Beginner questions

General Discussion
1

Hi Guys,

I’ve recently been really interested into walkie talkies and began researching into GMRS, FRS, PMR, etc.
Being a newbie, I hope that some questions can be answered by some of more experienced people in this forum.

I have the following Walkie Talkies currently at hand:

  1. Motorola T5500 (FRS/GMRS) Family Use
  2. Motorola T4503 (PMR) Family Use
  3. Alcom FX-79 (PMR) Family Use
  4. Shouao TS-228 (I dont know what is it called. But frequency can be adjusted 400mhz-480mhz) Convoy Driving
  5. Unier F8 (400mhz-470mhz) Convoy Driving

The questions that i have are,

  1. What are those walkie talkies that frequency can be adjusted called ? UHF Walkie Talkies ?

  2. I understand that walkie 1, 3 , 4 can be connected while 2,3,4 and 5 can be connected. Am I right to say that ?

  3. Would we be able use any frequencies like 424.3439 or something if its not used ? Or even if i get those UHF walkies, i would still have to stick to GMRS frequencies ?

  4. I want to purchase another walkie that I would be able to use mainly for driving and occasionally link up with the PMRs, or FRS/GMRS talkies. So i suppose i should be looking for a UHF walkie talkie. Correct me if I’m wrong.

If so, what do you guys have to recommend ? I definitely am looking for one with the ability to change frequency on the set itself rather than having to connect to a computer. I have done alot of research and have found the following brands. Do all of you recommend to go for the more recognized sets like motorola, yaesu, etc? Otherwise I would just look at the cheap brands like Puxing or Linton.

I hope you guys can give some advice to me as i’m still a beginner starting to enter the walkie talkie fun !

Thank all in advance.

Cheers
Nycky

2

Unfortunately, I am a beginner myself to an extent. I will however, from experience, inform you that I have seen FRS/GMRS radios not perform well at all (only a couple blocks or slightly more in vehicles). I will say that everything I have read online suggests that MURS radios, operating between 150 and 154MHz (might not be completely accurate on frequencies). But being a VHF frequency, it should have a very reasonable range in urban settings and particularly In a convoy situation. Sorry if I didn’t answer your question entirely. As I said I’m new as well but saw nobody posted for you yet and I have no posts on mine I figured I’d try to help out as much as I can. I have been looking at some motorola radios on the ecommerce site at the top of the page. The other nice thing about MURS is that the radios, while limited to 2 watts of output power, have only small restrictions on antennas (you can use an external antenna up to 20 feet taller than your vehicle). I believe the motorola radios on the ecommerce site have a removable antenna you could hook up an external antenna to.

3

FMR/GMRS = pre- programmed UHF radios for use in the US (curently, license required for using GMRS portion of frequencies (radios usually transmit at higher wattage on those frequencies)
PMR = radios for use on frequencies allocated in Europe.
MURS = VHF radio service in the US.
4 & 5 = programmable radios= basically illegal for use, at least in the US with the possible exception of licensed Ham (Amateur) Radio operators.