Topic: Interesting Comm offer via III

[Libertas]

http://iiipercent.blogspot.com/2015/03/iii-comms-announcement.html

These do look like sweet little units, and a heck of a price.

[Glock32]

Pretty cool.  I've heard about a brand of Chinese radios that are basically unrestricted in terms of their power output and band usage, I wonder if this is them.  Radio is an area I have pretty much zero knowledge of.  I need to learn more.

[benb61]

Can any of the radio heads here tell us from the specs if this is a worthy purchase.  Range is the first thing I am concerned with.  I am also not  a com person nut I think something like this may be able to keep all of us in contact when TSHTF.

[Libertas]

At this power level the range will be limited, the GMRS channels (FCC license req'd) are FM UHF that basically have line-of-sight range as determined by the length of antenna, typically 2 miles, you can get a few more miles by turning it into a mobile unit, even more if you use repeaters and base units.  MURS channels are license free, range is generally short range and limited by low power and antenna length but provide decent enough communication.  These are more for close contact communication and not anything typically attempted with mobile or base SW units, but since GMRS channels are offered, if you have a decent mobile or base unit these would augment that operation.  These are intended more for small team use, a way to communicate should cells go dark, etc.  Better than bubble wrap walkie talkies from your local sporting goods store.

[Glock32]

Oh, ok.  Yeah I think the Chinese knock-off radios I was thinking of were notable because people were buying them from overseas, and that they did not comply with FCC regulations.  They were essentially reverse engineered copies of a well known model, without the mandated FCC limitations. Sort of the radio equivalent of an unlocked smartphone.