Walkie Talkie Suggestions, Please

Eliot Hack wrote:

Rockie talkies good value,and good ergonomics 

Ho well do RT's work from top of pitch to bottom with no line of sight? ie through rock.

RJNakata wrote:

Ho well do RT's work from top of pitch to bottom with no line of sight? ie through rock.

They  work great, but "through rock" isn't really what's happening; the radio wave is just bouncing off something else. We took them up the Grand Teton and Wolf's Head last summer, and on every single pitch, even the long ones, even the Wolf's Head pitch that has you tunneling through a horizontal chimney like some kind of desperate rock-gopher, they worked flawlessly. Note that Wolf's Head in general involves dodging around gendarme after gendarme, far out of sight of your belayer, with tons of rock in between. Can't recommend them enough. 

Having had not climbed with radios for most of my climbing career, I now always bring them on multi's.

It is wayyyyyy better than not having it. "what if the batteries die" well you see, you revert back the old school way of yelling and rope tugging. Its not that hard to use you brain and set up a back up plan. 

As well ive had people come on trips that were not climbing that stayed on our channel  and could get a message from one of us if an accident did happen...yet another positive. Shoot, a lot of hikers use FRS radios and in a jam might get lucky if in need by going through the channels.

One radio clipped to my harness is nothing. When its windy as shit and your partner is our of eyesight around a bulge and your wondering if this tugs were the tugs whilst hearing perhaps on belay, or was that off belay, that radio has played out to be so useful. This only gets worse if there are other parties around yelling too.

Did I mention moving efficiency goes up with good communication?

Don't want to use one, don't. No one cares. But for those who are interested in using radios, I have found them to pay fantastic dividends which warrant them anytime I'm on a multi.

RJNakata wrote:

Ho well do RT's work from top of pitch to bottom with no line of sight? ie through rock.

Easily , I’ve gotten across ravines up to a mile in Forest, multiple miles in flat area, perfect sound after an 300 foot pitch, they are perfect for rock.  

Tamiban Gueterstan wrote:

Rocky Talkies are just slightly more ergonomic versions of the blister pack radios you can buy for $30 a pair. They should not be $100 each. Basically all walkie-talkies (FRS radios) you can buy on the shelf transmit at the highest power allowed by the FCC. You're not getting much for the ridicious price except flashy design + markup for "climbing". I like nice things, but know what you're getting.

Baofeng makes some radios where you boost that output past FCC allowance FYI. Cheap for what they can do and no one is ever gonna bust ya for over transmitting on FRS.

Tamiban Gueterstan wrote:

Rocky Talkies are just slightly more ergonomic versions of the blister pack radios you can buy for $30 a pair. They should not be $100 each. Basically all walkie-talkies (FRS radios) you can buy on the shelf transmit at the highest power allowed by the FCC. You're not getting much for the ridicious price except flashy design + markup for "climbing". I like nice things, but know what you're getting.

Damn  They are 100 now oof, I got them at seventy five with an extra battery.  You do get basically waterproofing excellent range and ergonomics, which are all worth even 100 bucks. 

Tamiban Gueterstan wrote:

Rocky Talkies are just slightly more ergonomic versions of the blister pack radios you can buy for $30 a pair. They should not be $100 each. Basically all walkie-talkies (FRS radios) you can buy on the shelf transmit at the highest power allowed by the FCC. You're not getting much for the ridicious price except flashy design + markup for "climbing". I like nice things, but know what you're getting.

My Motorola T100's (2 for $30) work great on the ski slope, but I had a bit of an issue on a way less than vertical pitch - they didn't seem to connect well when less than line of sight.  That was once, but it got me thinking that something with very reliable range-wise would be good.  

Are you saying that the Rocky's and my cheapos theoretically have the same through-rock capabilities? 

I find Rocky Talkies well worth the cost. They have 4-5 day battery life, as the display minimizes during use, and are USB rechargeable. They work very well in cold winter temps, and for bc skiing I prefer them to my more expensive BCA radios, which have a pain-in-butt external mic.

RJNakata wrote:

My Motorola T100's (2 for $30) work great on the ski slope, but I had a bit of an issue on a way less than vertical pitch - they didn't seem to connect well when less than line of sight.  That was once, but it got me thinking that something with very reliable range-wise would be good.  

Are you saying that the Rocky's and my cheapos theoretically have the same through-rock capabilities? 

Antenna will make a big difference fwiw even with the same-ish internals. So my guess is the rocky has a better dongle.

Walkie Talkies go perfect with Stick Clips and bringing your dog to the crag.

David Katz wrote:

Walkie Talkies go perfect with Stick Clips and bringing your dog to the crag.

I think most folks here are talking about long, multi-pitch climbs, not one pitch sport climbs.

David Katz wrote:

Walkie Talkies go perfect with Stick Clips and bringing your dog to the crag.

You take your dog on multi pitch? That’s awesome, I used to hang glide with my dog and she loved it. They are more into adventure sports than people realize. 

David Katz wrote:

Walkie Talkies go perfect with Stick Clips and bringing your dog to the crag.

Mr. No-Speaky-No-Reachy-McNobork

Anything else to add to the list?

P.s. Dogs are rad

Tamiban Gueterstan wrote:

That basically exists now in the world of sport intercoms. SENA pi, a tiny thing you attach to any helmet strap to have full time intercom with 400 meter open air range. They're $100/each which is the same price as a rocky talkie (which is a ridiculously overpriced FRS radio btw). If really heavy wind noise is a concern, the headset based ones with a small boom microphone are incredibly good at filtering out wind noise and have a 900 meter open air range, 10 hour TALK (transmiting) time, 1 week standby. This problem is mostly solved already, just not 100% for rock climbing. The on-ear ones with 900meter open air range don't work through a ton of rock, but further than you'd think.

Anyone try these? 

RJNakata wrote:

Anyone try these? 

Cool idea. Range is seriously bad.

10/10 would not buy.

Mr Rogers wrote:

Cool idea. Range is seriously bad.

10/10 would not buy.

400 meters isn't enough range? How long are your pitches?

FrankPS wrote:

400 meters isn't enough range? How long are your pitches?

clearly you have a lack of understanding of how radio transmission works in the real world.
Those little things have at best a 400m range with perfect line of sight. Guaranteed they will not work well at all if you stray from that line at all. There is just not enough output wattage to be functional in a rock climbing environment.

Mr Rogers wrote:

clearly you have a lack of understanding of how radio transmission works in the real world.
Those little things have at best a 400m range with perfect line of sight. Guaranteed they will not work well at all if you stray from that line at all. There is just not enough output wattage to be functional in a rock climbing environment.

You're right that I am ignorant about radio transmission. These things won't communicate up a 200' pitch?

If you have direct line of sight they would work to 200'. The LOS thing is the key.
The second they end up around corner or with something between them the functionality of this little guys is gonna drop to pretty close to useless unfortunately.
I like the form factor here, but just not enough amplitude to be functional for multi pitching.

EDIT DUE TO POST LIMIT: to answer the question below.
I use I-COM radios (nicer but $$) and Baofeng (affordable performance)

At one point I stated to nerd hard into radios for work, so I learned to program them to use some more advanced features like digital filtering to keep out unwanted radio traffic on the same FRS channel as others, boost output wattage, and more!

Link to BaoFeng on amazon.

I-com f60v

That I-com version can be had for 50ish bucks on e-bay sometimes. Retail is around $200 if I remember right when I purchased years ago. So probably cheaper now.

Both radios will benefit from buying the programming cable and learning some of the advanced features IMO, but will work fine out of the box. The I-com needs the cable to do any real programming but the BaoFeng can be programmed from the radio itself for most options.

Hope this helps.

Mr Rogers wrote:

Having had not climbed with radios for most of my climbing career, I now always bring them on multi's.

Which radio do you use?