Batboard

I am trying to decide which way to take my uhf radio system. Either go with convertacoms and amplifiers or seperate walkies and mobiles. Most of the people using the system are radio illiterate. My thinking is if you have one radio to use only one radio to learn.

Thoughts. . . Problems. . . Suggestions. . . Questions

Not necessarily in that order

TIA
R

Meh, it's a toss up. Even with the convertacom idea, you'll still have monkeys that don't fully understand the concept of a mobile adapter. Personally, i'd go with a simple mobile, like the MaxTrac. Probably easier to train them to use a MaxTrac mobile than the use of the convertacom. However, i'm sure cost will play a roll in the scenario, and an SVA i'm sure is much cheaper than a full blown mobile.

srefurd wrote:I am trying to decide which way to take my uhf radio system. Either go with convertacoms and amplifiers or seperate walkies and mobiles. Most of the people using the system are radio illiterate. My thinking is if you have one radio to use only one radio to learn.

Thoughts. . . Problems. . . Suggestions. . . Questions

Not necessarily in that order

TIA
R

As long as you don't break into any kind of radio theory I'm sure as long as you show them the basics even the mightiest of mental midgets can handle channel up, channel down and press the little button to talk to someone.

Keep it simple and you should be ok. A maxtrac with a couple of channels... a simple portable. And away you go.

Give them some time to get used to it and start giving them bigger toys to play with. It's like a child. You don't give them an automatic rifle to start out with. Start em with a pea shooter.. move to the pellet rifle, then the .22 caliber... I think you get the idea.

As far as cost. You can get Maxtracs and some of the older Genesis radios fairly inexpensive these days. At least compared to the higher teir radios.

If you give your "people" an HT which they can carry around then the odds are that radios are going to go missing. It's much more difficult for your non-techie staff to lose a Maxtrac or Radius if it's permanently mounted in the vehicle.

Unless, of course, they NEED an HT to carry around with them when not in the car.

Here in DC the MPD used to run MX convertacoms but as the years passed they eventually got to the point where they now use hardwired, remote-mount, Spectras in the cars and the POs carry Saber IIs. (UHF, 460 mHz, analog system, which still works great. Their radio discipline stinks but you can't have everything!)

Tom in D.C.
W2NJS

Hello.

To explain how a radio works is not needed.
Everybody knows how to use a cell phone, why, because people see them in use, they learn by doing.
A cellular phone can get lost, a radio can get lost, but to keep this from happening?. Place a replacement value on the radio, something along the lines of what it is worth, have the employee sign a document that they will pay for replacement if lost.
You MUST provide a holster, and, if required, external speaker-mic, unless the radio is something really small, like a visor.
A radio sitting in its holser all day, used only by its speaker-mic, is not going to get lost. A radio someone has to carry in the hand all day,,,.

I'd also go with the seperate mobile radio, used Maxtrac's can be had
cheaper than a lot of convertacom's. I've seen a lot of failures with converta-coms when the radios go in and out a lot. Then there's the redundancy factor of having extra radios. As long as you program the mobiles same as the portables even the un-savy user shouldn't have a problem long as they know chan 1,etc. is the same in the portable as
the mobile.

Maybe if you told us what/who the radios are for it would help?

Cam