Communicating From Dock to Boat

Problem: My lake gets AWFUL cell service... I want to be able to communicate to buddies on the dock

The lake is 6 miles long and has a lot of hard bends, Do you think Walkie Talkies would work work? Is there anyting else you guys are using like, maybe a Short band radio... I'm at a loss. Any help is always appreciated,
-Marc

Handheld Marine Radios or maybe just the Motorola radios.

I use the Motorola's in the mountains, they come with a weather channel which is nice. I picked mine up cheap at Costco.

I also have used the Marine Radios, but those are a little pricey.

My $.02 is to go for the Motorola radios first, then if that doesn't work, go for the Marine radios.

wakie talkies (aka FRS radios) would probably work decent..but they are more "line of sight" much over 1-2 miles. They have more powerful models that reach close to 5 miles. You may also look into a cb's/marine radios...that should get you over those distances.....

We bought these Uniden's from Lowes a while ago and love every bit of them. They say with full batteries and using the MAX boost button, you can get 7 miles. It's more like around 5 but they're very clear and have a ton of features. Great buy for the price.


http://www.uniden.com/productpop/00_productpop.cfm?prd_code=GMRS720-2

Hey Marc.....Ever thought of using or switching you cell service to nextel...use their 2 way radio's....they should work just fine....just a thought

There is ham radio. Although to become an amateur radio operator you need to take a test.

Motorola Walkie Talkies would be ideal, I'm just concerned that the sharp turns would make them pretty inefective.

I looked into the nextell thing... the cheapest plan was like $30 a month, and verizon makes it soo hard to switch plans

I'm gonna look into those unidens... thanks for the leads

I guess it depends on what part of the country you are in but my Nextel gets zero service at the lake (rural). My wifes Cingular works just fine. We use walkie talkies around the neighborhood at the lake but as was stated before they do not work on the lake very good because of all the bends & hills.

You're talkin' pretty much "line of sight" here. The Motorolas are great, but they are not very effective beyond ~1 mile in conditions you described.

Oooops. Sorry....what Levi said.

(Message edited by swass on July 14, 2004)

VHF

I want to clarify one thing about the Nextel. They are not two way radios. They are a direct connect feature of the cell service. That means that if you don't have cell coverage, then you don't have walkie talkie coverage. Also Nextel has horrible customer service and also has a bad habit of billing errors in their favor. I have one b/c I am in construction, but i also have a Verizon personal cell phone b/c their coverage is better as is their customer service. I have had AT&T, Sprint, GTE, and some other local carriers in the past, and I must say that GTE was the best, but after Verizon bought them then Verizon is now the best.

Also there should be no problems changing carriers, by law you just go to the new carrier, and they do all the work, and the old carrier is not supposed to contact you about the switch. they may bill you if your contract is not up, but that is different.

Also, I have the FRS/GMRS radios at work and for the boat. They are very sensitive to anything between them as far as trees, hills, buildings, etc. They do work well if you keep that in mind. The wife and I use them mostly at the ramp to talk between the truck and boat to get the trailer just right in the water when we load and go.

Do you not need to have a license for the GMRS?

Marine VHS sounds like the way to go here.

Just throwing this one out:
http://www.garmin.com/products/rino/

I do believe your supposed to have a lic. for GMRS...but I'd imagine that the percent of people w/ the lic. that actually use them is quite small.

I have one (120 version) but haven't yet had the time to really run it through it's paces. But it is a FRS/GMRS & GPS combination unit. When you talk to someone in the FRS mode you can actually see their position on your GPS map screen if they also have another RINO. Pretty sweet if you ask me. The GMRS says it transmits up to 5 miles...but I'd say it'd be a significantly less w/ obstructions in the way. This would be great for the Delta though...finding your buddies on various sloughs if you're close enough.

Marc- what cell phone & Service Provider do you have?

I have verizon.... they're ok but, If I cut my contract short, I have to pay a pretty hefty fee.

Two tin cans and a REALLLLLLLLLLY long string might work?

VHF is line of sight also.