I am looking for some advice as I admit this area is not of my expertise and information on the internet is thick and hard to get through.
I operate a large camp in the PA mountains. I need the best 2 way radios I can get my hands on. I have been buying the motorola radios for years and with 40 plus summer guides I go trough a lot of them. I know there are limitations because of topography and forest, but is there a radio that performs better than most? I need about a dozen that will communicate with one another and reach as far as possible.
I don’t know what you have been using in the past, but a Motorola CP200, VHF, should provide years of dependable service. Again you did not state the area required to cover so you may need a repeater.
Radio to radio, the performance differences are small. Changing aerials often produces a bit better performance, especially if the radios, like motorolas have slightly smaller aerials, designed for putting pockets rather than greater distance. Bigger aerials can have a bit of gain built in, and there are quite a few available for most makes. If you want to up distance and reliability of communications generally, you need a repeater, on the highest location you can find. Most can be stuck in a case and run off car/leisure batteries and will make big differences to the system.
As long as you understand that the best two-way radio in the world cannot refute the laws of physics - meaning, all VHF and UHF radios are essentially line-of-sight reception - and you don’t have the need for a repeater, I suggest you check out the Motorola DLR1020 and DLR1060. They are licence-free UHF radios that use a unique frequency-hopping algorithm and are virtually private. They have about the best range of any digital business radio and have clarity and range matched only by the Motorola DTR series. They are also very well built and should last several seasons.
I have a fleet of DTR radios and am a HUGE fan of this frequency-hopping, spread-spectrum digital technology, but I am very impressed with the new DLR radios. You will be too.
They are not in any way a consumer FRS or GMRS radio, but if your needs are for business or critical communication and you are willing to pay double the cost for four times the quality and capability, they are worth a look.
The trouble with any system that has “reach as far as possible” in the specification, is the fact that location of individual radios is unpredictable. Plonk a repeater in the centre of the coverage areas, and the range is from that point to the furthest portable. Worst case is doubling the distance with a portable one side and another 180 degrees on the other side of the repeater aerial. Anyone in the circle has good comms with any other. Once you increase the height of the base station range goes up, for everyone, and surplus signal enables less dead spots.
Analogue and digital benefit. The only problem I’ve found with digital is that they’re very much a work or not work solution. They’re pretty good with weak signals until that moment when they are not! An experienced radio user recognises the increase in noise in analogue systems as the limits are reached, and by moving the radio or orientation slightly, they can maximise it. Digital just stops. I do like digital for it’s quality and reliability - when you are working in higher signal areas. In the mountains (I think we have a couple here in England) obstacles to RF are common. A crackly intermittent signal on an analogue radio does encourage you to pick it up and hold it over your head. Digital either works or doesn’t, and warnings are completely missing.
If you can afford them, they’re worth considering - but in difficult country - radio to radio is so limiting. I’m involved with hiring all kinds of radio equipment, and part of my license is to do with testing and demonstrating. Considering I live and work in a very flat, low lying area, I’m often surprised how small back to back ranges can be. I sent one of our guys to a local store - If I stand on the roof here, on the top of a low rise, I can see the roof of this large store. Our low power free radios were on a shelf and he grabbed one to ask me questions in the store. He phoned me instead as they didn’t work. On Google maps the store is half a mile away. Line of sight building to building. A week later he did the trip again, and took a 5W business radio - I had the other sitting on the desk. A very weak and noisy signal. I doubt digital would have even perked up and made a noise - the signal was just too weak. The point I’m making is that if reliable comms, maybe for safety purposes is needed in difficult terrain - then line of sight becomes a problem, and signal strengths need increasing.
I suspect I would go for cheaper radios and the repeater rather than expensive radios and no repeater. Just my own thoughts, of course.
My experience is the opposite. I use analog business-class UHF radios every day, and I have my own fleet of digital UHF radios.
Cheap, disposable consumer-quality radios are just that … disposable. They are not designed for the heavy use that the poster was asking about.
I also think it is unlikely he wants to go to the cost and work of setting up a repeater. It sounds to me like he wants high-quality radios with the best range possible that one can unpack, turn on and talk.
Yes, digital are a work/no work proposition. But they send out a handshake signal and you will know before you start talking if there are no radios in range. This means NO wasted time transmitting to dead air in the HOPE that someone can hear you. No more, “Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?” If you get a confirmation tone, the digital signal will be 100% clear.
While it sounds like analog would have an advantage in the fringe areas, I found the opposite is true. Digital radios like the DTR/DLR series beat all analog VHF and UHF radios for range in actual conditions. I have tested them side-by-side, and this is how I know that the DTR/DLR radios even beat VHF outdoors; places where VHF is supposedly superior to UHF.
I just got plain tired of saying 20 times in a row, “Say again. Say again. say again …” etc. In my head-to-head range tests, the digital radios were still 100% clear when the analogs were unrecognizable static.
I take your point but range is what he’s after, isn’t it? The job tonight is in a big steel framed building and the motorolas really struggle. I only have three digital radios so far and here they are truly unreliable. What kind of radio to radio ranges are you getting?
If you wanna know there is a radio that performs better than most ,you need to let us know your requirements. There is never a brand of radio is the best or greatest,as long as the radio meet your requirements that it is the best .