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Post by tonarkelli on Apr 27, 2006 16:23:21 GMT -5
Has anyone ever brought a 2 way radio to 'roo before? How well does it work there? It seems like a good idea, but it also seems there might not be any clear channels. Is this the case? Thanks!
Has anyone ever brought a 2 way radio to 'roo before? How well does it work there? It seems like a good idea, but it also seems there might not be any clear channels. Is this the case? Thanks!
We used the sub-channels to filter out the other people. I never had any trouble last year contacting my buddies. I will never again go to a large event without them. Next to the hands-free headlamp I got a few years back, the 2-way radios are the most useful festival/camping gear I've ever purchased.
It allowed us to split up for certain shows and still get back together later on, without having to pre-select a meet-up spot.
We came down with some of those motorola walkie talkies with like 500 channels last year. We had like 6 walkie talkes so a lot of people to connect. The several channel feature is definately a must because I'm sure the one's with only 10 or so channels are clogged with people.
We only had one other pair of people stumble on our frequency which limited the confusion.
But the main problem we ran into was this: If someone is trying to contact you on the walkie talkie, and you are at a show, chances are you're not gonna hear them to know they're trying to contact you. Even if you're wearing the things around your neck.
I know that the newest Motorola's vibrate which is HUGE. You'd still probably have to walk out of the concert field (or atleast far enough away from the speakers) to understand each other, but atleast you'd know when someone's trying to get a hold of you.
Although I'm pretty sure all the walkie talkie's with this feature run $100+
Yeah the 2 way radios we had were key. I think we had the cheap ones that were like 14 channels, but they were excellent when trying to gether everyone together when they were scattered across several different campsites. As brfilora said though, they were virtually useless when trying to contact people at concerts. We didn't have too much trouble with other people on the channel, and when it happened it usually ended up being some pretty funny conversation with people we didn't know. We gave everyone in our group 'call names' which made it pretty clear when someone was contacting you.
They do, but some people have trouble sending/receiving calls as the cell tower there is overloaded. Other advantages 2 way radios have is that you can have several (more than 2) radios and have a conversation with more than just 2 people. We had both cell phones and radios, and we found the radios were much easier to use. I guess in the end it's all a matter of personal preference.
my suggestion would be to get an expensive radio if you plan on doing this. i went with a decent 2way (not the cheapest, but not the most expensive by any means) and it was completely worthless. the channels and subchannels were all so completely clogged that you couldnt even get a word in.
on the other hand, cell phone service (i have verison) was excellent. ive been to many festivals where there is little or no service. but i had perfect reception at Bonnaroo the whole time. the pain with the cell is that you really dont want to be worrying about your cell phone when your dancing around, walking through mud, gettin messed up, etc. plus, youll be wanting to be wearing next to nothing cuz of the heat, and you also prolly dont want to be worrying about charging your cell either.
My experience w/ cell phones at Bonnaroo has not been good (cingular). I can rarely get a call through, and if I can the other person usually can't recieve it. At one point amidst the crazyness Sat. night I sent my friend a text to try to meet up, which didn't work. Many hours later as the sun was coming up and we were both chilling at camp, my phone beeped and I got his reply to my text message that he'd sent 4 hours earlier.
The moral of the story is that your cell might very well work fine, but don't count on it.