Using walkie talkies at the lake.

[Pleease.]

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

Thanks - totally hooked.

[Cowracer]

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.

Theres a couple vids on youtube that cover programming. You basically have to tell channel one to be at 154.280 mHz or whatever. If you can put contacts in your cell phone, you can program a Baofeng. No computer is required, but you can do it that way if you wish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15DmHvdLq68

Tim

[Pleease.]

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 .

What do you mean by "be careful with them"? They're fragile, or does it have to do with transmitting?

Thx

[Hawk_308]

They are open for the full vhf and uhf bands so you can transmit where it is verboten to do so .

[Pleease.]

They are open for the full vhf and uhf bands so you can transmit where it is verboten to do so .

Ok, thank you. Might ask you about that before using.

[cleatus]

I used a walkie talkie till clumsy me dropped it off the dock, now I use a hand held marine radio that floats.
also
I have a hand held CB radio in the car to listen to the trucker chatter on any long road trips, that radio can be entertaining at times lol. BREAKER ONE NINE.

[Pleease.]

I used a walkie talkie till clumsy me dropped it off the dock, now I use a hand held marine radio that floats.
also
I have a hand held CB radio in the car to listen to the trucker chatter on any long road trips, that radio can be entertaining at times lol. BREAKER ONE NINE.

Great point. That'll be me, no doubt, and my son inherited that gene . I better get a bright-colored floating radio.

Wonder if my Cobra CB from 1978 is around here somewhere.....

[Pleease.]

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.

Is the Baofeng waterproof? If not it isn't a lot of $ to risk, but maybe I should get 3 instead of 2



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.

[grouser]

well where I cam from a couple of good , clean soup cans and high quality string is the cat's azzzz,,,, a little tricky around corners but ain't nuttin perfect right?

[woolznaz]

And you can use the string to double as a tow rope for pulling the water toys.

To the OP, I hear you about the bad cell service. The point of my post is that is that is exactly where we were a couple of years ago. Like you, we had one bar if we were lucky and only if the wind was blowing right on a Tuesday. Fast forward a couple of years and we have great coverage out there. I cannot explain why it got better. There is no development around it and it's in the middle of a national forest, but for some reason cell coverage just keeps getting better. So, the communication problem may solve itself pretty quickly.

Welcome to the forum and let us know what you go with for the solution.

[Pleease.]

OK, I ordered a couple of Baofeng UV-5Rs last night. Hope to be able to get them up & running with the youtube videos in front of me.

Know zero about radios and am definitely going to need some direction on which frequencies to use, etc. I'm imagining them being used almost entirely for communicating with each other at the lake, but would like to also be able to make emergency contact in case we venture out onto bigger lakes (i.e. Cumberland, Norris, etc.) in the future. Definitely won't be doing that this summer - sticking to the "small pond" until more experienced at boating.

Y'all have been very helpful so far - appreciate your input!

[Cowracer]

Here is a link to the standard Marine radio channels. 16 is distress calling. Program the ship transmit frequencies in you walkie and you will be able to operate on marine band.

http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=mtvhf

While technically you need a license, as long as you don't be obnoxious you can use the 'Dot' and 'star' itinerant business frequencies without anyone giving you any grief.

VHF
151.6250 Red Dot
151.9550 Purple Dot
154.5700 MURS 4 / Blue Dot
154.6000 MURS 5 / Green Dot

UHF
462.5750 GMRS 2 / White Dot
462.6250 GMRS 4 / Black Dot
462.6750 GMRS 6 / Orange Dot
464.5000 Brown Dot
464.5500 Yellow Dot
467.7625 "J" Dot
467.8125 "K" Dot
467.8500 Silver Star
467.8750 Gold Star
467.9000 Red Star

467.9250 Blue Star

Tim

[Pleease.]

Thank you, Tim!

[Mosnowman]

I've had good luck with these...boat to cabin and boat to boat...

[catalinaflyer]

Although I wasn't looking for marine radio information I read through this thread and found some information for my work.

The collective knowledge of this group outside of pontoon boats is amazing.

FWIW, part of what I do is move very large aircraft sub assemblies (wings, horizontal & vertical stabilizers, fuselage sections, engine cowlings etc.) around the world. One of our more challenging moves is wings for a rather large business jet still in development. We move these from Texas to Ontario/Quebec Canada via truck.



One of the problems we encounter is once we cross into Canada we are required to have Canadian escorts and police. On the US side the normal CB radio is adequate albeit barely but once we cross everyone there uses VHF. So we were put in touch with a radio guy and for a simple 4 channel handheld he was wanting $400 US each. Then I find this thread recommending the Baofeng and with some further research I find that these radios are more than capable of operating on the LADD frequencies as well as thousands of others. So for the same money I was looking at paying for one handheld with 4 channels I got 2 mobile units with antenna setups and 4 handhelds (2 semi trucks and 2 escort vehicles per truck) with infinite channels and ability to use MURS, LADD, FRS (not legally), GMRS and almost every business frequency.

So the members of this forum saved my employer $2k and cost the radio shark in Ayr, Ontario $2400.

Eventually we will have 6 trucks and 12 escorts on this account which would have been $7200 in handhelds if not for the information I got from here. Maybe the boss man will pony up the money for a pontoon makeover for me..........or not but we can all dream.