Hey Lemmings. I’m looking for a decent budget walkie talkie.
My use case is pretty casual. Nothing crazy like survival situations or long-distance missions. Mainly for small hikes and some work communication where my phone isn’t ideal.
Criteria: • Budget: up to ~50€ (ideally a set of 2 or more) • Region: Europe (putting this here for shopping options.) • License-free frequency
I’ve been eyeing a few options: • Motorola 42. The blue kiddie vibe kinda puts me off lol • Retevis models seem to have decent reviews for the price • Jucjet 4-set for around 44€ looks tempting for the pack deal
Has anyone used these or got other recommendations? Rockie Talkie keeps popping up but it’s expensive and way above my use case. Cheers
Throwaway thoughts: I’m trying to decentralize my tech life away from my phone. Radio comms feel like a step in the right direction. Meshtastic is also on the todo list. Might even look into pagers soon.
The T82 extremes are what we use at work… We have 10 of them and, despite being used by generally incompetent users, seem to survive day to day abuse in a high school. We have had them for nearly two years and have no casualties yet. Other schools in the area also use them - with no reported issues.
I know a couple of multi-band, so not specifically pmr, Baofeng users but can’t comment on their ruggedness or longevity other than to say I haven’t heard bad things.
Another popular brand to look at might be Hytera; possibly a bit out of budget for you. We did look at those, instead of cheaper handsets, but price won in the end.