Central America communication needs

General Discussion
1

I conduct high adventure tours in Central America. Taking novices into a jungle setting requires fool proof portable communications. Currently, I use Motorola CP 200s and have been very pleased with the performance.

I need to buy two high wattage mobile radios for placement in vehicles but they can’t be mounted in the vehicles. Since I use different vehicles each time, I need to be able to carry the radios from car to car. Is anyone aware of a solid (Mil Spec perhaps) portable mobile radio (maybe something in its own carrying case)? What do you think the range would be? Thanks for the advice.

2

There used to be a radio that Motorola made that would be perfect, it was a transportable lunchbox radio built like a brick outhouse called the PT300.

Haven’t seen transportables in decades but what you can do is strap a mobile to a rechargable 12v battery pack like auto store jump start kits and attach a mag mount antenna. You may also find that attaching a mag mount high gain antenna to a 5 watt handheld will make a huge difference as well.

And you might also want to check on whether or not you can operate your radios legally in another country if you haven’t already.