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Post by airsoftguy97 on Oct 21, 2013 16:14:24 GMT -5
Puxing888, Icom, talksabouts?
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Post by X on Oct 21, 2013 17:20:24 GMT -5
Talkabout. ICOM is out of your price range and the puxing is Chinese. I've seen enough cheep Chinese radios to stay away forever. If you don't plan on attending a Lion Claws event any time soon then the Talkabouts will work fine for any other field (except maybe Hell's Survivors if your on FRS).
Sent from my XT1080 using proboards
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Post by Tank on Oct 21, 2013 17:27:00 GMT -5
If you can pick up an iCOM for $80, do it. Only do it, if you are certain that you can reprogram it however. You standard run of the mill Talkabouts have 22 channels. My iCOM has 16. I end up reprogramming my iCOM for every game due to this. It's not a big deal, it takes longer to boot up your computer than it does to reprogram the radio. Just find out the model number of the radio you are looking at, and verify that the software for programming the radio already exists in our community here, or make sure you can buy the software. It doesn't cost much, I think it was less than $30 on ebay.
The iCOMs have WAY better range than your standard Talkabout. I'm not familiar with that other radio that you mentioned, but we have also tried Motorola GP68s and found them to not have near the range of the iCOMs. The iCOM IC-F4011 has been purchased by at least a dozen, if not more, of our community and they work awesome. We have in game experience of them operating at, or further than, 3 miles. This radio is unfortunately $165 on ebay. That is the only negative.
I started out with a similar goal as you, I was looking for >$100. What I found is that there is a huge financial gap between the low end radios and the decent to high end radios, there really isn't much in the close to $100 range.
Edit: X posted while I was typing. If you can't get the iCOM in your price range, then yes, the Talkabout would be adequate for most fields. Like X stated, Lion Claws games are the only game that you are guaranteed that your Talkabout will not span the AO.
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Post by Knife on Oct 21, 2013 17:56:09 GMT -5
I picked up an Icom F4s semi second hand on ebay. Dunno how much it was used before it got to me, but it came with a new battery and charger. Ran me 85ish I wanna say when I picked it up with free programming. I've had no issues with it thus far. I don't know the pros or cons of getting an F4S over some of the other models, but it is a cheap, and nice, radio.
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Post by Tank on Oct 21, 2013 20:41:23 GMT -5
I picked up an Icom F4s semi second hand on ebay. Dunno how much it was used before it got to me, but it came with a new battery and charger. Ran me 85ish I wanna say when I picked it up with free programming. I've had no issues with it thus far. I don't know the pros or cons of getting an F4S over some of the other models, but it is a cheap, and nice, radio. The F4's are simply older models. iCOM radios in general are built like tanks, do they should be good, even used, as long as they aren't super abused.
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Post by X on Oct 22, 2013 8:35:25 GMT -5
Actually the F4s appear to be quite a bit different. I haven't spent enough time researching to give a definitive list, but certain models actually have two banks of 16 channels where the 4011 has only one. Someone reported that they had a reliable range of 1 mile, but did not give their testing procedure.
The F4 may be a good intermediate level radio. I would like to do more research and testing though to say for sure.
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Post by Gimpalong on Oct 22, 2013 10:32:53 GMT -5
Honestly, I'm not entirely sold on iCOMs. I own one; purchased for NL. But, as Tank mentioned, if doesn't cover quite the same channel range as Talkabouts. Now, this can be fixed by programming the radio to the Talkabout channels, but it's annoying having to program back and forth.
For $80 you can buy two talkabouts, split the price with a buddy and have a radio that will work for 90% of the OPs. in MI.
My Talkabout is my go-to radio for nearly every event I attend, and for things like NL, the iCOM comes out of the bag.
Quality-wise the iCOM is head and shoulders above the Talkabout, provides excellent reception at long range and is far easier to switch back and forth between channels (just click the adjuster, no need to take it out of a pouch and punch buttons).
If you've got the cash, pick up an iCOM, if not, find a quality Talkabout that will accept the accessories you want and buy that instead.
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Post by X on Oct 22, 2013 10:51:37 GMT -5
Honestly, I'm not entirely sold on iCOMs. I own one; purchased for NL. But, as Tank mentioned, if doesn't cover quite the same channel range as Talkabouts. Now, this can be fixed by programming the radio to the Talkabout channels, but it's annoying having to program back and forth. For $80 you can buy two talkabouts, split the price with a buddy and have a radio that will work for 90% of the OPs. in MI. My Talkabout is my go-to radio for nearly every event I attend, and for things like NL, the iCOM comes out of the bag. Quality-wise the iCOM is head and shoulders above the Talkabout, provides excellent reception at long range and is far easier to switch back and forth between channels (just click the adjuster, no need to take it out of a pouch and punch buttons). If you've got the cash, pick up an iCOM, if not, find a quality Talkabout that will accept the accessories you want and buy that instead. I understand where your coming from on the programming. I wish they had 22 channels then they would be perfect. Like Tank said though it literally takes more time to boot your computer (assuming its not on an SSD) than it does to program so it doesn't bother me. For anyone that skimped and didn't buy the software and cable well yeah then that really sucks. I try to make my stuff available to everyone at each game because of this, but they should buy the equipment to do it themselves. I say that only because they're eventually going to go to a game and no one will be able to flash their radio. Sent from my XT1080 using proboards
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Post by Knife on Oct 22, 2013 13:54:34 GMT -5
I believe my F4S has 22 or more channels. I got it programmed with the entire freq chart from NL and used at least up to channel 18 last weekend at Draugr. I'll dig it out later and see what it goes up to.
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Post by X on Oct 22, 2013 14:28:14 GMT -5
Based on what I've read so far the F4 has up 32 channels. That's why I would like to see how it performs in comparison to Talkabouts and the F4011.
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Post by Knife on Oct 22, 2013 16:56:52 GMT -5
It works better than the piece of shit talkabouts I've had, but they were also shit. I had no major issues with it at Northern Lights. I got better reception on my TS MBITR w/ real whip antenna sometimes. I didnt bother with my TS MBITR last weekend, but audio over the Icom was crystal clear for me. So, not a scientific test by any means, but it is far better than the talkabouts I've used, and seems to have better audio quality than my MBITR.
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Post by airsoftguy97 on Oct 22, 2013 22:18:00 GMT -5
Thanks for the responses. I will be searching for icoms first, if I don't find any in my price range then i will move on to others. I suggest learning more about puxings though because I've heard really good things about the Puxing 888. Also how hard is it to program an icom from 0--10? And do I have to program it before every event?
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Post by airsoftguy97 on Oct 22, 2013 22:25:18 GMT -5
I found plenty of icoms used and new for around $60-$90. That includes models V80,82, and v85. Are they any good?
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Post by Knife on Oct 22, 2013 22:41:37 GMT -5
I had it programmed when I bought it. If you use the normal freq set you shouldn't have to reprogram it every game unless you want custom freqs.
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Post by X on Oct 23, 2013 6:31:29 GMT -5
You need to be very carful buying a commercial radio. Some are UHF which will work with GMRS/FRS radios that we use in airsoft and some are VHF which will not. You need one that covers 460 MHz for example I think the iCOM F4011 is 430-470. You also need to make sure that the radio is narrowband. All standard walkie talkies are narrowband now and wideband will cause weird issues. For some reason people have argued with me on this but trust me I've done my research and personally tried it, you don't want a wideband radio.
Whether or not you need to program it depends on if it has at least 22 channels. This is because standard radios have 22 channels so most events use 22. The 4011s that some of us use only have 16. Since one team usually gets half the channels this works fine but depending on what team your on you may need to reprogram the radio. Which basically consists of typing in the frequency numbers into a spreadsheet then pressing a button.
Also, I can't speak to the performance of anything but the 4011, because it's the only one I've personally tested. It's certainly not the only option. I just don't know how the others might compare.
Edit: I just double checked and as I suspected those radios you listed are not compatible. They operate in the 100Mhz range.
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