Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Thinking of getting a pair of walkie talkies to communicate between the toon and the cabin. It's not a huge lake, but it is comprised of numerous coves with hills in between.

Any of you guys use walkie talkies in this manner?

I use a vhf radio to talk to other boats. There are handheld models available which would allow you to communicate for much longer distances than walkie talkies on family service bands.

Search google for Baofeng uv-5r walkies. Cheap but tough chinese units that work remarkably good. you can get them for around $70 a pair. They are dual-band UHF/VHF programmable. You can program them to work on Marine channels and FMRS without a license, or if you get an FCC license, you can talk on a wide variety of channels. They are switchable 4 watt/1 watt which gives a decent range (way more than your FRS radios you can pick up at walmart that advertise "7 MILE RANGE!!!"

One thing is that they have to be programmed to operate. Its not hard, but you have to input the marine frequencies you wish to operate on.

Tim

GMRS radios advertise a much longer range then they really have. You may get a three mile range over water but don't expect much more. Marine vhf is the way to go.

For what they cost I'd go with a pair of VHF radio as not only will you get much more range than those personnel units you would then have something that you can actually use to comm with other people and call for help if needed...

Cowracer wrote:Search google for Baofeng uv-5r walkies. Cheap but tough chinese units that work remarkably good. you can get them for around $70 a pair. They are dual-band UHF/VHF programmable. You can program them to work on Marine channels and FMRS without a license, or if you get an FCC license, you can talk on a wide variety of channels. They are switchable 4 watt/1 watt which gives a decent range (way more than your FRS radios you can pick up at walmart that advertise "7 MILE RANGE!!!"

One thing is that they have to be programmed to operate. Its not hard, but you have to input the marine frequencies you wish to operate on.

Tim

I'll 2nd the Baofeng uv-5r!! Great product, I really like the built in weather radio.

Thanks for the great input - glad I asked.

Sounds like vhf is the way to go for sure. Really like the value of that Chinese unit, but am a little freaked out about the programming, as I'm no techie.

BTW been a 'tooner (and a boater actually) since only Friday May 22, and I just love it. My family is so jacked up that the only problem is not overloading the boat

I know this is not the "nautical" thing to do, but over the years I have noticed cell service has gotten so good at our lakes that we just use our phones now. I am so surprised at how good our coverage is on the water now. That is many miles out of "civilization" in the Tonto National Forest, surrounded by mountains..... yet perfect cell service. The good news is, I can now work from the boat. The bad news is, I can now work from the boat.

That'd be great. Unfortunately at or lake we get one bar of cell signal "if the wind is blowing right".

powermaker wrote:

Cowracer wrote:Search google for Baofeng uv-5r walkies. Cheap but tough chinese units that work remarkably good. you can get them for around $70 a pair. They are dual-band UHF/VHF programmable. You can program them to work on Marine channels and FMRS without a license, or if you get an FCC license, you can talk on a wide variety of channels. They are switchable 4 watt/1 watt which gives a decent range (way more than your FRS radios you can pick up at walmart that advertise "7 MILE RANGE!!!"

One thing is that they have to be programmed to operate. Its not hard, but you have to input the marine frequencies you wish to operate on.

Tim

I'll 2nd the Baofeng uv-5r!! Great product, I really like the built in weather radio.

The Baofeng sounds like my kinda play. Do I need computer programming skills? Might take a stab at it, having looked at the much higher cost of most actual waterproof units.

I don't know about radios, but welcome to the club.

Their a lot of ways to go i use a galaxy 959 and a boomer 400

You cant go wrong for the money with the befongs I have 6 of them or 8 , I forget just please be carefull with them . They are open all the way , i use them for HAm Freq and I recommend CHIRP for programming .

If your just wanting something to easily and quickly communicate, the cheap walkie talkies are the way to go. If cel service is good, that's a simple option. If you want something to use at the docks hands free, you might consider something like
http://cruisingsolutions.com/product/ma ... head-sets/

Or if you want to really get serious, but do not need extra range, another hands free idea is
http://www.defender.com/product3.jsp?pa ... id=1329045

Both are full duplex meaning both folks can talk and hear at the same time, which the handi talkies cannot do.

MH Hawker wrote:Their a lot of ways to go i use a galaxy 959 and a boomer 400

Only problem with using 27MHZ is that when the band opens up you might have a hard time squelching out skip from hundreds of miles away that might effectively cover up your ability to communicate 3 miles away.