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Cody s
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Cody s
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PostSun Sep 13, 2009 12:04 pm 
Hi, Long time reader, first time poster. I am looking into buying some cobra micro talk Two way radio's to replace my motorola's. Any one have experience with these radio's? Any help would be appreciated.

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Traildad
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PostTue Sep 15, 2009 5:27 am 
I am not much help on the Cobra current models but we have a set of older Cobras which have always worked quite well. They were quite effective a couple of summers ago when we had two separate groups of Scouts on a multi-day Ross Lake canoe trip and we needed to check in with each other a couple of times daily.

Life is short so live it well.
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yowzer
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PostTue Sep 15, 2009 5:16 pm 
The radio geek in me says to get ham licenses and some 2-meter handhelds, which gives you a much larger choice in frequency than FRS radios (The modern 'walkie-talkie') as well as better range.

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Cody s
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PostTue Sep 15, 2009 7:23 pm 
Do people use ham radio's here? I have them for use in disaster situations and when I am in the desert, but have never thought about them for backcountry use.

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yowzer
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PostFri Sep 18, 2009 8:19 am 
Cody s wrote:
Do people use ham radio's here? I have them for use in disaster situations and when I am in the desert, but have never thought about them for backcountry use.
In case of problems, they're usable in areas where cell phones aren't. Given a choice between a radio and a PLB, I'd probably go with the radio unless it's a really remote area. There was a case last summer where a guy with a broken leg managed to get help thanks to carrying a (Very small, possibly homemade, morse code only) HF ham radio. IIRC, he raised somebody in a different state. There are quite a few hiking areas west of the Cascades along I-90, us 2, and the mountain loop highway where it's possible to hit a repeater with a 2m handheld.

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Criminal
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PostFri Sep 18, 2009 9:36 am 
yowzer wrote:
Cody s wrote:
Do people use ham radio's here? I have them for use in disaster situations and when I am in the desert, but have never thought about them for backcountry use.
In case of problems, they're usable in areas where cell phones aren't. Given a choice between a radio and a PLB, I'd probably go with the radio unless it's a really remote area. There was a case last summer where a guy with a broken leg managed to get help thanks to carrying a (Very small, possibly homemade, morse code only) HF ham radio. IIRC, he raised somebody in a different state. There are quite a few hiking areas west of the Cascades along I-90, us 2, and the mountain loop highway where it's possible to hit a repeater with a 2m handheld.
I often take my handheld ham radio on hikes for a couple different reasons. First, since mine is modded I can use it on GMRS and FRS freqs, and keep in touch when there's a lot of friends strung out along the trail. Second, I use it for emergency comms and sometimes just to make contacts while in camp. Wait, that's three things. On a recent hike to Big Hump along the Duckabush Trail, we used radios to keep in touch with the hikers who got ahead of us, important since we couldn't remember where to leave the established trail. While talking on the VHF common frequency, I made contact with a new ham, a 10 year old girl, all the way out on Mercer Island. A friend who knew we'd be out dug out his VHF equipment (he's primarily an HF guy) and spoke to us from Bremerton. Those were both over 40 miles away and this was without the use of a repeater. With a repeater all of western Washington is available. A ham radio license is a lot cheaper than a GMRS license too.

Because I am mad about women, I am mad about the hills Said that wild old wicked man, who travels where God wills. - Yeats topohiker.com
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509
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PostFri Sep 18, 2009 10:57 am 
Cody s wrote:
Hi, Long time reader, first time poster. I am looking into buying some cobra micro talk Two way radio's to replace my motorola's. Any one have experience with these radio's? Any help would be appreciated.
We use them camping and hunting to get everybody back to the rig or boat at the same time. Do NOT buy the one's that run on AAA batteries. Their life is much, much shorter than the AA's ones. My friend had motorola's and bought some cobra's. He's back to the motorola's due to the power issue with the AAA batteries. The channels on the radio's do NOT necessarily match the frequency that radio is broadcasting on. For example, Channel 1 on my Midlands is NOT Channel 1 on the Motorola's. Keep the owners manual that gives you the frequencies so you can find the match. You can also do the same with the scan function.

Retired Forester....rambling round www.usbackroads.blogspot.com
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Criminal
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PostFri Sep 18, 2009 2:11 pm 
509 wrote:
The channels on the radio's do NOT necessarily match the frequency that radio is broadcasting on. For example, Channel 1 on my Midlands is NOT Channel 1 on the Motorola's. Keep the owners manual that gives you the frequencies so you can find the match. You can also do the same with the scan function.
For GMRS, this is sometimes the case. However, for FRS, channel one will be the same across brands. Channel one on FRS will always be 462.5625 regardless of brand, and this is true of all 14 FRS channels.

Because I am mad about women, I am mad about the hills Said that wild old wicked man, who travels where God wills. - Yeats topohiker.com
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