Is Rocky Talkie indestructible? 

I love that you picked up the extra trash. I do that most of my adventures, time permitting, and whenever I bring the kids along we make it a family event. Humans are trash-animals and it’s sad the rubbish left out, even in remote places. I appreciate your content as usual 🙏

The replaceable batteries (WHILE IT SUCKS THEY'RE A SPECIFIC NONSTANDARD SHAPE) are very VERY good for the durability of these! If you take care of them, 100% the first thing to die will be the battery! EDIT: ACTUALLY, it's even better - The USB port is on the BATTERY itself, meaning that 2 wear components are easily replaceable! This thing is awesome!

Superb review. The durability is very impressive. Thanks for getting into the nitty-gritty button pressing stuff, that’s the part of the owners manual it most people will skip right over but it could be really important. 👍

Absolutely love this kind of review. It's not just slings and carabiners that keep us safe, and it's amazing to have all that real-life field-tested knowledge. Awesome job Ryan you and your team are truly a standing pillar for data and infos in the climbing community.

In europe we also have the problem that the frequency band from the rockie talkie its not open for license-free use in all european countries. It would be nice to see something like a rockie talkie for the european market.

Whoa! I’ve had Rockies for about a year now and Iove them. I consider them a critical part of multi-pitch safety. As much as the rope. I. did. Not. Know. about that ch 1-23 thing!!!

Great layman's explanation of the FRS channel segmentation.

Yes! In depth gear reviews! This was amazing. I already knew a few things about radios but this not only sold me on the product but it taught me a bunch. I would watch more of this.

For someone who has never climbed and doesn’t really know if I will, this was still fascinating. I love that even though these are what you use and there’s a discount and you’ve spoken to the owners, you present a clear picture of anything that could be a flaw or drawback

Knowing that you guys endorse these was the final bullet point that convinced me to get a pair. SO HAPPY to have had them on my latest multi-pitch adventure. I love these in-depth videos, and I always love knowing the breaking point for any and all gear. Thank you for all your hard work

That explanation of all of the channels was super useful. I just got a pair of rocky talkies and had no idea.

Appreciated the review and teaching. Getting ready to use these in CO. Thanks.

Way cool review! I loved the break strength test on the rubber casing. Keep up the good work!!

Awesome review! I was looking at these and will be getting some in the future.

This was exactly what I needed to understand the channels. Thanks!

Love the review! The torture test was fun. I really should pick up one of these!

Really love the in depth gear videos.

I use cheap Motorola walkies. Dropped one half way up el cap, still use it today.

I have a set of 3 but still learned something new. Thanks for the review and tests.

Thanks a bunch for the discount bro! Just got a pair of these on order. Thanks again!

I use a Rocky Talkie for backcountry splitboarding and on resort. This is the best review and explanation of the radios I've ever stumble on.

Great radio. We used them in a rescue competition inside of a battleship and they worked great. Also use them for rescuer to rescuer communication in the fire department when carrying a large FD radio is not an option.

I rapped into lower Yosemite falls pool with these on my and my partner’s harness they shut off but after a few days in rice it came back and works like it used too

Absolutely get the extended mic... And do a pull test! Lol I use an 18 inch antenna tucked into the frame rail pocket in my pack when I hike and ski with a ham radio. The radio stays in the pack with coax to the antenna and speaker/mic coming out the hydration tube pass through. It makes it so you can hear the call at a reasonable volume and reply with minimal fidgeting.

Nice job with a full teardown! Looks like good quality. Im seeing an alternate universe where Ryan is tearing apart iphones in the slacksnap.

Thank you for the video

I am getting quite the kick out of watching you guys test the gear. I climbed in the 60s and 70s. Other than carabiners and ropes we made all our own gear. Most of the chocks were various sizes of machine nuts with the threads filed out and fitted with a piece of webbing. We had a small forge and made our own petons and rps etc. Testing was by falling on the gear. I can barely walk now but I am sure glad to see the sport be safer than it was. Cheers from the left edge of Canada. ~ulrich

The charge curve shown in those graphs is the standard voltage curve for Li-ion cells. Most things using Li-ion cells use a more sophisticated (but also more expensive) "state of charge" gauge for that very reason.

Just a point about the CTCSS and DCS codes. They are just a filtering element for the radio to unlock the speaker with a matched code. Despite the name using these codes doesn't mean your conversation is private. The reviewer sort of pointed this out but just understand that these are monitorable devices. You can buy radios that use encrypted digital modes and thus are not monitorable. Retevis is a lower-cost brand than Motorola.

This was great. Classic content.

I did a range test with 8 different FRS radios and found the Rocky Talkies performed best. Got about 2.7 miles range in a dense urban environment!

Thanks, I'm going to get some now!

Yes, I really liked the long review!

For anyone considering getting the extended hand mic - Leaving the Rocky Talkie on my gear loop and just loudly talking in its general direction has worked well enough on multipitch for times when I don't want to unclip it and bring it to my mouth.

I like the in depth videos

Epic work

I love how he immediately broke it lmao... just ordered 3

Currently FRS and GMRS share sets of channels. The first set is the 8 main GMRS channels (15 - 22) in the 462 MHz region, where GMRS radios can transmit with up to 50 watts and FRS can transmit 2 watts. The second set of channels are the so called interstitial channels (1 - 7), which are interleaved in between channels 15 - 22, where GMRS can transmit 5 watts and FRS 2 watts. So the channel spacing, with the interleaved channels, is 12.5 kHz. The third set of channels are the GMRS repeater input channels in the 467 MHz region, paired with channels 15 - 22, which cannot be used by FRS since it does not allow repeaters. The final set of channels (8 - 14) is for reserved for handheld radios, which is why GMRS mobile and base radios will not transmit on them. They are interleaved between the 467 MHz GMRS repeater input channels. Both FRS and GMRS handheld radios can transmit on these 467 MHz interstitial channels with 0.5 watt of power. So, to recap, channels 1 - 7 allow 2 watts FRS, 5 watts GMRS; channels 8 - 14 are reserved for handheld radios, 0.5 watts, and channels 15 - 22 are the main GMRS channels which may have up to 50 watt GMRS radios, however FRS with 2 watts is allowed on these channels.

The RockyTalkie was my third pair of radio's, since living in Europe rocky's are hard to obtain (yes, frequency bands are different, I modded them to work on PMR). The first two were acceptable, but the rocky's are just so much better. I completely took them apart, and they're built like a tank. The circuit board is bolted to a surprisingly thing metal backplate (which you can see when you remove the battery), the plastic case is super sturdy (not to mention the extra rubber shell), and everything is clearly high quality. Would 100% recommend for anybody in the USA (or Canada I think). In Europe only if you really know what you're doing Edit for Ryan: The antenna is replaceable, it's just loctite'd on, a solid pair of plyers will make quick work of it. Maybe you could request a new antenna from them

Thanks!

Hey Ryan, Just watched this video. I hear your complaint about having to take the radio off your harness when climbing. What I have found with my rockies is that the mic cuts out wind noise so well that i can talk pretty normally to my radio, while clipped to my waist, and it goes clearly to my partner, even in pretty windy conditions. I am interested in the mics tho for skiing cause I messed one up due to being in wet snow for extended periods of time in an Avalanche course.

OMG Ryan... I think Rocky Talkie just contacted you saying you covered their product more than they ever had. ;) (THANKS!)

This was a great review. I never new about how the channels worked. I loved seeing how durable they are, and knowing about the battery life curve is super useful I do think you should have briefly disclosed up front your incentives, although it is good that you disclosed them at the end

I love my very compact baofeng t1, but it sucks energy ever in off mode. Rocky talkie 1 week in standby mode it super good enough! :)

Oh yeah, Ham radio hole goes really frickin deep and very specific. It's one of those perishable skills too like map reading and land navigation. If you don't use it all the time, they start to degrade pretty rapidly. There is so many little nuisances in both those skills and is really easy to mix and match things and they can really screw you up. I really recommend anyone look up HAM radio basics before going out in the bush with these and thinking you're good.

Some suggestions of what gear to do next: mountain tools webolette, petzl connect dual adjust

useful content

I can definitely say they work great skiing at Steven’s.

So glad I stayed through the rest of the video. I almost left early. I bought these but didn't know about the channels. Maybe I should read the manual? Nah

Love the “6 metric inches away” comment at 0:50 XD I think that’s my new favorite unit of measure. How many metric inches to regular inches?

Range for me in flatland suburbia was about a half-mile, except it was a borrowed set so now I'm wondering if they were on a low-power setting....

Hey! Have you done/could you do any research on how a crack being wet might decrease a cam's performance? Obviously in porous rock the rock strength is compromised, but in rock that remains strong in wet conditions how does the decreased friction impact the cam's performance? Just an idea and something I am curious about.

Give them some fins to make sure they always land antenna up.

Juggling 'pins' - that's a good one. Although they might look like they came from a bowling alley, no juggler would attempt to juggle bowling pins. Theyre Clubs, Juggling clubs.

1:05 anyone else impressed that she climbs bare foot?

The part about privacy codes and such was always a mystery to me until now lol

very nice video on these, just a small correction, it's not only a power problem for Europe, it's also a frequency problem and a removable antenna problem. (legal) walkies here need to have a fixed, non-removable antenna, use the PMR446 frequencies, and transmit at no more than .5 watts

I hope rockie talkie reads this but I love my walkies got two and thats directly related to Ryan.

Love the gear review! Thanks for explaining everything in such depth. Can't wait until they come up with a Bluetooth version that I can link to an ear pod so that I can climb and talk with my belay partner without having to push a button.

Cars are like farada cages. That’s why external antennas are added to vehicles

This is cool

Removable battery is huge thanks

Great video. I love how technical you get, Ryan. A lot of these RU-vidrs try to dumb down their videos for the "average" intelligence viewer, but you assume everyone is intelligent, spare no expense with the education, and believe anyone can take from the video whatever they're capable of understanding.

Not illegal to own a high power radio in Europe, but to broadcast you need a radio amatur lisence

can we talk about that intro where he stands fully above an anchor tied in with a static sling 😲😲 seems like a super good candidate for a factor 2 static fall. is he super confident that he wont fall, or am i missing something?

ryan, if you read your comments i would love to see a test: petzl recomends to never toprope solo on a microtraxion without backing it up. but ive never heard of a microtraxion slipping or failing... would you try and make one slip ...? maybe theyre super good enough without backup

Are these better than a regular Motorola?

Does anyone know if these are legal in Australia?

I wonder how well it works in caves... The radio signal bouncing off walls would be good for communication during a pit rappel or ascent

0:54 What's a metric inch?!!

Maybe if extreme gear sold rockie talkies, they could send them to us over in Europe 😁

I use an old flip phone while climbing. It always has service and it still works after dropping it 6 times and running it through the washer 3.

Remote mic makes it harder to drop, too.

Where is this?

The depth is good. I dont think you need to break test everything but its an endorsement of how bomber this device is. What makes this valuable is that you are going through the use cases and letting people know what they should expect than just stating their max range of 40km but what the flat terrain should offer.

Automotive battery test engineer here, to this day no one has figured out how to accurately measure battery capacity with the same accuracy as the level sensor in your gas tank. Maybe there is one, but it's not commercialized.

what is the advantage of going with a UHF radio over a VHF radio.

Still waiting for being able to buy these in Europe 😮‍💨

Six metric inches! Unbelieveable! :D

How many foot・meters is 6 metric inches?

You know of any good European options?

Did you test the battery drain multiplier times? Sometimes a battery needs to be drained to 0 in order to calibrate. I wonder if that’s why they were dying around 25%.

Bomber but use a leash on them still lol

metric inches.......nice

If you know what kind of Battery is in these. You can find the data sheet for the battery discharge... Super science backed

I'd buy a rocky talkie, but I live in Europe.

Sadly not available in Europe. Otherwise I would have bought Tru you. Now just chose a walkie talkie Europe approved.

How did this guy know I was gonna program mine to 69 privacy code 69.. buzz kill.

CTCSS isn't a scramble/privacy code, it's analogue squelch. DCS is digital squelch. A receiver with squelch turned OFF will hear EVERYTHING. If you want end-to-end encryption on a handheld but want it on PMR446, use TDMA voice inversion. Incidentally, the Baofeng UV-5R is a fantastic radio when it doesn't randomly die (as mine did), they are cheap as balls and you can get them on Amazon :) . Always carry a HOT SPARE.

@HowNOT2 You shouldn't broadcast on a HT/Walkie talkie without antenna affixed. It will burn up the final. Just FYI

Wish they sold a low power version. Ah well, T62's are cheaper anyway

Don't transmit without the antenna on. Generally you can burn the electronics up. The antenna is a matched electrical load.

Watched 15 min "that's why they're not allowed in Europe". Ahhh, thank you very much 🙈

in order to full understand todays batteries you should do some research into lithium ion and lithium polymer batteries. to get the longest life out of both of them you should not drain more than 70% to 80% of life out of them.

The range is only limited by the allowed transmit power, which they have no control over. Also, to get substantially more range, they'd have to like ten x the tx power.

metric inches ? seriously ? :))

Fantastic review and nice explanation of the privacy codes/tones. That said, these are highly overpriced for the features. The lack of NOAA channels is a huge miss for any radio claiming to be for the outdoors and adventure. You are essentially paying for a "rugged" Walmart walkie-talkie. Lots of radios with more features at 1/4 the price.

Just try not to turn radios on without an antenna plunged in. Would love to see a schematic for these to see if they have that kind of fault protection ion the board. Antennas are resistors and when they don't work or are disconnected you can fry everything.

0:04 are you even anchored? That does look sk- NO DON'T THROW THAT WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?

As a juggler. those things are called juggling clubs and not pins (at least here in europe) otherwise: nice review, sad they are not available at the european market