Thanks for all the responses. (I especially liked..."And why do people
think they need to
communicate so urgently?"...and this from someone in
rec.radio.amateur.equipment! Usenet
always makes me smile. :-) )

Anyway, there were some good ideas and you gave me a few things to consider.

Thanks for your time.

Win

"KU2S" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 12 Sep 2005 08:29:24 -0400, "Win Heagy" was
heard to say:

Hi,

I'd like to get a small, portable HT type radio for my wife (a non HAM)
in case phones, etc., fail. What can you recommend? It should be small
enough to carry daily, but get an honest 2-3 mile range (depending on
terrain).
We've tried several of the FSR type radios, but none get anywhere near the
advertised range. Any suggestions?

Please email to (remove SPAM)

Thanks,

Win



Wnen u say depending on terrain, that is the kicker. Too many variables
without actually getting and testing FRS, CB, MURS, or GMRS, so I would
recommend a Ham license. Here in San Diego we have 100+ repeaters most of
which can operate on emergency power and cover 2500 square miles of the
county and a 100+ mile range.

The Technician test is easy and no code and one can take it over again til
they pass. Kids from age 8 and up and folks with no technical background do
it all the time.

Small Ham handheld radiis will do the trick and are great for travelling as
well. The used ones go for as cheap as $25 each

For Personal Radio services -- see URL:
http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/personal/
For Amateur Radio see URL: http://www.arrl.org/hamradio.html



--
CL -- I doubt, therefore I might be !

"Steven L Umbach" wrote
..... Otherwise consider getting your ham license. You do not need to
learn
Morse code for the entrance license and the exam is fairly easy with books
that have the questions and answers. With a ham license you could then
also
purchase higher powered FM mobile devices for your cars. .....

......And you can use any 5 watt Handy to reach each other via the many
repeaters in the area. Ask your wife to go to www.qrz.com and take the Tech
exams over and over til she gets passing scores then find a volunteer
examiner session and get her license. This is not cheating - most of the
test is on rules that must be learned by rote anyway and this is a good way
to do it. If this piques her interest she can go on from there. My wife was
a secretary with no technical background. Today she's an "extra" making more
than I in a good technical job. Good luck ....
K3DWW

In article , Win Heagy wrote:
Thanks for all the responses. (I especially liked..."And why do people
think they need to
communicate so urgently?"...and this from someone in
rec.radio.amateur.equipment! Usenet
always makes me smile. :-) )

Without wanting to start a political discussion while you have been relativly
ignored by terrorists, a situation that unfortunately will not continue,
we here in Israel have not. Every time there is a terrorist attack every
one calls all of their family and friends and asks if they are ok.

Even if there is no chance of them being in the attack itself, everyone
worries that this was the one day that their loved one went to the place
it happened.

We have 3 1/2 cell phone carriers here, one runs a mixed AMPS CDMA network,
one runs a D-AMPS (800mHz) and GSM 1800 mHz network and one runs a 900/1800
mHz network. The half is really a trunked radio service (MIRS) masquerading
as a cell phone network.

The landline network becomes clogged beyond useage after a few minutes,
the CDMA network crashes, and the other two become full, but eventualy
you can get through.

Ham radio still works.

Of course in absolute size, the attack on us are small, usually one or two
single bombers or car bombs. It is important to note that the 9/11 attacks
cut electrical power, telephone service, cell phone service and ham radio
repeaters.

However, we switched to GSM cell phones (the 900/1800 network) about 5
years ago because the cost of calling each other in our family was $.01
a minute. The HT's sit in a drawer. I still keep the batteries charged
in the ones that can hold a charge and will rebuild the old ones RSN
(real soon now).

As for land lines, we still keep ours, but for outgoing calls we switched
to a VoIP service from the TV cable company (not an internet service) that
costs about $15 a month with 2000 minutes of calls to regular landlines and
other cable phones. The regular land line costs about twice that for the
"line" with no free minutes.

I would like to note that while you saw the last several wars with Iraq
on CNN, we had to seal ourselves in chemical weapon proof rooms and were
asked by Presidents Bush to stay out of it. We also had to send our children
to school carrying gas masks.

Learn from what we did, it may happen to you. Be prepared to evacuate
and communicate when everything you think is normal stops working.
It's not just terror attacks that can happen, train wrecks, industrial
accidents and of course storms can affect you.

How many of you have heard the name Mel Tappan? Ok you both can put down
your hands. :-) He was the "guru" of the survivalist movement, the sincere
people who wanted to survive a nucelar war with the Soviet Union, not
the nuts that bombed the Murrah Building. He moved to the woods of Montanna.
Unfortunately he was on kidney dialysis. He was snowed in by a storm and
did not survive.

Maybe if he had another way of communitcating he'd be alive today.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (077)-424-1667 IL Fax: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Support the growing boycott of Google by radio users and hobbyists.
It's starting to work, Yahoo has surpassed Google.

On Mon, 12 Sep 2005 20:58:22 -0700, Dick LeadWinger was heard to
say:

On Tue, 13 Sep 2005 03:41:07 GMT, KU2S wrote:

Oddly enough, nobody suggested having her earn her Amateur Radio
ticket and getting a 2-meter handheld!

My wife did it with three days of studying. To this day she retains
maybe 2% of the testing material, but at least she remembered it long
enough to get her ticket - and that was when you had to take TWO
written tests for Tech!
Raymond Sirois
SysOp: The Lost Chord BBS
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/9257
telnet://thelostchord.dns2go.com:6023

Even more odd. You didn't read my post when I suggested exactly that.

dick

Didn't SEE your post! Perhaps it wasn't posted prior to my posting my
post.....


Raymond Sirois
SysOp: The Lost Chord BBS
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/9257
telnet://thelostchord.dns2go.com:6023

On Wed, 14 Sep 2005 03:55:09 GMT, KU2S wrote:

Even more odd. You didn't read my post when I suggested exactly that.

dick

Didn't SEE your post! Perhaps it wasn't posted prior to my posting my
post.....


Raymond Sirois
SysOp: The Lost Chord BBS
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/9257
telnet://thelostchord.dns2go.com:6023

I just couldn't resist giving you the needle on that one Raymond. I
knew you probably didn't see my post, but the devil made me do it.

Dick - W6CCD

On Mon, 12 Sep 2005 08:29:24 -0400, "Win Heagy"
wrote:

Hi,

I'd like to get a small, portable HT type radio for my wife (a non HAM)
in case phones, etc., fail. What can you recommend? It should be small
enough to carry daily, but get an honest 2-3 mile range (depending on
terrain).
We've tried several of the FSR type radios, but none get anywhere near the
advertised range. Any suggestions?

Please email to (remove SPAM)

Thanks,

Win


Look for a CB handi-talkie with as close to 5 watts output as you can
get. It might do 2 or 3 miles, depending on circumstances and battery
charge or if you're willing to climb up a tree...

bob
k5qwg