Are these good radios for preppers.... Retevis RB19? There is better for less money. 

I think you need to look at the Luiton LT-316. Low power, USB rechargeable, 16 channel, and programmable. Just my thoughts, program the frs channels, then find one or two uhf business band channels in your area that are not used by local businesses. Uses those channels as your talk around channels.

P.S. Dont use white dot, black dot, or orange dot. Those correspond to 16, 18, & 20 on gmrs. We have issues with the off roaders out here, they talk over us out on the pipeline and telling them to get off business band does no good. Not going to rant on that. 🙂 So, if you use a business band channel not used locally or a gmrs channel, you should have a slightly better secure channel to talk on.

LITTLE KNOWN SECRET Baofeng vr5 radios when programed with 5w frs channels CANNOT be heard on other regular frs radios..it scrambles, I've tested this using my baofeng frs radios. Been working for my retreat for years.

Agreed. The individual chargers are good for just that, individuals who can charge them at their own location. I had the same thought about using a multi charger for "home base". Makes it much easier to keep the radios in one place, and charge them with one cable. Especially useful if connected to a generator or solar. However _(at least from what I can find)_ it doesn't appear that they have such a charger for the RT7... although they have have them for many other radios. To bad they don't sell one separately for the RT7, or even in a kit package.

👀👍🏻

Rusty Shackelford Look up mower junkie on youtube.

Do a video on it homie

Dave, little known baofeng uv5 and uv8 watt fact. When you program an FRS frequency on it, It has a scramble feature built in. Use the higher frequencies that will transmit in 5w . No one can with an FRS radio can hear your transmission. Not even when I use baofeng frs radios. It is A MUST HAVE FOR SECURITY BROTHER. I've tested this for months.. it works.

@@damian3715 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-d-j0onzzuNQ.html

@@fuqutube thank you!

@@debosquatch I use this same thing.

The price for a no test license for the GMRS is now $35.

On that note, EVERYONE should learn some basic electrical engineering and have some components ... Easy to make a radio like this run on a car battery.

@@fuqutube I agree about learning some new basic skills in electrical engineering but using a car battery to run a radio like this would not be very mobile & is that not the main point to have a walkie talky radio so you can walk & talk. Carrying a big car battery would slow you down quite a bit

@@StrangeSkies1111 Agreed, I was just pointing out some preps I believe many miss. Limiting yourself to a specific type of radio, is very linear type of thinking. I can take any radio, regardless of battery or charger condition and use it. I feel like too much time is spent on easy options that will all fail. If we think in terms of tools, and skill we quickly can adapt to any situation. I am atypical tho, lol

@@StrangeSkies1111 Oh yea, a car battery seems perfectly reasonable in a ruck LOL.. J/K thats a fkn no go!

I agree , my coms run off of rechargeable AA or regular AA

Yeah, a license is definitely better, gives much more capability. HF can be used "locally" with NVIS antennas, too. I wish the FCC would authorize voice (more) usage on HF for Technician Class, though.

Free to listen on any band only need a license to talk but when the shtf who needs a license?!

​@@411adaptivegolf You can get away without a license during an emergency yes.. but if your plan is to avoid getting experience and use it only in an emergency you are going to fall on your face. Get licensed, get a radio, learn now, and you'll be ready when SHTF. If you don't you won't be ready and will fail miserably during an emergency. Would you buy a firearm and ammo and just keep it in your safe? Or would you go and get some training and experience? Same idea.

My point was you don't need a license to learn, only need it to talk! You can learn everything from listening and reading! I may get my license one day but it's a pain in the ass to get as its usually a 3 hr drive one way for a class at 9 a.m. on a Saturday! Fcc upped the cost too so there's more incentive to learn from watching and reading. I've taken all the study classes and books, even do the practice test online so I'm prepared!

@@411adaptivegolf which site do you prefer for the practice test?

I do not know if I should laugh or cry. Thanks

@ Swamp Hun I'm in the same situation as you!

Make that a lesson. If you don't have a MAG now, You don't have one. People live too far away or you can't fully trust them. Lil brother: 3 purple hearts USMC Said something politically off so he's out Sister: Cop in NOVA and is a liability so she's out Neighbor: prepped to the rafters, then showed me his pot plants, idiot, he's out. I do not trust anyone

Also will say back in the day if we found a guy in Sudan with a com on him, well he had a bad day.

@@swampwolf Heavens, what would people find about you that would make you a throw-away ?? In SHTF, politics won’t matter, what position you held before won’t matter, what drugs/meds they had before won’t matter (although I know that pot makes seeds, and one could always use barter items, but we usually think salt or honey😏). Everyone has good and bad features. If they aren’t “killin’ offences”, then I predict they can work in a group to avoid starving, being enslaved or outright death. Let he who is without prepper deficiencies cast the first stone.

I'm still trying to learn how to use my baofengs and set up channels for me and my family my girlfriend and I are the only ones seeming to care about these things

Are there better radios that reach long distance? Sure. But they also have a lot of con's as well. he long distance part being one of them if you only want them to work short range, as he stated in the video. I've had FRS radios can still work up to 1.5 miles IRL. And in a community setting, this is most likely want to you need. You don't want to be broadcasting far out where people can eventually follow your signal in. Can Ham comms be useful? Yes especially when communicating with other groups or just gathering info from other hams at long distance. But you aren't going to be broadcasting a lot doing this, and most likely not on the same channels/frequencies either. Another problem is those radios are not something you can just hand to someone and them be able to use it. And elderly people aren't going to be able to use such radios either, _(unless by chance they have been using hams for many years)_ But for the needs SP1 is trying to fill in this video, ham radios do not fit the bill. However, both radio types are good to have for their own purposes and for their specific uses.

An FRS radio like this is limited to 0.5 watts output, so under perfect conditions, you might be able to transmit 1/2 mile to a mile, max. By perfect conditions, I mean no trees, hills, buildings - straight line of sight, all of these things will have an effect on your distance. For your buddy 15 miles away, look into CBs, they're fairly cheap, common, and a lot of people have an old one in their attic or garage on a shelf.

That would be awesome

NotARubiconProductions has a very good channel that focuses on the Baofeng UV-5R.

@@stuartholden6163 Thank you!

ICOM is probably the top of the list, but will run you high dollars. From what I have read, Grundig is a good alternative and will be easier on your wallet. Invest in a quality antenna tho.

Chirp works as long as you have the right firmware for your cable

I'm pretty sure he has discussed in other videos that there is a member in his community that is a ham op. However, this is not the purpose of the need he is trying to fill and discussing in this video.

thats what i was thinking about getting a license. would it be easy to find a ham radio before and after shtf?

@@Davidautofull If operating from a fixed location any radio transmissions can be tracked by someone with the right equipment. With direction finding equipment at several locations a radio can be traced to a certain area. In SHTF, I would imagine the only entity with the right equipment and enough of it to be effective would be the government / military. Limited use at random times would make it very difficult but not impossible. Moving your transmitter periodically would make it even more difficult. Remember we have 2 ears and 1 mouth so we should listen more (monitoring various channels) and talk (transmit) less.

Old school CB

No radio signals are private. It is also illegal to encrypt radio signals (if you give a damn about what the FCC says), and besides, encryption hardware is big $$$. There are "privacy codes" that come with some radios, but those only allow you to receive a signal from another radio using the same privacy code. That is to say, everyone else with a radio can still hear you, but the privacy code just blocks you from hearing them. Don't get fooled by "privacy codes," they are not private.

That's what I need. A radio that reaches 4 miles in very hilly terrain .

Old school CB.

Roger will do

You can get one of those "FBI Style" earpiece/mics for most radios off Amazon, if you are concerned about noise discipline in a tactical situation.