Hi All, I run a lot of community events in Scotland UK and we currently use 2 way radios for better communication in busy events. The issue I’m having is as the events grow, more radios are needed however this causes some issues when not all messages are needing to be heard by everyone. For example during our Firework events We have have Management, Stewards and Display team all on the same channel. I don’t really want to be walking around with 3 radios plus that’s extra radios out of the pool if I do.
We currently run Retevis RT27 which we find operate well, and Fit the over all needs, so here’s my question
Would I be better just have 3 individual radios (2 at most events) or Can I buy something that is cost effective (We don’t have massive funds) and would have min 2 channels to switch between for broadcast but listen to both, as events Director I deal with coms so would only need 1 maybe 2 radios that would work with the RT27’s
My research so far has shown - Radioddity GM-30 GMRS, Wouxun KG-UV9K, Baofeng UV-17 Pro 5W or BTECH GMRS-PRO
I currently hold a UK Business Light Licence so Licenced radios are not a big Issue.
Any helps would be great as I said Money is a massive issue so they have to be cost effective.
Your safety team need a dedicated frequency, and business light (simple) allows this. So make the channel that needs ONLY the safety critical stuff a different frequency. Management and stewards could share a channel but have different tones, so they don’t hear each others calls - however, they cannot talk at the same time. What you could have as management is another channel - the same frequency but no receive tone - so you would hear both management AND stewards. If you hear a manager call, to respond, you would switch to management channel and talk normally. If your radio channel 3 is the listen to both channel, you just need to switch back to 3 to hear 1 AND 2. If the safety team used channel 4 - they would have exclusivity. If somebody transmits FIRE, or worse, DON’T FIRE at the same time a steward called for more toilet rolls, that - if on the same channel - would be bad.
GMRS radios are NOT appropriate in scotland - it’s a US system. OFCOM business licences however, do NOT allow the use of the typical amazon RT27 radios because in the UK they are PMR446 - which is similar to the GMRS/FRS radios in America. Preset channels, so you cannot reprogram. There are, however plenty of Retevis and other makes that are cheaper than the usual big brand makes. Retevis warn dealers NOT to reprogram the RT27 radios from the US with British PMR446 frequencies - the radios being locked down to certain channels and reprogramming can lock them up. If you like retevis look at the RT29 - more powerful and programmable.
Last thing - do you really want to give your people radios with keypads that can do strange things? The ones you list are typical ham products - great radios, but if somebody works out the keypress to unlock the keypad, they can go into all the programming modes, and mess things up! The display saying STEWARDS though, could be great.
Thank you so much for the detailed reply I will look into the RT29, would this work with the RT27 (I Assume some programming would be required) My thoughts now would be RT27 for All (would take a few years to phase out due to funds) with me having Some other radio (I direct the event but am also the display/safety chief), example stewards on channel 1, display team on Channel 2 and management can switch to channel 3 or what ever if required (emergency’s only which are very rare), and I can monitor and broadcast on both 1 and 2
Sorry to be a pest I have no clue past PMR446 which work out of the box and don’t know where else to ask these questions. google and YouTube show mostly Americans which as you pointed out dont work here.
If you can get the software for your radios then you can change the CTCSS programming to be able to hear more things with different tones. I’d advise reading the radio first to make sure it works but then you should be able to alter things to suit and just have more the same model