Walkie talkies for disaster response

Donia Conn <bookconservator [at] yahoo__com> writes

>After recent flooding here at Northwestern University and the
>subsequent disaster recovery, we have decided that walkie talkies
>might be good to have on hand in our disaster recovery supplies.

I might suggest you buy or borrow a pair of consumer-grade two-way
radios that work in the FRS/GMRS band that encompasses frequencies
from 462.5625 to 462.7250 MHz. The pair we have had for quite some
time has been quite satisfactory for communications within large
buildings and has worked well from within buildings to the outside
world, as well. We have also used them in our forestry work over
very precipitous and heavily forested terrain at ranges up to about
half-mile with great success. Generally the low power setting (legal
without FCC license) provides adequate range and also lengthens
battery life.

The units we have were made by Cobra, Model PR3000DX. They offer two
power levels; the higher power level is supposed to be licensed by
the FCC, while the lower level is free of licensing requirements.
You can set them up to suit your needs and lock the settings in
place so they won't be accidentally changed. Also, if I recall
correctly, these will accommodate a microphone/earpiece headset so
they may clipped to a belt and used hands-free.

I'd suggest you give this type of unit a try. They are widely
available in retail stores and on the Net, and are very
inexpensive--probably in the $50/pair range--I haven't priced them
recently. Good luck,

Robert K. MacDowell


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 20:28
                 Distributed: Monday, November 27, 2006
                       Message Id: cdl-20-28-004
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