BrightCandle

Yes you need a license its a generic programmable radio. Reprogramming and using on PMR 446 would not be legal.

You have two choices when it comes to radios for Airsoft purposes and they each have their pros and cons. You can either use a PMR 446 or a licensed radio such as a Baofeng. PMR 446 Comes in two types, analogue which has 8 channels and digital which is 16 channel. Most people use analogue as digital is still expensive. Is unlicensed so you can just buy a radio and it will work with all other PMR 446 radios. It is limited to 0.5W. It is lower range and penetration than a licensed radio. In thick woodland expect below 100m sometimes you can shout further. In open ground in the best conditions it could go 1KM. They have a fixed antenna so you can't change it. Licensed Radio Baofeng is the make that most people buy due to the costs. The UV-5R is a cheap and decent radio with a tonne of possible accessories. The UV-82 and other radios in that series from Baofeng can do two push to talk buttons for two different frequencies which is a really awesome for radio men as they can talk on either of the frequencies they have setup. The UV-5R can tune into 2 channels at once but it can't transmit on both only one of them. The UV-5R can be used at 2 power outputs, 1W and 4W. There is also a High power model which has an additional 8W mode which isn't usable with a UK simple business license. You can do just about anything with a license and could get a personal frequency just for your group but it could cost thousands of pounds. However the easiest and cheapest thing to do is to buy a Simple UK business license (https://secure.ofcom.org.uk/busrad/). It is £75 for 5 years and takes about 2 weeks to come through, it requires little more than name + address. It will give you some FM, VHF and UHF frequencies for a total of 11 usable on a Baofeng UV-5R and you can hand out these to a group you play with or just some people on the same site for the day. Businesses all over the UK share the frequencies so you may have to move channel to avoid interfering but you have plenty of options. The license grants up to 5W of power and the Baofeng on high uses 4W. The license is for narrow band which is the same as the PMR 446 uses. These penetrate through a lot more woodland and go a lot further as they are 10x more powerful. They have a replaceable antenna so you can get a smaller one to fit your gear or a much bigger one to allow better reception and a bit more power. The Baofeng can be tuned to receive the PMR 446 frequencies. However because it is too powerful (1W) and has a removable antenna (which can change the power output) and it can use other frequencies its not legal to use it on PMR 446 frequencies. Thus if you are using a Baofeng for this purpose you are committing a crime. It is OK to listen but you can't transmit. The Baofeng radio's as far as I know all come with push to talk buttons and an ear piece in the box, the UV-5R certainly does. You can also get accessory ones from other companies like Code red headsets, Z Tactical and Baofeng themselves. The plug it uses is called a Kenwood so when looking for addons this is what you need, its widely supported. There are a vast array of options even to the point where you can get a bone conduction set for $100 or so.

You can only manufacturer a RIF from an IF given certain circumstances. So make sure you are complying with the law in this regard. Its not normally a good idea because the reasons you ended up with an IF may very well be to being under age rather than just having not played for very long and then manufacturing a RIF by painting over the bright colour could be a pretty serious crime. Do your homework and make sure you are within the letter of the law.

After a lot of rain you sometimes get that tingly feeling but all it really does is drain the battery a bit as 7.4V isn't exactly dangerous.

I had issues with the Hicap in the box and the midcaps I bought from ICS. Someone on reddit told me G&G midcaps work in it but I haven't found that to be the case, they don't even fit. So far I haven't heard of someone with any solution than modifying the mag well to fit other magazines.

Yep that is the one.

At the sites I attend its always "mags out and fire a few times". That is the gun is clear and there is no way it could have a BB in the chamber loaded at any point. While somewhat based around AEGs as a practice its a good safety position to always treat airsoft weapons as much like real guns as possible, you don't leave those lying around with a loaded magazine in either. There is this great little youtube video I saw a while ago (I can't find it now) which is from a gun shop showing all these people coming in with their guns and pulling them out for some purpose. Dumb things like "Do you have a grip for this..." and then out comes a concealed handgun. They sweep the muzzle around the room or past the shop keeper and then they hand it over to the shop keeper and say its not loaded and the keep unloads the magazine, racks the slide and out comes a bullet. They then put that bullet in their jar on the counter with the notice about loaded guns. Always treat your airsoft rifle like its a real gun, that is empty out the magazine and clear the chamber. You always do this, not because you need to do it to make the gun safe, you don't. You do it because gun safety is that we do these things and it gives us multiple levels of safety. Yet despite doing all that we still shouldn't dry fire in the safe zone, you need to test electrics stick some eye pro on and go and shoot in the chrono area/beginning of the zone, it'll take 30 seconds but its safe. Always use redundant safety because its human to make mistakes.

No xbox and playstation and PC are all separate and can't play together with this game. That is the usual state of things with just a few games (rocket league) providing its own servers and cross platform mechanism.

Just wanted to confirm that the Krytac SPR I have with a 30k motor overspins and double shoots at 350fps with a 11.1V. Its fine with a 7.4V and it produces about 24rps so its more than enough ROF given that spring. I have modified it to be semi only and 420 fps now so its not going to overspin on a 11.1V if I used it anymore but I haven't tried that yet. Its the best gun I have in terms of finish and stock configuration no doubt about it and I wouldn't want to receive a 20k motor, I was a bit pissed off that someone in the supply chain had replaced the 400 fps spring with a 315 fps one frankly.

If you have a direct line to ICS can you have a chat to them about making guns that a) don't support other manufacturers magazines (like the APE) and making truly awful midcap magazines that really won't lift anything heavier than a 0.2g BB. I like my APE otherwise but having to modify the magazine well with a dremel is not my idea of a fun weekend so I can load in 0.25g BBs and they need to stop doing that.

I have certainly felt the need and worn goggles on certain sites where I didn't feel safe in the past. Its so critical that marshalls check these things on entry to the safe zone reliably but the Mall when I was there a year ago was certainly one of those places, it was the best marshaled site I had ever been too. Its surprising to hear a loaded weapon got through there, they were super hot on that. Billericay is one of those places where I mostly feel safe due to the Marshalls standing on entry and requiring a dry fire on entry to the zone. But I have had to talk to a couple of players who were dry firing in the safe zone or worse loaded in the magazine just before we headed out, they didn't seem to appreciate the danger. If you are on a site where you feel the need to wear eye protection in the safe zone its time to explain the problem to the marshals and hope they will fix it and if they don't leave the site and don't go back. Sure you can wear glasses and get a decent chunk of protection while you clean up your full seal and prepare your kit but its always going to be this nagging fear of getting shot somewhere you are meant to be safe and knocking out a tooth or getting hit with a 500 fps from a few metres and actually "getting shot" and picking a BB out of your body or a trip to hospital with a deep penetration (maybe you could die from a BB to the neck). I don't like unsafe sites and I write about the issues with safety I had at the places I go to as I think its one of the most important aspects of any airsoft site. You don't need to do much but you need to do it consistently and reliably because human beings make mistakes.

The trains certainly limited the potential distance I can travel for a pickup game, and some sites are a royal pain to get to even taking into account taxis for the last leg of the journey.

I have a set of sawfly's for okto, because the games are a lot less all angles than your typical skirmish and the players are often pretty experienced and sensible with their fire. But in a skirmish its full seal for me regardless. But it does make me a little nervous as I know those wings are going to catch BBs coming from the rear, although its going to be a very small window given the boonie as well.

Even in CQB I have a preference for 0.25g BBs because they are quite a bit more accurate. I posted about this a while ago about the difference I saw with a combat machine and I described the grouping size halving or such. It was a substantial difference and well worth the slightly slower travel time because you are quite often shooting at an elbow or half a head in CQB so the grouping size matters quite a bit.

I would say the most useful part of the ATP for this discussion is the weight comparison at a given velocity. 1.14j (350fps with a 0.2g BB) is what most of us are using as our power setting outside and this section covers that: http://mackila.com/airsoft/atp/07-b-07.htm The short answer is that it could be about 10 feet from a 0.2g BB to a 0.3g BB for the absolute maximum range, effective maximum range (straight line) isn't effected. There are other qualities to make you want a heavier BB, it deflects less with the wind and it tends to produce smaller groupings and I can see that on paper at just 10m. It also maintains more energy and speed so at range gets there faster (counter intuitively). Reasons to not want a higher weight BB are that its harder to get the hop to lift it and you often need an R hop or a flat hop to lift anything above a 0.25G BB well.