My cousin and his wife just bought some stables on 80 Acres in the Virgina Hills and they say the cell reception is horrible and are considering some 2-way radios to communicate across the grounds. They only need 2-3 units to start with and range only needs to be about 10-15 miles (Actual miles, not like how the Wal-Mart ones claim 10+ miles but it’s actually BS). Ideally, not on a system, just programmed to talk to each other, but I’m not sure if that is even really possible. Something lower cost like Kenwood, Vertex or other line, I have a feeling Moto is a bit rich for him. There is some Dense Forest but these will mainly be used in the open fields.
Any advice to point them in the right direction would be helpful.
Thanks.
Not really going to happen with just FRS/GMRS handhelds, especially considering trees and hills.
That being said, one of them might (depending on how much they want to invest) be able to get a GMRS license ($85 for 5 years, all family members are covered) and an antenna on a tower put on a hill that’s centrally located for best line-of-sight “coverage,” connected to a GMRS repeater/base station, and a few of the GMRS repeater channel capable handhelds.
I’ll let the experts here give further opinions, options and/or recommendations, just in case, of course.
Sorry for the bad news, and good luck.
Like Wrend said, GMRS would be the cheapest way to go because of the inexpensive licensing. However, GMRS is UHF and not friendly to a lot of vegetation. VHF works better but you would have to get a commercial/business license and a tower/repeater like he said. No portable will talk 10-15 miles direct radio to radio. I don’t know what the current price is for a license. You might check that out at fcc.gov. And don’t rule Motorola out. They are very competitive on their equipment pricing now.