Please help with two-way radio

[Dougiestyle]

Hey all, just need a little help from the great minds of radio on here. I'm just getting into all of this and I'm very green. Please be gentle... For right now, I'm looking for a two-way radio that will be better than my most recent purchase of the Midland gxt "36 mile" radios. I do know that terrain is everything but they won't get close to what I need. I had some older ones that have worked well for the purpose I bought them for. Now my son and hunt in a place that is several miles through thick woods and the other ones will not work. I bought the newer ones after having done much research and they will not work even close to what we need them to. My son is old enough now to hunt in his own stand but I want to be in contact with him. Cell phone service is not available where we hunt so I was hoping that gmrs was the way to go. Maybe not? Please help me choosing something that will work. Cost is not too big of a deal nor is having to get a license. This stuff is confusing as hell to me.... Lol. I found a baefong? On Amazon that seems to fit the bill but is not FCC certified for what I want I guess. Also, what the hell is a repeater? I know I sound stupid but I'm new at all this. I just want my son to feel safe by being able to contact me if need be but I'm lost. Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

 

[W8RMH]

What is a repeater

A professional grade license free MURS radio like the Motorola RMM2050 would work better than those cheap bubble pack radios. With the included hands-free VOX and a headset you could communicate while wearing gloves and remaining on target. Realistic range up to 220,000 square feet.

A cheaper route would be the BTECH MURS-V1. It is FCC certified for MURS.

If it was me and money didn't matter I would go with the Motorola DTR410 Digital Radio. License Free, 100% Secure, 14+ hour battery life, 300,000 square feet, and meets military 810 C, D, E, and F specifications for shock, vibration, water, dust and temperature extremes. I have used these on a few special ops and they work great.

 

[alcahuete]

There's not a lot that is going to work great through thick woods. VHF is better than UHF when it comes to thick woods, and while the DTR series radios are phenomenal, they will not work worth a darn in thick woods, as the higher you go in frequency, the higher the attenuation.

Some form of VHF radio (like MURS) is going to give you the best results, but there really aren't a lot of handheld radios that are going to get you miles in thick woods.

 

[mformby]

Forget GMRS, which are UHF, and go with VHF radios

Hey all, just need a little help from the great minds of radio on here. I'm just getting into all of this and I'm very green. Please be gentle... For right now, I'm looking for a two-way radio that will be better than my most recent purchase of the Midland gxt "36 mile" radios. I do know that terrain is everything but they won't get close to what I need. I had some older ones that have worked well for the purpose I bought them for. Now my son and hunt in a place that is several miles through thick woods and the other ones will not work. I bought the newer ones after having done much research and they will not work even close to what we need them to. My son is old enough now to hunt in his own stand but I want to be in contact with him. Cell phone service is not available where we hunt so I was hoping that gmrs was the way to go. Maybe not? Please help me choosing something that will work. Cost is not too big of a deal nor is having to get a license. This stuff is confusing as hell to me.... Lol. I found a baefong? On Amazon that seems to fit the bill but is not FCC certified for what I want I guess. Also, what the hell is a repeater? I know I sound stupid but I'm new at all this. I just want my son to feel safe by being able to contact me if need be but I'm lost. Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

Two way radios just won't work through several miles of woods. The only chance you have at all is to get a business license on a VHF frequency and get 5 watt radios. A repeater is a fixed station that "relays" your signal to the other radio. It does need power to operate so that is pretty much out of the question without spending a lot on batteries, antenna, coaxial cable, etc. Your situation is a tough one.