I need to invest in a 2 way radio solution that will help my IT team for events or troubleshooting on our campus. We have a few buildings mostly made of concrete and steel. The largest one is 120,000 sq-ft but the others are smaller and within 1/4 mile of the main building. We need to communicate from a basement on one end of the large building (server room) to closets on the other end which goes through multiple concrete walls and floors.
FRS/GMRS radios obviously get heavy static at times and add to the stress if something is down and we’re trying to fix it.
I’m looking for 2 to 3 rechargeable units that can penetrate concrete more reliably (UHF or 900 Mhz?). We won’t use them every day but when we do we might need 8 or so hours of battery. I could live with buying more radios and swapping them out of for charging if needed. Accessories like headsets might be nice at events (we do concerts and live broadcasting). I’m willing to get a license if necessary and have a lot of scanner programming experience from auto racing, but not much on 2 ways.
Willing to spend $500 - $1000 or so next year, perhaps on Moto DTR410’s or 650s. But need something quickly to get us through the end of the year and the TriSqure TSX300’s look decent for the low price. Worth trying perhaps for the price.
I’ve been searching the forums and see those recommended for this type of need but most posts I’ve found are dated and didn’t know if there was anything newer out there I’m not finding.
Also UHF vs the 900 Mhz is a big question that I might not be able to know the answer until we try them, but any experience or recommendations would be nice.
TriSquare is now out of business, so Motorola is your only choice for digital spread-spectrum radios. (The TriSquare radios never were digital though.)
The DTR series is designed for exactly what you need them for. I would highly recommend that you look at the DTR550, with maybe one DTR650 for its management functions.
The 650 is exactly the same as the 550, but has a slightly larger battery and it has management features such as the ability to remotely open another radio’s mic or send a remote time code to coordinate all your radios.
But here’s a little secret. The DTR410 has the same management features as the 650. It uses a fixed stubby antenna instead of the replaceable regular antenna of the 550/650, so range is not quite as good as the others (but will still easily beat any bubble-pack FRS or GMRS on the market.) When I bought my radios, I got four DTR550s plus one DTR410.
The biggest single factor that drew me to the DTR radios and the reason why I love them more and more every time I use them is the clarity of the transmission.
The clarity of the DTR radios is noticeable. When you compare the audio samples of the DTR410 and DTR550 with some of the analog radios on the Business Two Way Radio Audio Sample Comparison Chart, you can hear the difference.
Interestingly enough, that slight ‘digital’ sound that you hear in the audio samples of the DTR radios doesn’t come across in actual use. Voices sound both clear and natural.
Maybe it’s a combination of the digital transmission together with the audio compression used to record or reproduce it for the web?