I am happy I found this forum. Looking to get recommendations on new radios for our needs.
I am a wedding photographer/videographer currently using 6 Midland GXT1000VP4 Radios with the secret service style ear pieces for communicating with my crew. We are normally at hotels with many floors and large banquet halls.
At times the radios work great but many times we have the following problems.
-We hear lots of chatter (biggest complaint)
-Even though we charged them when we turn them on sometimes the battery is dead (maybe faulty battery or weak life)
-Not durable and when dropped sometimes parts break off.
-The midland ear pieces, although cheap at $10 each don’t last long and need to be replaced. Also for my ears they are not the most comfortable but I really like how I don’t feel like my head is underwater and I can still hear out of that ear.
Based on our needs what are the best radios for us to purchase? Ideally we just want something that is powerful with strong signal and could stay on for 16 hours without the battery dying.
Essentially, you are trying to use inexpensive consumer radios and expecting professional results. It would be like me using a point-and-shoot camera to shoot a wedding instead of an expensive DSLR and high-quality lenses.
Consumer radios are cheap and if one drops and breaks, you buy another one. When the inexpensive batteries stop holding a charge in a year or two, you buy another one. When the earpiece fails, you buy another one.
They also have very low audio output and consumer-level speakers - which is one of the reasons why you are spending $70 on a pair and not $200 each.
So my question to you is … do you REALLY want to go professional? I am sure there are others here who can guide you on some alternate consumer-level radios and you MIGHT get a bit more satisfaction out of them. But if you are serious about your profession, and serious about your gear (as I suspect you are) then it is time to look for proper business radios.
If that’s the case, we have lots of suggestions, and many of them don’t always involve having to obtain your own dedicated business frequencies. But none of them will be $70 a pair. (Or even $70 each for that matter.)
I don’t do weddings but my operation has similar needs. I have half dozen DTR radios and I depend on them to keep people safe. They MUST be reliable, and I was willing to pay the money to get the best digital licence-free radio on the market. I have never regretted that decision for a second.
I am looking to buy something that lasts. So yeah I don’t mind spending money for these as it will be worth the investment. With so many types on the market I am simply looking for the best and wanted guidance on which ones to choose from for my business.
You have several choices if you want to minimize or eliminate interference.
#1 - You can apply for your own frequency and obtain a licence. Depending on what country you live in, that can be fairly simple (but it will cost you some money.)
Once you have your own private frequency, you can access any of the good quality business radios such as the ones listed in our forum host’s site. They have better components, better speakers, higher audio output and many of them are weather- and shock-resistant.
#2 - You can find the best quality consumer-grade FRS/GMRS radios on the market. There are some higher end models such as the Midland GXT5000. Keep in mind you are still subject to every kid in a 6-block radius being able to interfere, and as good as it is, this is still a consumer-level radio.
#3 - You can look at MURS radios. They all share five VHF frequencies, but they tend to be less crowded than FRS/GMRS radios in certain areas, mostly because most MURS radios are more expensive business-grade radios. Motorola makes the highly-regarded RMM2050 in a MURS version. Listen to some sound samples and you can immediately hear the difference in readability between consumer-grade and business-grade radios. VHF tends to propagate better outdoors.
#4 - The ultimate licence-free military-grade radio is the digital Motorola DTR series. The DTR410, DTR550 and DTR650 are essentially the same radio; they differ slightly in firmware and antenna configurations. They broadcast on the unlicenced 900 MHz UHF band and will propagate better indoors. Because they don’t broadcast on any one fixed frequency for longer than a few milliseconds, they cannot be monitored by anyone else (unless they also have a DTR … AND are set to the same channel and unit ID, of which there are about 1000 combinations.)
Because they are digital, you can actually call up anyone else in your group and talk to them privately, while leaving the channel free for others to talk. They are not cheap but they are the highest quality licence-free radio you are going to find. You will find hundreds of good quality surveillance headsets available for them.
If your work involves indoors and out, personally I would go with the 900 MHz DTRs.
As others have said above the DTR radios are probably your best bet when you have indoor locations. MURS is fine outdoors, but the wavelength is wider than the typical doorway or window. When in a concrete or metal walled structure those are the only ways for the signal to strongly propagate. The difference is that DTR is like trying to walk through a doorway carrying a small ruler lengthwise in front of you while MURS is like trying to pass through that same doorway with a yardstick or mop handle. I also have a quick fix for those radios you believe aren’t charging. They probably are, but when allowed to completely discharge don’t come back on after a charge. Do a hard power up by leaving them switched on and removing and replacing the battery. You are probably reducing the battery life by leaving them to charge longer than 12 hours because you believe them to be dead. The chargers that come with those Midland units are a slow battery cooker after they reach full charge.