Do you know how well the TSX300’s will work as an off-roading between-vehicle communication system? I’d rather have something that is more portable than a CB radio. Most often times the longest distance from front of the pack to the back is about 1/2 mile or so. Wasn’t sure how much the confinements of a vehicle would restrict the signals.
From what I’ve experienced, they should do okay.
Greetings to all-new here.
My church just bought four of these radios for use by the security unit. It has fallen on me to set the radios up.
I find that the manual is very unclear about how to do this. Our goal is to simply put all four radios on a group net, so all four can hear each other and talk to each other-like a simplex 2-way radio net. I followed the directions to program in a group channel, but find that the radios don’t always hear each other, even when sitting next to each other on the desk. Also, sometimes a general transmssion is registered as a private call or call waiting transmission, or the net goes into standby mode where everything freezes up.
What am I missing here? Your assistance gratefully accepted, but please remember that I’m an old geek and don’t get the current digi-speak lingo—small words with two or fewer syllables, please. 
And THANK YOU!
Bob
The most I have done is 3…
A couple of comments on batteries:
The supplied battery packs are 4.8 volts (4 cells, presumably AAA). For amateur handheld radios, transmitter power varies with voltage; if the same is true for these radios, the range should be maximized with the supplied battery packs.
The radios do seem to be power hogs when compared with the FRS radios I’m familiar with. Using 3 AA NiMH cells, of whatever Ampere-hour rating, may give less range, but if the range is adequate for your use the AA cells should give longer life per charge.
You’re completely right. The 750 mAH packs are just a bit short-lived.
I am using 3x 2300 mAH NiMH AA (Energizer Recharge) cells in mine. The battery charge indicator stays at 2 out of 3 bars, but it stays there seemingly forever, compared to the supplied battery packs.
I’d rather have a bit less output for a much longer operating time. I have seen no appreciable loss of range using these NiMH batteries. Your mileage may vary, of course. 
I still carry the supplied packs as a backup, but I have yet to have the rechargeables give out on me after a (long) day of heavy use.
It’s a trade-off, but one I am fully willing to accept. 
EDIT: Corrected 2000 to 2300 and added “Energizer Recharge.”
The supplied packs got mr through a day of use… but I agree… If you use your own rechargeables, there will be no loss of range, and you will get better performance insofar as use times. It is good they allow the use of both their packs and standard AA cells. I hate being confined to proprietary battery packs.
The supplied packs seem to be hit-or-miss in terms of quality… Some users are saying they hold a charge well and some are saying otherwise…
I’ve been using “Proper charge cycling” and I have one pack that has basically given up. It takes a charge, but will not go longer than about ten minutes of use before it is dead.
I’ll contact tech support and see if they’ll send a new one. 
It’s not really that big a deal to me because I use higher capacity rechargeables anyway. 
Now, for my review of the products:
OUTSTANDING!!! Need I say more? Since 2005, my father and I take a trip annually to Oshkosh, WI for the big EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) Airshow with my two kids. We each have cell phones, but with the volume of people clogging up the towers, its usually hard to get a call to go through. So, every year we have resorted to using two-way communication because its quicker and more convenient. However, the problem has always been people walking on us and having a hard time finding an empty channel. I have used everything from Motorola Talkabouts to Uniden to most recently the Garmin Rino series. The Rino’s seemed to work a little better because of the GMRS side of the FRS radios. Also, the GPS feature was kinda cool wheras I could locate either the kids or my dad by their signal and not be giving locations to every Tom, Dick or Harry. However, the biggest problem has been the range and still everyone using the same channels. Everyone brags about their range, but nobody ever has it.
UNTIL NOW!! The TSX300 units that I used were every bit as good as they say and more!! These units worked flawlessly and outperformed every radio I have ever used. Not only was the range great, but not having to listen to everyone’s channels and conversations was a blessing. There is nothing worse than listening to some one else’s whining kid on MY RADIO!! I even had coverage in most buidings / Hangars that I went into without disruption. I even had people asking what channel I was on because they couldn’t find an empty channel. Also, several people confused the radios for a new cell phone. Now, there were some times when the transmission was static filled, but that is to be expected on a two mile distance with a lot of aircraft and buidings in the path. They even out performed a set of Kenwood Pro-Talk TK-2100 VHF professional radios. WOW!!!
Now I can’t wait to try these out during hunting season with the silent feature and the texting. I WILL BE RECOMMENDING THESE LITTLE GUYS TO ANYONE THAT IS LOOKING FOR TWO-WAY RADIOS!!
Glad to hear you like your radios No more interference!!!
check local laws to make sure two way radios are legal for hunting (in Ohio they are not)
Imagine doing Disney with no annoying call tones… Even on GMRS, where licenses are required… no kids with their stuff… I’m glad I let my GMRS license expire… The
TSX300s are where it’s at…
I have seen the tsx300s in two stores now. Once at Frys and The Source. Both times I saw a package that had been opened and taped shut. To me that signaled someone bought them and returned them out of disappointment.
Being intrigued by the digital claim I googled and found this forum to
answer questions that came to mind…power and modulation method. I’ve been a ham for over 20 years and have experimented extensively on the 70cm band (440 MHz which is close to the FRS/GMRS band).
I don’t agree with Trisquares ‘power doesn’t matter’ pitch on the UHF band. I had a pair of 1 watt GMRS radios and gave them away after getting a 5 watt pair. The 5 watt pair does not loose contact on our 5km walks where as the 1 watt ones did. I’ve used my ham handhelds and had the same experience with the 1 watt and 5 watt settings using analog FM modulation. The SSB or digital modes are a different matter. We could extend the range 5 fold using this (QRP) mode with the same power levels.
So what what modulation method does Trisquares use, I find out from this forum it’s analog FM, not a digital method.
Shame on you Trisquare for calling TSX1000 or TSX300 ‘Digital’ for being misleading. They should be called Hydrid at best. When you do come out with a real digital radio then I will give it a try.
Nice that you have brought to market a solution for crowded areas but don’t mislead people into thinking power doesn’t matter and that these are digital modulation.
I have seen the tsx300s in two stores now… Frys and The Source. Both times I saw a package that had been opened and taped shut. To me that signaled someone returned them out of disappointment.
Being intrigued by the digital claim I found this forum to answer questions that came to mind…power and modulation method. I’ve been a ham for over 20 years and like most hams have experimented extensively on the 70cm band (440 MHz which is close to the FRS/GMRS band).
I don’t agree with Trisquares ‘power doesn’t matter’ pitch on the UHF band. I had a pair of 1 watt GMRS radios and gave them away after getting a 5 watt pair. The 5 watt pair does not loose contact on our 5km walks where as the 1 watt ones did. I’ve used my ham handhelds and had the same experience with the 1 watt and 5 watt settings using analog FM modulation. The SSB or digital modes are a different matter. We could extend the range 5 fold using this (QRP) mode with the same power levels.
So what what modulation method does Trisquares use, I find out from this forum it’s analog FM, not a digital method.
Shame on you Trisquare for calling the TSX1000 or TSX300 ‘Digital’. That’s just plain misleading! They should be called Hydrid at best. When you do come out with a real digital radio then I will give it a try.
Nice that you have brought to market a solution for crowded areas but don’t mislead people into thinking power doesn’t matter and that the TSX1000 or TSX300 are using digital modulation.
All buildings are different in construction. It depends on how much metal, wiring, etc. is in there. There is no set answer to your question. You really have to try them to find out. If they don’t, then you have a nice set of family radios.
@jwilkers - Your test is amazing, your parameters set for an average everyday Joe’s usage of these hand helds is perfect. I’d like to add on a bit if you would indulge me so. I live in Little Rock, AR and in the past few days have ridden around with a friend of mine who is a broadcast engineer. So I mention to him that I have a pair of radios I’d like to test. Let me be clear here, we all know that when inside a car, attenuation is horrible. So no, no car to car tests were performed.
In short, I had my friend stand at a transmitter site on Shinall Mountain, and I drove across the river to a place on Pinnacle Mountain. Best guess is about 4.5 miles. At this distance I could see my friend standing at the base of the tower I left him at, he could see me… just barely as we were very small figures to each other, but we could see each other’s waving hands, and confirmed by cell phone.
Armed with my TSX300 and he with one too… we tried to communicate. At this distance, it was if the radios were only a few feet apart. We were 100% clear line of sight, zero obstructions with very very clear audio. Texting worked well also.
Our second test consisted of us moving to the old TCBY Sky Scraper which is now the Metropolitan National Bank Tower, where he has another transmitter site he administers on top of the building 40+ stories up, what a great view of our city from up there. Again, he had a TSX300 and so did I. I went back inside, and proceeded down the elevator, stopping at each floor. I finally lost him the floor before the lobby. Once I got the the lobby, I reacquired signal and continued our test. I stepped outside, looked up and could still hear my friend on top of the tower. Amazing, amazing, amazing.
Sadly tho this is where it ends, he had to get back to work. We are planning another day for “longest distance possible” testing. Probably mostly obstruction free.
*** RANT ***
We get it, people read things on the internet and I want to clarify a few things here, right now. Yes, the TSX300 and their kin are NOT… NOT secure. Secure means “cannot be monitored”. With that being said the TSX300 and their kin are not easily monitored because of how they hop frequencies. You CAN monitor them, but they are marketed as secure (which I hate marketing btw) because the average person will not have a near field scanner, or a frequency counter in their possession, and furthermore if they did they would not be following each TSX300 user everywhere they go.
So let’s all stop now the debate… stop the so called “Google Pundits” and let’s just get back to talking about these great little radios.
And for what it’s worth, if you want secure communications, I mean truly secure… join the Army. Don’t use an off the shelf radio, Trisquare, Motorola, and Icom alike. They can all be scanned given enough time and tenacity.
*** RANT ***
Thanks for your interest and your input. Please keep us posted with any further testing you do.
I shall… and reading back on my last… I must have been in my Ambien cloud. Shew. Yea we have a planned outing this weekend. Testing in Walmart, Kroger, and our local mall with 2 levels. I’ll post my crude data once I have it.
And while I’m at it, I want to post an undying THANK YOU to Trisquare and their amazing staff. They have donated 2 pairs of TSX300’s to me for a school project. I have figured out (I think) an impromptu that can be made semi-permanent TSX300 repeater pair, without using private channels. They’ve even gone so far as to tell me the channels I should use on the pair as to avoid the most interference and de-sense. I’ll post this data in the next month or so.
Again, THANK YOU Trisquare for supporting a student and his class project!!!
Good deal!