shinester
Senior Member
China's white trash
Posts: 3,119 
Likes: 3,578
Email: shiny@ausprep.org
|
Post by shinester on Dec 4, 2016 16:43:10 GMT 10
|
|
tomatoes
Senior Member
Posts: 1,065 
Likes: 1,089
|
Post by tomatoes on Dec 4, 2016 17:56:01 GMT 10
Would this need something else to use it to charge a phone? Would it be enough W to do the job?
|
|
tomatoes
Senior Member
Posts: 1,065
Likes: 1,089
|
Post by tomatoes on Dec 4, 2016 18:08:46 GMT 10
Aldi catalogue this week has
"Walking talkie 2 pack $29.99 . Up to 5km range . 75 channels . Handheld, 2-way talk radio . 10 call tones . Rechargeable battery packs"
Are these just toys? Are they any use? Any thoughts?
|
|
shinester
Senior Member
China's white trash
Posts: 3,119
Likes: 3,578
Email: shiny@ausprep.org
|
Post by shinester on Dec 4, 2016 18:48:28 GMT 10
7W is more than enough for phones. If you stick the charger and the phone/radio in a large zip lock bag [$1.50-$3 or so on ebay] you can keep it waterproof whilst charging outside.
Aldi radios, got a linky?
- Programmable?
- If they're 3-5W units they'll be fine. Good for local communication. With a lot more knowledge and proper antenna usage can go quite a distance as I'm learning by those who know radios a lot more than me.
- BF-888's are about $19 delivered on ebay.
|
|
tomatoes
Senior Member
Posts: 1,065
Likes: 1,089
|
Post by tomatoes on Dec 4, 2016 20:43:00 GMT 10
No online ad for the Aldi ones yet - only the printed catalogue and I copied the whole description from that word-for-word so have no further info. The are on sale Sat 10 Dec. I did look for online reviews though and it looks like Aldi had some on sale this time in previous years with different brand names, and those seemed to get good reviews.
|
|
tomatoes
Senior Member
Posts: 1,065
Likes: 1,089
|
Post by tomatoes on Dec 5, 2016 19:46:38 GMT 10
|
|
shinester
Senior Member
China's white trash
Posts: 3,119
Likes: 3,578
Email: shiny@ausprep.org
|
Post by shinester on Dec 5, 2016 20:48:20 GMT 10
Yeah, saw it, doesn't have ratings. I can see advantages and disadvantages.
Adv.
- cheap, can't beat $15 a piece for some kind of communication.
- already programmed for Aust
- has just about all the channels
Dis.
- unknown specifications on output, it's anywhere between 1-5W.
- unknown program-ability, for most people this is unimportant.
- short stubby fix antenna means no antenna options, this is perhaps the big downer for me. Antennas are 'everything' for a radio, more so than wattage. Only good for very short range, 5kms is rather optimistic in the real world looking at it.
- charged via mains, can't use solar charging as demonstrated in this thread.
- no external battery or additional battery available, so when it's flat nothing you can do about it.
|
|
tomatoes
Senior Member
Posts: 1,065
Likes: 1,089
|
Post by tomatoes on Dec 5, 2016 21:08:30 GMT 10
Thanks for your comments. Very helpful.
|
|
tomatoes
Senior Member
Posts: 1,065
Likes: 1,089
|
Post by tomatoes on Dec 10, 2016 19:14:26 GMT 10
Got one pair of the Aldi radios and gave just now put in the batteries and put them on the stand for charging. (I have another couple of cheap radios in storage but I won't know if they still work for another couple of months so thought I'd just get one pair of these to see what they're like).
One interesting thing so far from reading the instruction book is that you can use rechargeable aaa's instead of the batteries that come with it, so they could be run on solar.
|
|
|
|
Post by perthprepper on Dec 10, 2016 21:42:08 GMT 10
Cheap USB solar panel on ebay $13.50 for 7W. Typically about $28. I already have plenty, though if you're thinking about it you won't see a better price Took the plunge and bought one, couldn't resist at that price. Will be useful on camping trips just for the phones. Cheers for the link. |
|
shinester
Senior Member
China's white trash
Posts: 3,119
Likes: 3,578
Email: shiny@ausprep.org
|
Post by shinester on Dec 10, 2016 22:35:12 GMT 10
I grabbed a few myself, got them the other day, they're compact and decent.
The Aldi CB's are 0.5W, looked at them today.
|
|
tomatoes
Senior Member
Posts: 1,065
Likes: 1,089
|
Post by tomatoes on Dec 11, 2016 9:05:51 GMT 10
I grabbed a few myself, got them the other day, they're compact and decent. The Aldi CB's are 0.5W, looked at them today. Can you tell me what 0.5w means in practice? Is this short range, or does it have implications for recharging? |
|
shinester
Senior Member
China's white trash
Posts: 3,119
Likes: 3,578
Email: shiny@ausprep.org
|
Post by shinester on Dec 11, 2016 10:36:11 GMT 10
In brief, less range. You 'can' get decent range with 0.5W if you have a great or direction antenna, which is moot since the Aldi ones have fixed stubby [short] antennas. I would suspect 1km would be pushing it. Not saying that don't have utility, it depends on what you have them for. ----------- Baofeng UV-5R - have about 5W, programmable, detachable antenna and as I mentioned here, adding a piece of copper wire the same length as the antenna will increase perforance. - $45, in your case get them locally so you don't have to program them. I have 3. Baofeng VF-888 - $20, again get them locally. Less channels than above, for me the simplicity [since I might have to be handing it to the neighbors] is my aim. I have... many  |
|
