Radio / Walkie-Talkie Advice

[Airsoft_Mr B]

I've been looking for radios for airsoft use recently. Admittedly I don't have a huge budget so missed out on a good deal on Friday for some Midlands G7 walkie-talkies.

Anyway, I have also seen some Motorola XTB446 radios and also pair of Motorola T5522s on eBay and was wondering if these are any good? I know the company itself is a good manufacturer but not sure about the particular model and if it is compatible the PTTs / throat mics designed for Motorola radios?

My budget for some comms is around 20-30 pounds and although as aforementioned this is a small budget -since new sets are 100+ pounds- I have seen lots around that price (on eBay anyway) so any help with this sort of thing would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Spawnah]

You'll probably have to pay a deal more than £20-30 if you want a decent radio.

 

[Baz JJ]

I also think you will struggle at that budget level.

Find a radio you can afford and then see what PTT and headset will fit it. The answer depends to some extent what audio gear you plan to buy.

I bought Motorola and then found a headset to fit it - no drama, but even a cheap headset and PTT will cost £20-30.

 

[Airsoft_Mr B]

Alright, thanks for the help

I found these which all have good reviews, but they're £80 with throat mics. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Binatone-Action-1000-Walkie-Talkie/dp/B008FOBL1A/ref=pd_cp_rec-ht_1

Yeah, I guess it was pretty cheap of me to expect I could buy an expensive pair of radios for only 30 quid, those Midlands G7s did go for around that yet although that was only a one off I guess and besides they were slightly damaged cosmetically too + one needed new battery.

I'll take your advice into account then. After all it should be worth the investment if they last us a while. We had a pair of G5s for a long time but they're broken now (one of them got thrown out anyway)

 

[Ian_Gere]

You'll generally get a better radio for the money from Motorola than any of the other common makes. The XTB446 is a good handset, but has a slightly bigger screen than the XTR446 and so gets less time used out of a full charge/4 AAA Duracells. Other than the screen and cosmetics they are pretty much the same machine though, but you'll find XTR446's going cheap fairly frequently on fleabay, and also refurbished single ones or pairs. I recommend them and i'm a sound engineer so i have a clue.

Regarding throat mics, you are going to find that cheap ones are not just shite, but quite possibly so shite as to be unusable, depending on the factors of range, which earpiece/headset or built in speaker, and which handset. There is a reason militaries have generally moved away from using them and bear in mind that a mil spec throat mic is a completely different, more expensive, device than what you get for under £20 which is a couple of condenser mics with a bog standard hi-pass rumble filter = consonants, particularly sibilants, can be easily confused or lost completely. If you don't want to wear a headset, you're better off going with a clip-on mic than a throat mike, unless you're wearing a respirator or a solid mask.

Stay away from Binatone if you can and Cobra aren't much good either.