Baofeng BF-UVB5 UHF+VHF Dual Band

traume

Guys, does anybody knows is it legal to use in Ireland?
Reviews are amazing on these radios and price is even better then reviews, but how about legal use in Ireland?
If it is illegal, can you please point me to the right direction about choosing the right equipment without taking a loan?!

traume

traume wrote: »

Guys, does anybody knows is it legal to use in Ireland?
Reviews are amazing on these radios and price is even better then reviews, but how about legal use in Ireland?
If it is illegal, can you please point me to the right direction about choosing the right equipment without taking a loan?!

Got my answer - they are illegal.
In Ireland only PMR446 radios doesn't need any licence.
Now I have new questions - if on PMR446 are 8 channels, and on airsoft field there are 9 teams with PMR446, 1 of the teams have to joins somebody's channel?
I believe, that I'm not the only one with these kind of questions and I don't really have anyone with knowledge to enlighten me.

sci-ops

traume wrote: »

Got my answer - they are illegal.
In Ireland only PMR446 radios doesn't need any licence.
Now I have new questions - if on PMR446 are 8 channels, and on airsoft field there are 9 teams with PMR446, 1 of the teams have to joins somebody's channel?
I believe, that I'm not the only one with these kind of questions and I don't really have anyone with knowledge to enlighten me.

Most PMR radios will have their primary channels, we'll say 8....and then a number of sub-channels, usually 16.

So, you might have your radios tuned 1-8, while others have theirs tuned to 1-1 and so on.

ShRT

Yup they are illegal due to their power output. The limit in Ireland for PMR is 0.5W and they have 2W/5W output options.

(see page 9 of http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg0647R.pdf)

The sub-channel issue can be deceptive. Whats being used is CTCSS which doesn't give you the privacy that you may think it does. For example if you are on 1-8, and you broadcast, there are two sets of people who will hear you. Those on 1-8 and those who are on channel 1 with no CTCSS enabled. However if the person on the basic channel 1 with no CTCSS enabled broadcasts, you won't hear them

Also, lets say you have two groups, one using 1-8 and the other using 1-5. They are both on the same base frequency so if they both try and talk at the same time there will be some interferance although the CTCSS will reduce the level of interference as the radio will try and weed out any signals not on its current CTCSS setting.

When you think about it from a Garda point of view - do we really want the dodgy folks having easy access to encrypted radio :eek::eek:

My own radio is a Motorola TLKR T6 which i find pretty decent and got in a two pack from Amazon for €60 and you can get various headsets for the motorola standard connection jack. They come with a rechargeable battery but can also take 4 x AAA batteries instead. (Link to manual)

traume

So that's what I was thinking. My latest thought is to program 1-7 without sub channel and 8th channel with sub channel. So channel 8 gets used only if all other channels are used by somebody else. But have to agree, there is no privacy what so ever.

ShRT

Even if you do program it though for the correct freq its still over the power output allowed.

traume

No, I didn't mean using UVB5, using some different walkie talkies which has encoding options.

ShRT

Ah right. Yeah i never really saw the need for the ability to program multiple channels as generally you're on the team channel and set it at the start of the game/day. Although a quick switch to a separate channel for a side chat would be handy

traume

If nothing goes wrong, next weekend will check out in Hilltop

T4RGET

traume wrote: »

If nothing goes wrong, next weekend will check out in Hilltop

you'll never have that problem of people using the same channel as you at a normal skirmish. There are usually 8 channels as mentioned, and then the subs, there are so many combinations. On top of that how many people never mind teams do you see at a sunday skirmish? if they do use the same channel, change yours and if they're on your team I'd advise staying on the same one so you have more contacts while on the ground. All in all though you won't have the problem you're concerned about, i wouldn't worry about it.

traume

Time will show. Cheers