Monday February 07, 2005

Gadgets

PMR446 (personal mobile radio) I had yesterday afternoon off as vacation, so I decided to go into Maplins in Stevenage. For those who don't know Maplins it is essentially a electrical gadget shop. I love it, I could spend so much money in there it is frightening.

Well this time I picked up a couple of PMR446 walkie talkies as I might have a need for some in the summer (nothing like being ready!). PMR446 is a European wide standard for personal mobile radios on 446Mhz. Well it is nearly Europe wide, I think Monaco don't include themself. The radios have 8 individual channels with 38 additional "sub-channels". This just means that your radio on one of the eight channels will ignore any sub-channel it doesn't recognise. You still share the primary channel with everyone else.

They are suppose to give about 2-3 kilometres. I haven't had a chance to try them out yet over any distance. It says buildings and land relief make a difference so I'm not expecting anything exceptional. A kilometre would be nice.

Well I tried them out on Saturday night as it was time for a Chinese take-away (not had one for ages and ages). So I treked down to the high street and tried to raise Jo who was still at home. Yes they worked, a bit crackly but I could hear every word. The distance isn't that far, probably half a mile, but that is down a hill and through lots of buildings, over an electrified railway and into the car. I was too self conscious to do it on the street.

(2005-02-07 10:30:00.0) Permalink