Car to Car progress?

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greenwoo
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Car to Car progress?

Postby greenwoo » Sun Mar 29, 2015 8:49 pm

well i havent had a stack of time to look into the car to car options that was discussed a while back...but I have made some progress - if the topic may interest read on...

OK sensibly the 1st question is why? and secondly there's a myth to dispel and 3rdly - possible progress.

Why?
Well for me i like the idea that on the longer trips we could communicate within a sensible range. What's sensible? well to me that means a couple of miles or so - lets say 1-3. Even on a Sunday run i think it woudl add an element, case of point a recent run where we covered an extra 10 miles+ as the leader who was no more than a few hundred yards ahead was in a world of his own.

Myth. Quick one that many will already know - intercoms are in reality a hub, so there won't e any mention of those here, as to enable car toi car you have to plug in some form of Comms device into the 'hub'.

What choices:
CB
Bluetooth
Phones
PMR446 - Unlicensed 2 way radios.

Of that lot for international trips we can discount the phones as the cost would be prohibitive.
CB - means a bulky unit ( handhelds having a worse rep than pmr for distance
Bluetooth - again, has no distance capability ( claims that it can do 1km, not viable from what i read).

So PMR?
well no. Not in it's present form. It has 2 limiting factors, aerial + power/output. And this folks is where it gets tricky, so if you're morally offended - stop reading!
Unlicensed 2 Way radios have amongst other things 2 conditions: fixed stubby aerial + 0.5 watts of power. Change those actors and they no longer conform and ergo 'you've been a naughty boy'.

But...the aerials can be be swapped out for a short unit that 'could' be positioned on the read deck of a kit ( not a frigging great whippy aerial), these have a length of connection wire that simply connects to where the stubby was. Would you get a 'tug'? Will you to work that one out - after all, how many tugs do you get for illegal number plates that are 3/4 size, wrongly spaced letters or no plate at all?

Potentially the aerial more than the power ( so i'm told ) will massively increase the range, so many could 'leave it there'. and doing that basically means just picking a normal pmr446 style/type 2 way that has a removable stubby.

But i'm thinking of a slightly diff route.
I found mention on umpteen forums of a make of 2way by Baofeng, in short a chinese unit that operates on 2 wavelengths and which covers the pmr frequency range. Legal? well no - because it comes with an advertised 4 watts out of the box ( bearing in mind that some of the 2 ways have an option to remove a wire to achieve the same on the 'qt' ).

Why am i thinking about these? well...............................cheap as chips. Research and a full order basket to be paid tomorrow indicates that a basic set up: radio, aerial, connector to swap to 12v will cost around £50. Tow hich one would add some form of earpiece/headset - obviously that could be a fiver, fifty or however much you want to spend. I'm hoping to borrow a set of cans to try, if not, i'll use a cheapy cheapy D earpiece and throat mic to see how that fares as an experiment.

The units come with a PC disc as the channels need programming according to the Region ( global i mean), which takes about 5 mins and is it seems really easy. During that process its also possible to assign a CTCSS channel for group talk - so that only folks with that programmed would ever 'hear' get a call ( as opposed to being an annoyance whearing any/every caller on that channel).

won't gett into the why's /wherefores of whether this approach is right legally/morally - except to say that from what i read the antisocial aspect of having a massive coverage/range from a nuisance perspective kind of disappears given that we're talking about using this type of kit in the open countryside not in built up areas.

OK at this point it might be a blind alley, but after spending more than a few hours over the past few evenings on this, it does look as though it should fly, hoping to get the gear by next weekend ( may be optimistic)...if i do will be looking to do a trial car to car.

wonder how many would go for this if we can get a couple of miles out of this for that sort of dosh?
( and yes they will connect to autocomm/starcom etc for those that have these already).

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pigeondave
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Re: Car to Car progress?

Postby pigeondave » Sun Mar 29, 2015 9:26 pm

We always go radioed up on our tour of the alps trips (ToTA). Well we have done since i've been going on them.

We used to hire kenwood units off a place and it was stupidly cheap. As they were hired they were only 0.5w, they came with handsfree kits (throat mic and ear piece).

I would say that they are invaluable on tour. You can radio when you have problems so the front runner can pull in, there are no more dodgy overtakes as the man in front can tell you what the road is doing and finally when you all have different tomtom maps but the same itn file you can have a quick vote on whether is left right or straight on.

This year the hire place increased its prices and didnt have the hand free option so we all looked at buying our own.

We went for these

http://www.rocketradio.co.uk/intek-mt-5 ... 1503-p.asp

they also do an adapter for longer aerials there are two lengths, not too long and fricken silly. I am told that if you solder in the adapter and screw in the longer aerial you'd be breaking the law. You'd also be breaking the law if you cut the 3 wires under the service hatch. I was told that it gives you a greater range of channels, 4w and scrambled channels. You can find this info on the net.

The only problem that we found was the quality of throat mics. They were not as good a the old kenwood ones and im not sure what the others ended up with, as people were getting them from the UK, Scotland and Spain.

Even using the kenwood 0.5w we found them useful. I never made it on ToTA 2014 as too many things were working against me, so didnt use the radio in anger. But they're definitely a good idea.

Remember that if you were to go for a 4w one that the batteries dont last as long (so i was told). But a better aerial and 0.5w could be the way to go.

I should have read the original post all the way through :oops:

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steve m
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Re: Car to Car progress?

Postby steve m » Sun Mar 29, 2015 9:37 pm

Hi Mark

I am sure I asked a similar, but not so detailed question a while back, as communication while on a "run" as it does have flaws

I do have a mobile, who doesn't !
I do have Pmr with a remote mike, could even make it on a switch on the steering wheel, and is also open to other users
My CB skills left me when I was 18 years of age, and is also open to other users, plus how 1970's

I do not know how to go about this, but how about a mobile phone open forum within our own schemes
is there a way of opening up a party line for limited users within a time frame, that would incorporate all the different user bands, ie O2, virgin, vodaphone, etc etc but within the availability of all the drivers

Or a is there a way of any a wifi link ? again, not my isle sorry!

just a couple of answer's

steve
Thats was probably spelt wrong, or had some grammer, that the "grammer police have to have a moan at

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steve m
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Re: Car to Car progress?

Postby steve m » Sun Mar 29, 2015 9:47 pm

I thought that the PMR 446 range was legal in the UK??
as you can buy them in Maplins, Argus etc over the counter

steve
Thats was probably spelt wrong, or had some grammer, that the "grammer police have to have a moan at

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Re: Car to Car progress?

Postby greenwoo » Sun Mar 29, 2015 10:05 pm

I thought that the PMR 446 range was legal in the UK??


yes the bog standard units are legal/license free, but due to the crappy little aerials and low poer that hinders the effective range. Changing either of those parameters ( which is possible on various ones as highlighted in the original post and above the intek50/50 for example ) - you can add a better /longer aerial and therefore add range, its also possible to 'mod' the power output on some like the intek or as was saying with the Baofeng they come with higher output to start with.

the claims on a bog standard unit are optimistic to say the least - line of sight/atmospherics, etc all playing a part. if you read thru enough blurb on the sales side you'll see that ranges between 3-1okm are mentioned - what they dont tell you is how they were tested!
Hence my (personal ) thought of adding in a better aerial which is 'naughty' and seeing how well that works. If its really good, then of course one could try that with a 'normal' powered unit and see what the difference is...

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Crunchie Gears
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Re: Car to Car progress?

Postby Crunchie Gears » Sun Mar 29, 2015 10:11 pm

In answer to your question Captain! Yes. :D

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jeffw
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Re: Car to Car progress?

Postby jeffw » Mon Mar 30, 2015 8:17 am

When I've used my Kenwood radios with the Autocom unit in the car it has approx. 1/2 mile range with LoS, less with buildings etc in the way. Works ok.

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David T
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Re: Car to Car progress?

Postby David T » Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:41 am

Sounds interesting Mark. Is that the UV-5R?

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Re: Car to Car progress?

Postby greenwoo » Mon Mar 30, 2015 1:50 pm

yes David it is

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russtik
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Re: Car to Car progress?

Postby russtik » Mon Mar 30, 2015 2:02 pm

Interested.

Had a look about on eBay and it would seem there's some successors to the UV-5R (UV-82, BF-9, GT-3), some of which can be cranked up to 8 watts.
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