We fall into the trap of sprouting technical stuff on choosing radios, like power, frequency, licence type and ‘cleverness’, but the really important things are often forgotten. Most users view the radios they are given as tools, like being given the most appropriate screwdriver, or hammer.
They want a radio that lets them communicate properly. Watch how people use radios. Some hold them, at arms length, others yell close in. Some people talk into the wrong bit of the radio. Outside, a gentle breeze can sound like a hurricane on some radios. Some have wonderful higher gain antennas, but those need to be held in the clear, vertically oriented. Lots of antennas seem to actually be used horizontally, but the users do not understand this. The antennas that come with most radios are lower performing, but do at least work over a considerable range of angles.
Do you have lots of rain, water and mud? If you do, being able to wash the radios under a running tap is pretty important. Will your people stick the. In a pocket and drop them into water?
Here in the UK, we do not have specific rules that allow or ban certain radios on certain licences. We just have a meet the standard requirement.
I have a local boat yard who have a team of on-shore employees, but they all work over the water. The boats all use marine band. They dont, they use business band. I have been selling them marine radios, every time they lose yet another from pocket to the bottom of the river. I take a marine radio, remove the marine channels and give them the two they have a licence for. The marine radios are waterproof and they float! That is the critical feature, not Watts, or cleverness. They are also small and light enough that they fit in the overall pockets. When the mechanics use the chunky business radios, their pockets in the work gear are not deep enough, and they continually fall out.
This is important. If your users work over concrete, then do you need protection, as in leather cases, or do you select a radio that will survive typical drops, like some of the adverts on this forum? I see more radios that have been broken, rather than ones that are faulty. Radio faults nowadays are almost always user inflicted. If you have careless or plain stupid users, you could spend lots of money but still get radios for the bin. Maybe it would be better to buy cheaper ones and accept the wastage as you do with fuel. Radio broken again? Here is a new one. Brand A might cost you 500 each. Brand B might be 50. If you break and throw away 5 brand B radios in a year, thats half of breaking one expensive one.
My pet hate are belt clips. Some fall off if you cough, others resist all attempts to remove the, from what you have clipped them too. If I look at my hire stock, the worst fairing component is always the antenna. Bent, split, ends missing. How do you pull a radio from your tight pocket? Heave on the antenna. How much are replacements? How do they attach? SMA connectors are small and fragile, the metal screw in studs are pretty strong, so consider this and of course the cost. A fifty quid radio with thirty pound antenna can be a problem.
How about batteries.6 way drop in chargers cost a lot, but are simple for people. Worst are small power supplies and a tiny plug. Individual drop in chargers are in between.
What about batteries? When you buy radios ask your dealer for a few spares. Do NOT put them on the shelf. Introduce them and swap them about. Lifespan on the shelf can be bad. Most modern battery packs will die if left flat. Worst though, is having reliable and long lasting radios and expecting to get a battery pack in five years time. Icom for 40 years have had battery pack sharing between models, so a business radio and an aviation radio had the same pack. I have just managed to get two brand new ones for a 40 year old radio, yet i cannot buy from the manufacturer a pack for a three year old one! Even worse is battery cost, because you can get problems with UPS, Fedex etc. your 50 pound radio might have an individual battery available, at 45 pounds! The postage for the battery inflates it crazily. Some suppliers overseas just describe them as electronic components and the cost is lower, but how much does a fedex cargo plane cost? We should not put lithium cells in jiffy bags!
Im sure others will tell you technical reasons for buying X brand over Y, but dropping a radio onto concrete is by far more relevant for ‘tools’.
Sorry this post was so long, but choosing radios for other people to use is far from simple.
