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Anybody knows how to increase the walkie talkie range?

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buloi123

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Hi, I have bought a pair of talkies and I want to increase its power for longer range. It's range is just 50 meters. I want to increase the range. What should I do?
 
This is a toy category, very primitive and cheap. Buy another, the modification expensive and hard.
 
Well you could always get a really huge antenna for broadcasting, like unscrew the case, and take out the antenna, solder a piece of copper wire to where the antenna was, and the other side to say, a light pole, or a satellite dish, or a car, or anything that is really really big, and made of metal, perhaps piggy backing on a cell phone tower would work.

I myself decided the best antenna is actually a cars frame, since it's metal, a conductor, and big, which is why the bottom of a car makes a good place for placing bugs, and other kinds of transmitters.
 
Well you could always get a really huge antenna for broadcasting, like unscrew the case, and take out the antenna, solder a piece of copper wire to where the antenna was, and the other side to say, a light pole, or a satellite dish, or a car, or anything that is really really big, and made of metal, perhaps piggy backing on a cell phone tower would work.
A shopping trolley would be a good one - at least it will remain portable!!! :D
 
A shopping trolley would be a good one - at least it will remain portable!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Aiight, well, in all seriousness, I need a bit of info from you first.

A. Your age
B. Your average height, and if you can be more specific your torso height
C. How much you can carry on your shoulders for a comfortable amount of time, I can carry 50 lbs for an indefinate amount of time but that's because I have a lot of back/leg strength working in retail/stocking (I can convert to pounds if you live out of US)

Because if possible I could get you the general idea of how to make a battlefield long range artillery/air strike radio, the principal is a backpack mounted antenna that has enough conductor space for an antenna booster and a large enough antenna to broadcast roughly one mile in proper conditions (which usually aren't present in a battlefield, but it still works)

I can't garauntee that it'll work because if you're running off a cheap walkie talkie it may not have to power to use the antenna efficiently.
 
I had a Motolora 2 way FRS/GMRS Radio with a 5 mile range under optimal condition. Its model is FV200. Well in order to increase the range of your radio, you will need to tune the transmitting power of your radio. Mine had a transmitting power of 500mW which is fairly low. I would like to know how to tune the power output of my radio, but very unsure of how to tune it. This picture shows my walkie circuit board and I had found 3 tunning screws on it. It may be very risky as some of the screw is to tune the frequency. I wanna tune the power output. Can someone expert help me in this? Thanks

**broken link removed**
 
You have posted a pointer to a picture on your local hard drive. We cannot see it.

No matter, really. The advice given to the original poster six years ago is still valid.
 
You can use a Linear amplifer and talk to the person with the other walkie talkie over 100 miles away but he won't be able to talk back to you.
 
What country are you in?

Typically it is illegal to modify a radio transceiver unless you have a license which permits it.
Also, the amplifier is most likely adjusted for the gain that is most efficient for its design. If you attempt to increase the gain it may get too hot. The nominal amount of gain that the adjustment may provide is not going to make much difference in your range. Say your range is 300 meters without adjustment. You may stand to gain an extra 25-50 meters. Most of the limitation is within the antenna and not the amplifier. It really isn't worth doing when you consider the possible damage that can occur from overheating the transistor.
 
since the one you are talking about is only 50m ranged, it may be a very low quality one. if you put amplifier to boost it you will probably suffer from mutipple harmonics and unstable condition and oscillations.
tuning the existing capacitors will not help you to boost your power, instead they are normally tuned to give maximum out put and when you disturb it you may get you range reduced.
also you should look into local regualtions before get into boosting it.

if you provide an external antenna the height of the antenna will boost your range. when you make it 4times your range should increase two times theoritically
 
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I had a Motolora 2 way FRS/GMRS Radio with a 5 mile range under optimal condition. Its model is FV200.

**broken link removed**

Well in order to increase the range of your radio, you will need to tune the transmitting power of your radio. Mine had a transmitting power of 500mW which is fairly low. I would like to know how to tune the power output of my radio, but very unsure of how to tune it. This picture shows my walkie circuit board and I had found 3 tunning screws on it. It may be very risky as some of the screw is to tune the frequency. I wanna tune the power output. Can someone expert help me in this? Thanks

Overview of the Circuit board:

**broken link removed**

Close up view:

**broken link removed**

Tunning screw 1:

**broken link removed**

Tunning screw 2:

**broken link removed**

Tunning screw 3:

**broken link removed**

Unknown Component (Should be related to Tunning screw 1) What is that? Any Idea?:

**broken link removed**


Thanks in advance.
 
FRS/GMRS Two way radio: Motorola FV200

The Motorola FV200 is a FRS/GMRS Two way radio with a 500mW TX Output Power. It was said on the box packaging that it is able to communicate in a range of 5 miles under optimum condition. I just wanna check since mine is a FRS/GMRS radio set, will my range increase if I use the GMRS channels rather than FRS channels? Thanks.
 
Hey guys, I 'm using a Motorola FV200 2way radio. It has a transmitting power of 500mW. Just wanna ask you some questions:

1. I am able to hear communication made on the radio by a school which is located 100m away from my home. However, when I replied back, no one could actually hear me. Since the UHF signal needs to make its way from school to my house, it undergoes the same obstruction as when the UHF signal travels from my house to the school. I am pretty sure that may radio is working and fully functioning well. I am also using a fully recharged 3 AAA batteries, but when I pressed the PTT button, the LCD screen faded till no indication. My battery is freshly recharged you know. Does it mean that my batteries are too old which causes the power to transmit to drop till no one could hear me 100m away? Or other possibilities can surface?

2. Since my FRS radio is a 500mW transmitting power, will I have a longer range if I use those GMRS channels presetted on my FRS/GMRS radio with 500mW transmitting power as compared to FRS channels with 500mW transmitting power?

3. If I want to modify my antenna, I heard from some forums that it has to be in a certain length inorder for resonance to occur which makes the transmision optimum. Or I can use any length? I also noted that it is illegal to do such modification under the FCC rule, but I wish to know more about it. Thanks.
 
Non of the advice given so far in this thread will work. The equipment you have is a toy , accept it as such.
 
I saw a youtube video about increasing the range of a RC transmitter. Basically, you build a reflector to install around the antenna to increase the gain. You would have to know where the other person was as you would have to point the antenna to them. But this is low cost and will increase range.
 
These radios also have "privacy codes". Sort of a misnomer, since turning them off enables you to hear everything. But if the school has them turned on, they won't be bothered by transmission on the same channel (as you are) if you have a different (or none) privacy code setting.

Ideally this allows several families to share a channel and they won't have to listen to one another. If they overlap, it does mean 'unexplained' interference.
 
I saw a youtube video about increasing the range of a RC transmitter. Basically, you build a reflector to install around the antenna to increase the gain. You would have to know where the other person was as you would have to point the antenna to them. But this is low cost and will increase range.


Dont believe half of what you see on UTUBE!!!!

RC frequencies are ~75MHz. Wavelength (λ) at that frequency is ~4 meters. A corner reflector for that freq would be huge, 2λ high x1λ wide, or 8m x 4m.

Even for 450MHz (GMRS or FRS), a corner reflector would be 1.2m by 0.7m!
 
OK here is the ONLY way to do it . Build a stacked bi-phase yagi. Then you will have a walkie talkie the size of a pack of ciggies runing an antenna the size of a small car. What a hoot ! And the performance difference will be un noticeable
 
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With these requests to increase the range of toy radios, the emphasis is usually on increasing the transmitter power, sometimes on improving the antenna, but nobody ever considers the possibility of improving the receiver.
Why is that?

JimB
 
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