Apparently i'm the comms guy now

[darrenb]

So i'm slowly building up my gear and getting together everything I need/want game by game.
The next thing on my list is radios. And because of that I've been delegated by my mates to find us some.

I've done a few searches on here and would rather stick on the legal side of things when it comes to radios, so was thinking of going with a Motorola radio.

Does anyone have any experience with the Motorola tlkr t60's?

I'll be mostly using them in woodland areas but not over a great distance.
I was just wondering what they are like in that sort of environment and also how well they work with different types of headsets.

Thanks for the help,
Darren

 

[Esoterick]

I use them with my team mates and they are pretty decent radios. Well made, easy to program and we've had them working happily when we are about 1/2 mile apart. You can get something like Baofengs a bit cheaper but they are also considerably more complicated to setup a channel for your team to use.

You should be able to use headsets that take motorola 1 pin connectors - Quite a lot of them are split so you are plugging a push to talk(PTT) unit into the radio and from the PTT you have a generic connector the actual headset plugs into. That's at least how all the Z Tactical headsets i've used work.

 

[BrightCandle]

There are two legal routes to getting a radio for airsoft:

1) Go for a PMR (UHF), its limited to 0.5W (regularly wont go >50m in woodland!) and the basic channels. Radios are quite expensive, £40 ish at least.

2) Get a Simple business licence from ofcom which is £75 for 5 years. Allows the use of 5W (think 1km in woodland) across 10 channels (UHF and VHF). You can then buy £10 radios if you want (Baofeng 888) or spend a little more for better usability with the UV-5R (£20).

Which works out cheaper for your group depends on how big you are. You will find groups with both types on sites, the PMR guys can't ever interface with the ofcom licence fellows but the ofcom licence guys can at least listen to the PMR channels but they can not transmit. I chose the baofeng licenced route as that is what the milsim communities mostly use as they are real radios with usable power whereas the PMRs are kind of underpowered, sometimes you can shout to someone and the radio can't pick it up!

 

[Baz JJ]

They are the same in range as all PMR446 radios but the Motorolas are better built than most.

Probably a few hundred metres in woodland. OK for teams in a firefight or moving together in a patrol.

Its preferable to have a rotary volume knob so you can adjust it in a pouch without being able to see it.

The 80 model has this where the 60 doesnt. I have the 80 model and its a nice radio. You dont need all the fancy functions really.

They use a Motorola single pin connector and most headsets are available with this connection.

 

[darrenb]

Thanks for the advice guys.
To be honest we have all only just started and i won't be at any major milsim events anytime soon which is why we prefer the idea of the PMR radios.
But it might be something to look into as we branch out into bigger events.

I'll look into the 80 model as well. Having the volume switch accessible makes a lot of sense.

 

[Baz JJ]

I have both the Motorolas and the Baofeng high power radios.

The Motorolas are fine unless you want to talk across the length of the site.

 

[darrenb]

The radios are mostly for when someone is coming back from the regen point and wants to know where we are.
We all respect the dead men don't talk rule so we can hardly say "meet me here" or "wait here"
The site we play at now isn't huge so i think the motorolas will do for now.

 

[Baz JJ]

Dont fall for the stupid ranges that they quote on the PMR446 blurb. Its complete fiction in normal usage.

Range really is only a couple of hundred metres and a lot of people have them at skirmishes so they are not secure.

You only have eight channels to use - dont get misled by the silly number of code permutations quoted in the sales blurb.

 

[MxHaze]

I bought a five pack of the cheapest walkie talkies (that take external headset) on ebay £55 for 5 posted. they're absolutely fantastic.

We play at two sites, one is woodland, and we've never had any issues to date.

we aint crazy weekend soldiers, if all you want if to keep in touch with your mates and regroup after regens, then the cheapest set will have far more spec than you need.

 

[MxHaze]

I am the team comms guy too, and the team gun tech, and the team researcher/finder-outter, oh and the team driver.

I did my first flat hop last week, im flat hopping four rifles next week haha

 

[darrenb]

I am the team comms guy too, and the team gun tech, and the team researcher/finder-outter, oh and the team driver.

I did my first flat hop last week, im flat hopping four rifles next week haha

I'm pretty much the same except the driver part as no one wants to share the cost of fuel on a subaru for some reason when they all have diesels.

Next step for me is opening the gun up.

Just got to make sure I have enough in the bank to buy a new one when i break it.

 

[Monty]

 

[MxHaze]

I'm pretty much the same except the driver part as no one wants to share the cost of fuel on a subaru for some reason when they all have diesels.

Next step for me is opening the gun up.

Just got to make sure I have enough in the bank to buy a new one when i break it.

Haha yeah. Im pretty good at dis/reassembly now, but the first time i opened up a gearbox, i ended up having to drive 15 miles to a guy i knew who had to take the gearbox off me in a tescos carrier bag in a thousand little bits. so you dont need the money to cover a new one, just the money to cover someone who knows what theyre doing, to rebuild it

Mods should lead by example monty ;-)

 

[darrenb]

Its a title I never wanted, but took on as no one else wanted to look into them.

Which was the same with the guns, chargers, ammo, mags. Everything really

Except lunch. They sort out lunch

 

[BrightCandle]

My main point is that baofengs can end up both cheaper and better with about a 2 week delay on ofcom processing if you have enough of you to make that worthwhile, which by my accounts is pretty much anything above 2 people.

 

[darrenb]

My main point is that baofengs can end up both cheaper and better with about a 2 week delay on ofcom processing if you have enough of you to make that worthwhile, which by my accounts is pretty much anything above 2 people.

I did look into them and I know they would provide a better range. But for now I'm trying to stick to something simple just to see if we even use them.

The radios we are going for work out at around £22 each which is a similar price to the baofengs I've been looking at.

If we don't get along with the motorolas then we have the option of someone in our group using them at his work and covering our costs.