keeps popping up but it’s expensive and way above my use case. Cheers
Throwaway thoughts: I’m trying to decentralize my tech life away from my phone. Radio comms feel like a step in the right direction. Meshtastic is also on the todo list. Might even look into pagers soon.
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Motorola makes good stuff, a lot of which is fairly affordable, or Baofeng if you’re on a tight budget.
Retevis can have quality control issues but I think they try their best and give a fairer deal than others
For my use case and price point that seems fair. I will keep them in mind
You’re better off buying a “real” radio like a Quansheng UV-K5 and programming it for PMR446.
Thanks for the comment. Was looking for real simple solution but for the price I might as well get something proper then.
As a complete radio noob, I do have some pc programming skills, how much time and effort would it take to mod it to pmr446?
U might have send me down an amateur radio hobby rabbit hole lol, cheers :)
Honestly I don’t know much about the UV-K5, I use a pair of baofeng uv-5r radios, because the k5 didn’t exist when I bought them. The k5 is apparently better with the option for full custom firmware and there isn’t much price difference.
For my uv5r programming was basically just a case of using a programming cable and a program called CHIRP, that looks a lot like a spreadsheet, to set the right frequencies.
I am a Motorola fan. Used to use their VHF kit back in the day and it took a lot of abuse.
At work we have their averagely rugged yellow things T82 iirc that work out about €35 each
At home, for the goblins, we have a pair of yellow Motos T72 iirc similarly rugged €60 the pair.
Both models have good range and are easy to set up. Work ones do group programming so you program 1 bung the rest on programming mode and transmit the config. Boom. 10 radios programmed identically in less time than manually doing 2.
T82 extreme pmr goes for 84€ (2 walkies), standard goes for 72€… 36 each like you said.
Motorola is quite a recognised brand. If we are looking at “buy for life” stuff then it may be worth bumping up the budget for…
Would u say that the Motorola’s would outlast a chinese walkie like Baofeng? How long have you had the t82 for?
A baofeng 2-pack is 30€, so I’m just trying to figure out if a Motorola is the better investment…
I have some Motorola FRS walkie talkies that are 20+ years old and work fine.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F7opritxml8 This guy always does decent reviews of all sorts of products. This episode’s on walkie talkies. He doesn’t go super in-depth, nor does he ever do exhaustive selections, but I mean, there are too many product brands and knockoffs these days anyways. lol
I like his reviews because he just shows you the tests and results. No sales pitch while talking about tests, just results. You can just see what happens and come to your own conclusions on which option is best and why depending on needs.
With that description, I didn’t even need the thumbnail to know you were talking about Project Farm. I’ve always liked his presentation and the ways he comes up with to test products
You may want to look into amateur radio (or you might not, it needs a licence after all).
I don’t really have any recommendations for you, but I would suggest you crosspost this to !amateur_radio@lemmy.radio
Thanks for pointing me to the amateur radio community. Will have a look around there.
Robot_Toaster is also pointing towards amateur radio so that might be the best “buy for life” solution in the end…
I recently bought the Motorola t605 h20. The sound quality and range are fantastic. The button layout UI is the stupidest, most unintuitive, mystifying garbage I’ve ever seen. So, unless you’re willing to thoroughly read their poorly written manual, remember all the secret little symbols and codes and what they mean in the sequence you’re supposed to apply them in, then you won’t like it either.
Hahahah damn, sry for your bad purchase. I hope this post makes a future purchase a bit better. Thanks for shortening the list :p
