What kind of walkie talkie do i get for business use?

Question

I am the manager at a retail store and i want my employees to wear a walkie talkie and headset so they can communicate with each other when needed. I recently bought some walkie talkies from Radio Shack that are Radio Shack brand but the battery doesn't last and in the last 3 days two of the headsets have stopped working. I need something that will have working headsets and a long lasting battery and won't freak out when it is around computers. Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Motorola makes some pretty good professional radios:

http://www.123radios.com/BuyItNow.asp?PI...

http://www.123radios.com/BuyItNow.asp?PI...

These radios are more expensive than cheap ones but they will be reliable.

Answer 2

I bought a set of RadioShack cheapies a few years ago. We throw them in the charger at night and easily get a day out of them. Use them all over job sites.

Answer 3

I find it really annoying when businesses are using FRS radios to conduct thier work since this was intended for private citizens to use, not busesses. Besides, in some areas there's quite a bit of traffic and you can have significant interference from other users on the same channels.

I agree with John in that you should use professional equipment. There's 2 methods that can be used:

1. Licenses frequency: this is the "old fashioned" approach. You get a license to use a specific frequency for your area, nobody else can use it. You have radios setup for that frequency. This can turn out very expensive since licensing is not cheap. Usually only suitable these days for very large operations.

2. You subscribe to leased radio services from a provider. These are sometimes setup by cellphone companies and others. You have radios that are programmed to use "trunked" frequencies that are shared by other subscribers. You only ever hear and talk to your own radios, however this avoids expensive licensing costs and is a better way to use the radio spectrum.

Check out your yellow pages under business radio and you should find services in this area. Most of the radios being used for either scenario I described are light-years ahead of the consumer goods you find in Radio Shack and similar in terms of durability and performance.