Help Re Radio Recommendation for upcoming project.

Status
Not open for further replies.

mrmark01

Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2014
Messages
3
Hello all,


First, like to say glad to be here.

Next I hope I am posting in the right area for this message. It is for a project in Ontario.

I have an upcoming situation that I am unsure how to deal with. I have a plant that is approximately
4.5km away from my companies operations centre. Typically when the plant is moving trailers and
stuff around they call my office on the phone and give us the required information so that we can
either let them in or out of the plant. Due to upcoming cutbacks they will be reducing staff and now
there will only be two people on the shift and they won't be able to call over the information to us for
vetting of the transports When we first started doing this we were using Telus Mike network radios.
which were costing us a fortune and the phones would last a couple of months and were costly to replace.
so it was abandoned.

Now here we are coming full circle again and needing to revisit the whole radio issue,

Requirements:

Six radios with rechargeable batteries and charging stations.
Capable of a distance of 7km , be able to transmit from within the plant itself.
Somewhat .rugged to take the normal d2d abuse of plant life. And must not need
a license to operate.

I was thinking something from Motorola or cobra. I of course will defer to you guys the pro's!

Appreciate any and all assistance.

Best regards
mrmark01
 

cabletech

Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
Messages
871
Location
Puget Sound
First off, good luck on your project.

Second since you are in Canada, you are better off contacting a radio vender (or two) in your area and let them help you out on your coverage and needs.

Next forget about Cobra, they are CB and very cheap FRS radios that will not work for you.

Commercial radios by Icom, Kenwood and Vertex are just as good as Motorola.
 

VE3JSO

Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2007
Messages
988
Location
sarnia ont

mrmark01

Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2014
Messages
3
good info

First off, good luck on your project.

Second since you are in Canada, you are better off contacting a radio vender (or two) in your area and let them help you out on your coverage and needs.

Next forget about Cobra, they are CB and very cheap FRS radios that will not work for you.

Commercial radios by Icom, Kenwood and Vertex are just as good as Motorola.

WOW! Never would have though that about Cobra in a million years. That's likely saved me a huge
migraine down the road! Props!. I thought since Cobra was pretty strong in the CB market that this should
have been a cake walk for them.

Thanks for your help Cabletech.
 

mrmark01

Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2014
Messages
3
Solid info.

agreed you are best bet to contact a vendor like spectrum communications and you be able to rent the radios from them and might be able to be under their license but it is best to ask them to be sure other then that you will have to bite the bullet and get a license for a commercial radio and buy them since cb and frs sounds like to be useless to you for your needs
Spectrum Communications - Two Way Radios, Buy, Rent, Answering Service, Pagers, OnQue, Radio Repair

Appreciate the quick response and solid information. I would never have though about the rental angle.

I'll for sure be giving spectrum a call.

Cheers
 

webstar22

RenfrewCountyScanner.com
Feed Provider
Joined
Dec 21, 2003
Messages
999
Location
Ontario, Canada
depending on where you are there are some companies with pretty big trunk radio systems that rent them out.
 

kayn1n32008

ØÆSØ
Joined
Sep 20, 2008
Messages
6,601
Location
Sector 001
Appreciate the quick response and solid information. I would never have though about the rental angle.



I'll for sure be giving spectrum a call.



Cheers


Where are you located? This will help. You said mike phones, are you in BC, Alberta or Ontario?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

sirsmiley

Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2005
Messages
263
Location
Ontario
Id avoid spectrum like the plague. I have done a lot of work with them unfortunately. I would seek other sources for radio providers in my personal opinion. You never mentioned where in Ontario you were which prevents any of us from sending you in the right direction. You also don't receive private messages.
 

Forts

Mentor
Database Admin
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
6,688
Location
Ontario, Canada
It's been my experience that Spectrum will pretty much ignore you if you just have a little project, but they are more than willing on larger jobs. I've tried to contact them a few times about some small projects and didn't once get a reply.
 

VE3JSO

Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2007
Messages
988
Location
sarnia ont
yea but there are other vendors around that will be more then happy i just used spectrum as a example because that the only one that comes to mind
 

Forts

Mentor
Database Admin
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
6,688
Location
Ontario, Canada
Back to the OP's question though. You won't do 7 miles without a repeater, so you will need to be licensed to using a rental. Sometimes there just isn't a cheaper/easier way to do it.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 

sirsmiley

Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2005
Messages
263
Location
Ontario
also it depends on the type of building hes in and its makeup as well as the geography to the tower site/repeater/other location. Is it flat with little buildings? high rises? down a hill in a bowl?

Definitely possible with a repeater if youre outdoors but you might need a voting site inside the factory if youre using portables. maybe a two site conventional system with an IP link. Or youd need a base radio at the factory or something. You could also do a base radio at the factory with a number of remotes (phones mounted on wall). Pick it up and use it as a radio phone...all up to your specific needs really.
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2014
Messages
453
Location
In the Western US Mountains :)
First off, good luck on your project.

Next forget about Cobra, they are CB and very cheap FRS radios that will not work for you.

just thinking in the dark here, but what is the problem with using CB for business anyways ?? its not against any FCC Rules, and it is also very simple line of communications, and I do understand that someone else can very easily hop on your frequency and cause RFI and things like that
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2014
Messages
453
Location
In the Western US Mountains :)
to answer the OP's question,

in order to get handheld to handheld coverage across proximately seven miles or so
you would need a repeater( preferably UHF ) with commercial HTs like others have pointed out to have reliable communications !
 

krokus

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jun 9, 2006
Messages
5,959
Location
Southeastern Michigan
Using CB over that distance is going to be iffy. Using something other than channel 19, no matter what.

A remote operated base might work, using wireline or IP connectivity.

Sent via Tapatalk
 

mikewazowski

Forums Manager/Global DB Admin
Staff member
Forums Manager
Joined
Jun 26, 2001
Messages
13,457
Location
Oot and Aboot
just thinking in the dark here, but what is the problem with using CB for business anyways ?? its not against any FCC Rules, and it is also very simple line of communications, and I do understand that someone else can very easily hop on your frequency and cause RFI and things like that


There are no FCC rules that are valid in Canada.
 

sirsmiley

Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2005
Messages
263
Location
Ontario
Whoever said UHF would be better for this would be incorrect. UHF is affected more line of sight than VHF and is affected greatly by being indoors and has a tendancy to bounce around a lot. VHF would be better for inside the building and getting outdoors. Really though we can speculate all day long but what he really needs is to find a tower site nearby and have a radio company put up a repeater for a day on a test frequency and see what kind of coverage he gets then apply to IC to use something similar.

Without proper testing of both sites you can only theorize.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top