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mrsmelly

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Hi Peeps

Right so in the spring myself and bro in law are bumbling together on our respective boats we are intending doing the north south circuit again and I was just wondering re keeping in chatter contact with each other on the rivers and indeed other places when needed. I have vhf but he is a pretend boater that doesn't :D so being as he is so straight he would never use vhf I wondered what the panel suggests is best? I have in the past used those little handheld jobbies but they are not much cop and need charging etc etc so was thinking about static mounted kit to the boat lectrics. What is available these days? Years ago there was CB that seemed good but when it became legal didn't seem as good? Is CB of any kind any use or what would any of the panel suggest. Yes we have mobile fones but I was more meaning constantly open and available for waffle.

Thanks in advance.

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Semaphore or flashing light would seem most appropriate for an old salt like you. :captain:

Otherwise, a PMR with a battery that will last all day and recharge overnight would seem favourite. A pair will really ease your battery worries as there can always be one on charge.

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39 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

You could try Zello, if you both have smartphones

https://zello.com/app

 

Dunno how it works though. @mross probably does, cos he's smart.

Zello is wonderful!  It works over 3G, 4G, or wifi and it's 'push to talk' so you can have a lot of fun.  When I know that my wife is in the supermarket I can press the button and say, " are those two old women still blocking the aisle with their trolleys and gibb-gabbering?"  They turn around, looking for a rude man and see my wife.  That really messes with their minds!

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PMR radios transmit at 500mW which is pathetic.  We have commercial-class UHF radios on a business license and they are effective over a mile (line of sight) but you must tuck them inside your jacket and use a remote mic/speaker as the radio with straps is a real hazard when working locks.  We bought ours second-hand.

IIRC the license is £75 for five years.  Commercial class radios are 5 Watts.  That's 1,000 times more powerful than the PMR radios.  We never hear the morons on what used to be called CB radio (an American term) saying 'breaker-breaker 1-9' or 'copy' or 'over and out' - all incorrect in radio terminology.  I have a restricted VHF license, so I am able to use the correct terminology.

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8 minutes ago, mross said:

PMR radios transmit at 500mW which is pathetic.  We have commercial-class UHF radios on a business license and they are effective over a mile (line of sight) but you must tuck them inside your jacket and use a remote mic/speaker as the radio with straps is a real hazard when working locks.  We bought ours second-hand.

IIRC the license is £75 for five years.  Commercial class radios are 5 Watts.  That's 1,000 times more powerful than the PMR radios.  We never hear the morons on what used to be called CB radio (an American term) saying 'breaker-breaker 1-9' or 'copy' or 'over and out' - all incorrect in radio terminology.  I have a restricted VHF license, so I am able to use the correct terminology.

Yes I have just been reading up stuff after some of the posts the guys on here have replied. The licence is indeed only 75 sovs for five years and as my stoopid bro in law hasn't got a vhf permit then I think its probably the way to go. He could just get a vhf radio for what we need but he is too law abiding ;) All the pmr 446 or whatever it is jobbies are the same pathetic output so why the huge difference in prices?

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1 hour ago, Sea Dog said:

Semaphore or flashing light would seem most appropriate for an old salt like you. :captain:

Otherwise, a PMR with a battery that will last all day and recharge overnight would seem favourite. A pair will really ease your battery worries as there can always be one on charge.

a proper sea dog would run up the flags ............  'England expects....', and all that.

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3 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Yes I have just been reading up stuff after some of the posts the guys on here have replied. The licence is indeed only 75 sovs for five years and as my stoopid bro in law hasn't got a vhf permit then I think its probably the way to go. He could just get a vhf radio for what we need but he is too law abiding ;) All the pmr 446 or whatever it is jobbies are the same pathetic output so why the huge difference in prices?

All PMR radios are limited to the same power, but that should be plenty to communicate between 2 boats travelling together I would have thought.  If you were using VHF to communicate between the 2 boats you would want to use 1 watt mode anyway, transmitting at 20 watts to a boat close by would not make sense.

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13 minutes ago, john6767 said:

All PMR radios are limited to the same power, but that should be plenty to communicate between 2 boats travelling together I would have thought.  If you were using VHF to communicate between the 2 boats you would want to use 1 watt mode anyway, transmitting at 20 watts to a boat close by would not make sense.

In this cold weather, the chance of Mr Plod getting out of his warm transit van / Vauxhall saloon to nick you is zero.  Outside of the cities, the risk of getting nicked for speeding, tailgating or dangerous driving is close to zero.  When my Defender was nicked the police never contacted me.  They are too stressed by other classes of offence.  But I don't know what these may be.

Crime statistics show falling rates.  But these are falling numbers of convictions, not falling numbers of reported crime.

Edited by mross
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1 minute ago, mross said:

In this cold weather, the chance of Mr Plod getting out of his warm transit van / Vauxhall saloon to nick you is zero.  Outside of the cities, the risk of getting nicked for speeding, tailgating or dangerous driving is close to zero.  When my Defender was nicked the police never contacted me.  They are too stressed by other classes of offence.  But I don't know what these may be.

I have no idea what that comment means, did you post on the correct forum!

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10 minutes ago, mross said:

I was referring to the chance of getting prosecuted for not having a radio license.

it wouldn't be the police

it would be the DTI, RA, OFCOM

in practice unless several people identified and reported you nothing would happen

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48 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

All the pmr 446 or whatever it is jobbies are the same pathetic output so why the huge difference in prices?

Don't write the PMR446 off on statistics. At the frequency concerned, we're really only looking at 'line of sight' practical range however powerful they are, so they don't really need more power. Because they are such low power and short range, they're unlikely to cause interference problems, hence why they can be licence free.

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11 minutes ago, mross said:

I quoted you, didn't I?  That hardly suggests I was in the wrong forum.  I'm sorry if I appeared to be obtuse or irrelevant.

So can you explain why you quoted me with that comment? Where did I say anything about licences.

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