Walkie Talkies
Welcome to our site. If you are buying a Walkie Talkie, we outline the best brands, how to get the greatest clarity and range from your device as well as essential features to make your Walkie Talkie the easiest to use.
Popular Uses of a Walkie Talkie
A Walkie Talkie is fantastic for keeping in touch over relatively short distances. We outline several popular uses below:
1. A Mobile Phone Alternative: In areas where cell phone coverage is poor, Walkie Talkies are a great alternative. Hikers, outdoorsmen, and others in similar situations opt for a Walkie Talkie to stay in touch with.
2. Domestic Dialogue: Walkie Talkies are even handy around the home. Instead of yelling across the house or waiting for a cell phone to find coverage, dial the number, and the other person to answer the call, a Walkie Talkie will allow instant communication.
3. Baby Monitors: Baby monitors are really just Walkie Talkie technology, with the items always turned on.
4. Cruising on Seas: Cruise ships, which can often reach up to more than 1100 feet long, are also locations that make a Walkie Talkie the optimal communication devices.
5. Car Convoy: Cars in a convoy can also rely on Walkie Talkies to stay in touch with each other.
6. Crime Response: Police and Private Security often use Walkie Talkies for communicating across city blocks, stadiums, or neighborhoods.
Best of all, Walkie Talkies allow individuals to remain in constant vocal contact without the pauses and connection problems of cell phones and the coverage that they rely on.
What is the Range of a Walkie Talkie?
A Walkie Talkie can communicate up to 35 miles, according to some manufacturers. However, this is based on the idea of two people standing on mountaintops with a clear line of sight, 35 miles from each other. In reality, valleys, city streets full of steel cars, tall buildings, and other radio wave-unfriendly objects cut a Walkie Talkie range down drastically. Realistic ranges are 1 to 2 miles, but count on less than a mile in crowded urban areas.
Tips to Improve the Clarity and Performance of a Walkie Talkie
There are several ways to improve clarity and performance of a Walkie Talkie.
1. Investing in a model with an automatic channel scan will greatly improve voice clarity, as you can transmit with the highest quality without having to make any annoying adjustments while you talk.
2. A Walkie Talkie will perform best when they have an unobstructed line of sight between them. Since this is rarely possible in realistic settings, buying a Walkie Talkie that operates on UHF frequencies are best, since they are not as liable to the static and traffic that simple garden-variety Walkie Talkies are.
3. Make sure to also get one with a decent battery life, since many Walkie Talkie models can only last a few hours.
Popular Walkie Talkie Brands and Price Guide
Reliable brand names that manufacture Walkie Talkie are Motorola, Midland, Cobra, and Uniden. While each brand has a number of models, our view is that the Uniden brand range on average costs slightly more-per set but offers many more features and reliability. Motorolas on the other hand are cheaper but do not have channel scan and have a significantly lower range. The devil is in the detail and as such we advocate going to multiple online retailers to review the features offered and customer feedback.
Does My Walkie Talkie Need a Licence?
Family Radio Service (FRS) are channels 8-14 on a Walkie Talkie and are free for everyone to use. General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) channels require a license to use, which costs $75. This license will allow use on channels with less traffic and better clarity. For most domestic purpose, the FRS channels will be more than sufficient.
Essential Features
It goes without saying that ease of use is the most important to receiving maximum enjoyment from your Walkie Talkie. However, we outline ten key features below that are a must-have in the specifications of your chosen Walkie Talkie.
1. Audio Quality – Needs to be Clear and Loud
2. Outdoor Range – Needs to be 1+ miles
3. Built-in Flashlight – A helpful feature when you go hunting, camping or out late at night.
4. Hands Free Operation – an essential feature if you use the Walkie Talkie as a baby monitor
5. Call Button – Like a phone, means the other Walkie Talker can be paged.
6. Emergency Button – Alerts the other Walkie Talkie if you are in trouble.
7. Weather Channels – the ability to tune in to recorded weather information is essential for outdoor sports.
8. Privacy Codes – The greater the number of codes, the lesser the chance of interference from other Walkie Talkies.
9. Auto Scan – Ensures the clearest channel is used
10. Vibration Feature – Very useful if you are in a noisy area
Thanks to high competition between manufactures and advances in the technology, prices continue to fall so you can great value for money. Buying a Walkie Talkie has never been more purposeful and cheaper.