[TowerTalk] Recommended FRS radios for tower work

[mcduffie at actcom.net]

On Sat, 04 Oct 2003 08:46:47 -0400, Pete Smith wrote:

> I'm confronting a major tower job this month, and have noticed that the 
> tiny FRS radios have come down substantially in price.  It seems as if 
> these units would be great for tower to ground communications.

I'm finding more and more professional tower crews are using FRS.
After all, they are $25 each for the better Motorola radios and the
batteries last all day and then some.  I'd go for the ones with
settable "privacy codes" to keep non-related chatter to a minimum.
In sparsely populated areas, they are very good...and I was able to
monitor the top man from inside a vehicle 30 miles away on our 1500'
tower.  He was working at about 1300'.

I bought a pair for use around the station and a pair for myself,
just to carry for those times when it is just easier or more legal
to use non-ham radio.  More densely populated areas are going to
have more trouble with someone trying to "get in on it".  In six
weeks of tower work, we didn't have one case of anyone playing with
us.

One nice thing about the Talkabout radios from Motorola is that they
will take plain old AA cells when the NiCD's finally give up the
ghost.  Come to think of it, I think they now use NiMH, but I may be
wrong.  No matter, they are well worth the $50 or less for a pair
with batteries and charger.  They're great on a multi-vehicle cross
country trip too.

Gary

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