You may have noticed that most of the consumer two-way radios you see around advertise a range of up to 30 miles. The truth is, consumer FRS and GMRS radios will not even provide close to the advertised "maximum range".
The range that a two-way radio advertises is the range that the radio should get in "ideal" conditions. Ideal conditions are line of sight, such as from a mountaintop to a valley below -- no interference at all. Most likely, you will not be using the radios in these circumstances! You will probably want two-way radios for things such as hunting, skiing, malls, car trips or vacations. Under these normal conditions, the range of the radio will be limited because of obstructions, such as trees, hills, or buildings. These obstructions block the signal and dramatically reduce the range of a two-way radio.
So what type of range can you expect from your radio? Usually half a mile up to two miles, depending upon your terrain and the power of your radio. In the same environment, a 2 watt radio with a long antenna would provide considerably more range than a half watt radio with a short antenna.
When choosing a radio, it is very important to consider both the amount of range that you need and the environment in which you will be using the radios. Naturally, you wouldn't have as many obstructions in a football stadium as being in the middle of a heavily wooded area. For use in a stadium you would likely be fine with a small, one watt radio. In a wooded area, however, that same radio may not provide sufficient range. These are things that you need to take into consideration when choosing which two-way radio is right for you.
Related Resources
GMRS Radio Range Chart
Getting The Most Range From Your Radio
The Two Way Radio Show TWRS-05 - Radios in Range
The Two Way Radio Show TWRS-45 - The Truth About GMRS Radio Range
Radio 101 - The truth about FRS / GMRS two way radio range
How To Optimize Range for Motorola Talkabout Two Way Radios
I need some for a nursery there is a few building on site and a lot of trees and plants, we r on about 4 acres, what do you recommend at a fair price?
Thanks a lot for sharing your great info regarding walki talki. Digital Two Way Radio helps increase the mobile work team efficiency.
I two trucks we drived them around 3 from each other witch two way radios you think we can use
I hunt with a club and we are looking for new radios. The area we hunt in is dence forest and swamps. In most situations we need communication with each other within 1 mile to 2 miles. We are in need of 8 radios that have clear communication and have the same Frequency. We were using VHF radios but there range is limited do to the Terrain we hunt. Any recimadations you could make is greatly appreciated. Thank you, John
This only makes sense. Especially when you consider the fact that you have full power commercial fm broadcast stations that broadcast at 100,000 watts with towers hundreds of feet high and yet your lucky if you can receive them 100 maybe 150 miles away on a clear day. Of course atmospheric conditions also play a huge roll. So therefore how can you get 30 miles out of A transmitter thats handheld, powered by batteries with only a 3 inch rubber ducky style antenna?
I have a set of these and they will work in the charger.
Need help!!! I will be going to the Amazon jungle with a research team of students the summer we will have two camps set up 5 miles away from eachother... can someone help me to choose a suitable handheld radio for this situation???
I wanna buy about 5 radios...
My son and cousin live 10 miles apart in a built up area. What kind of radio communication could we get them for their rooms, so they could talk to each other?
I'm looking for four walkie talkies that will work for 20/30 mile range. We would be stationary essentially at 19 miles apart. This would be for our family to stay connected without using cell phones.
Looking for several units which would work for a communicating between staff placed in multiple spots along a 5K race route (3 mile max). Hills, buildings, etc. expected. Recommendations?
2 miles is great. If you can't understand basic radio physics than leave it to the professionals. If you want range than get a ham radio. 10 miles in a mountainous area reliably with any handheld is just stupid. Would need a man pack or car radio to skip a shortwave signal over the terrain.
I am looking for a long range walkie talkie set for emergency situations (ie. Natural disaster) and my family gets split up, what's a long range two set that would work with houses trees and such inbetween?
I need to communicate at least 12 miles threw a city and will use in woods camping hunting etc. what should i get?
My friend and I are wanting to communicate between our houses. We live 5.1 mikes away and obviously INA suburban area with trees and house all in between. Is there a radio that will work for us?
Hi.Nice info. Appreciate the heads up re: range. My ? is... I will be participating in a large gathering @ an enclosed facility. There will b several areas to watch over they all wont b visible from one another with the size of the facility as well as the # of people attending. Two way radios were suggested for equipment to be used. I was told that Baofeng was a good product & that motorola was ok as well. I was looking @ Baofeng UV-5r v2+ what do you think?
I am a licensed amateur radio operator, and have many years of experience with pretty much any kind of handy-talkie.
Here is everything you need to know.
1. You can never be sure how far you can talk, as terrain, weather, batteries, and a host of variables will affect your signal. With dead batteries (common) you can talk zero feet. In normal conditions, range is 500 feet to 1/4 mile. With everything ideal, you might talk longer. Maybe.
2.Handy-talkies use flexible antennas that are not great. So, even a good radio with lots of power may be severely limited. (Some radios can use alternate antennas, and this makes a big difference).
3.Even my military-spec handy-talkie is limited to less than a city block (sometimes only within a building) if I am using a flexible antenna and low power. With higher power, things only change a little.
4.This handy-talkie performs much better with a proper extendible metal antenna. In this case, I can talk for several city blocks. 1/2 a mile is possible.
5. With no obstacles (trees, buildings, cars, hills, etc.) where you have a line of sight, this good radio with a lousy antenna can talk for a mile or more. If I am up high with no obstacles, 2 to 5 miles is possible.
With a good antenna, 5 to 10 miles is possible. With my hand-held beam antenna (5 element yagi) in the same circumstances, 25 miles is a cinch. Again, power is less important than antenna and conditions.
Your radio will be worse than mine. So, be prepared for short range.
Honestly, in dense forest, city centres, underground and with hilly terain, a long string and two cans, or even a loud shout, will often out-perform these radios. Under ideal conditions, they can work reasonably well.
Amateurs use repeaters for longer communication with handy-talkies, or satellite,
Simply put, there are no FRS radios made that will give you more than 1 mile range under normal conditions (meaning that unless you are standing on the edge of a mountain and your friend is on the edge of another mountain with nothing between you but air, you will not get the "optimum" range of 20-35 miles that manufacturers advertise).
GMRS radios are "slightly" better (due to additional wattage), but they also have several "issues" that most consumers are not aware of.
First, GMRS antennas are also normally fixed in place just like their cheaper FRS radio cousins (meaning you can't switch to a better antenna).
Second, the GMRS higher power level quoted is ONLY available on the actual GMRS channels. Switch to any FRS channel, and your more expensive GMRS radio AUTOMATICALLY drops back down to the same 1/2 watt as the FRS radios, giving you the same poor range as the cheaper FRS radio.
Third, to legally use a GMRS radio on the GMRS channels (in order to get the higher power quoted), you need to obtain a GMRS license, which costs $85 and is valid for 5 years. The good news is that there's no testing required and it's good for you and your immediate family.
Fourth, GMRS radios have power ratings that vary all over the place (from 1 watt to 5 watts normally), and the power out varies depending on the power source (AA batteries normally deliver far less power than rechargeable Li-Ion batteries, but Li-Ion costs more).
Fifth, using a GMRS repeater (if you are lucky enough to have one in your area) is a great way to increase your range well beyond the normal 2-5 miles available on GMRS simplex), but you (and any member of your party outside of your immediate family) will need a GMRS license to use the repeater.
Many folks are surprised to learn that repeater owners all have to monitor their repeaters and if they find any unlicensed individuals using their repeater without a license that can shut down the repeater remotely. Suddenly, your "range" may once again be down to a mile or so, and if you were counting on using that system for day to day communications (or chatting with your hunting buddies) that will cause a problem.
MURS and Marine channels (both on VHF) normally have the same approximate range on simplex as GMRS simplex, meaning their handheld radios (at higher power levels) are certainly longer distance than 1/2 watt FRS radios, and will "normally" give you from 2 to 5 miles of range.
There is simply no handheld radio made (on any band) that can provide you with reliable 30-35 miles range on simplex (no repeaters) deep into the woods, down in a canyon, or within a big city, nor will they be able to communicate car to car (unless you have a way of adding both an outside antenna to the top of the vehicle and some form of amplifier to the radio to increase it's power level going to the antenna, normally NOT an option for FRS/GMRS radios).
The only way ham radio operators accomplish that trick with small handheld radios (unless they too are sitting on a mountaintop) is by using the existing (and vast) ham radio repeater network located all across the country, or using more powerful mobile radios (not available on FRS and much more expensive on GMRS) and outside the vehicle antennas.
At last count, there are nearly 22,000 ham radio repeaters located within the U.S., nearly all of which are open (meaning you just need a simple FCC Technician Class license to use them). The good news is that the test no longer requires any morse code and is just 35 multiple choice questions. Get 26 right (out of 35) and you pass, giving you access to multiple VHF & UHF bands above 30 MHz, plus the license is good for 10 years and can be renewed without re-testing.
With your Tech license and the right VHF/UHF radio, you'll finally have the ability to communicate from deep in the woods, or clear across town, and with the use of using a cross-band repeater technique common in ham radio, even deep from within a canyon. (I know, I've done it from within the Grand Canyon).
I enjoy using all types of radios and believe that any radio is better than no radio (especially in an emergency situation), but folks you simply can't make physics work differently because you want it to.
FRS radios are meant to work within a very small area (normally they max out at 1/2 mile range), GMRS, MURS, and Marine band handheld radios normally do better (out to around 5 miles) because of their higher power levels. Put any of these radios inside a car or truck and you'll cut down on their range to a mile, maybe less, unless you can attach an outside antenna.
Hams can get away with talking further due to the vast number of repeaters available and because many of them are located on the highest points around. In Iowa, that might be a tall building or a water tower, in Arizona that's normally a mountaintop at 8,000 ft or higher.
Craig - N7LB
[email protected]
I am going to Cancun for Spring Break and need to communicate wiht my boyfriend that is staying 2 miles away. Its packed with hotels. What would be the best radio to buy? Please help, because I leave in a week!
Hello my friend,
from my experience, with 1 Watt vhf/uhf radio and good antenna /of course the antenna that came with the radio is probably trash/ you can make in good conditions over 100 miles. Everything is in the antenna.
Hope this will help.
ps: next week I will finish the prototype of directional antenna for PMR446 radios /is US you use very similar radios license free/. For now results are very good. Let say, with two feet antenna make the power of the radio 16 times stronger, the same for receive. Think what will happen if both men use after market antennas. I am smiling when read this funny 1-2-3 miles, this is nothing. Good luck
Marin
Hi, my mom is elderly and we've tried gving her a cell phone, but it proved too complicated. I work about 7-10 km away from her house. I'd like to get a two way radio system, ideally with 3 handsets (one also for my sister) and be able to page mom when we're worried about her. I work downtown, but sort of on the edge, so not a lot of huge buildings in the way. But still lots of distance. Is there any reasonable priced (up to $300) solution to this that would work within the distance described?