RETC-15 H777 Info/Tips/Tricks?

[TailGator911]

I am about to embark on a family reunion Carnival Cruise (and it will be a circus lol) on the Carnival Magic with 43 members of my wife's family. Her oldest brother paid for everything, 8-day Caribbean cruise, air fare, transportation, etc as he is quite a generous guy. He also bought me (and a few others) a seat in the $100K Blackjack Tournament. He ordered and just rec'd a 25-pack of FRS radios called RETC 15 H777, as he wants one for every cabin we have on the ship. I was unaware of this until he recently informed me (I missed the initial call or I would have suggested the SX327s for the cruise). So, of course, the radio guy here has been assigned the task of coordinating communications for everyone with these radios. My question goes out to you folks familiar with these radios - is there some kind of priority call function/channel where one person can make an announcement and every one will hear it no matter what channel they happen to be on? Yes, I need to sit down and RTFM and figure out a comm plan for us. They look to be very basic no frills walkie-talkies. My wife and I just purchased the 2 Uniden SX327 FRS radios (as suggested by UPMan - thanks!) for us to have exclusive coms between us, but all of us in the group will be using the H777s to coordinate our day-2-day activities. Any info, suggestions, tips or tricks greatly appreciated! Thanks much!

PS/ For those of you familiar with the RETC - 15 H777 radios, how would you rate them on a scale of 1-10?

Also, the radios are already being distributed to the family members as-is. I downloaded the programming software just to fiddle with it, and I would have liked to coordinate them all with a code but that's not happening. Keep in mind that they know nothing about CTCSS or DCS codes, they just want to be able to pick them up and call out on them. I am apprehensive about this because I know there will be numerous FRS radios onboard and the chatter will be constant and the channels busy with other parties. *ack* Again, any info/help appreciated.

JD
kf4anc

 

[alcahuete]

First things first, they are NOT FRS radios. They are not legal for use on GMRS/FRS anyway, even if programmed there, and actually, unless you program them (which it sounds like you are not going to), they are not set by default to operate on FRS frequencies at all. Here is the default frequency list, last I checked:



As well, if you take them off-ship, be sure to follow the laws of whatever country you happen to be in. They will almost definitely not be legal to use there, might be shared with public service, etc.

is there some kind of priority call function/channel where one person can make an announcement and every one will hear it no matter what channel they happen to be on?

No. There is no way to do that.

If the radios are programmed with the above, you're likely not going to hear anyone else at all...pretty much guaranteed. But overall, those are not going to work terribly well on the ship. They are very basic radios and UHF really doesn't work terribly well. If the cabins are close, they should work fine there. They might work fine on the same deck, but definitely don't plan on full-ship coverage or anything like that. Not going to happen.

 

[TailGator911]

Well, thanks for that. And thanks for the channel frequency chart, I was going to look for that.

Yeah, definitely would not have been my choice for family radios, but it wasn't up to me. I'll have to play around with them this week and figure the best way to tell them how to use them. I get the feeling I will be depending on the SX327s more than these H777s.

 

[alcahuete]

You're welcome! To be honest, if you programmed them for FRS, I don't think most people would know or care, even though they aren't compliant. But I personally would not use them on their default frequencies. Those are in the business band and who knows what they might interfere with.

But really, that's probably the best thing about those radios. The FRS/GMRS bands are usually packed on cruise ships, so the SX327s are probably going to get plenty of interference. The CTCSS/DCS is not going to eliminate co-channel interference. So they might just work better than the actual FRS radios.

But as I said, there would be no way I would use those default frequencies.

 

[TailGator911]

I am going to make some phone calls in the AM and see if there is any way I can rectify this situation. See what happens.

 

[alcahuete]

I am going to make some phone calls in the AM and see if there is any way I can rectify this situation. See what happens.

Sounds good. I don't know if you plan on taking your laptop on the cruise, but there is usually some downtime between boarding and the safety drills. Once you have your setup in CHIRP, you could very easily program every radio on board in probably 30-45 minutes. Just copy the same thing into all of them.