Small walkie talkie with longest range?
What is the best and the smallest handheld two way radio I can get, with the longest range?
I’m 24 years old, and have dealt with 2-way radios since I was a 9-year-old. But I need help to research and decide on what is going to be the best handheld radio with the most transmit power.
Commercial handheld radios are pretty much limited to 4 watts of power for UHF and 5 watts for VHF. The unlicensed radios are typically limited to 1/4 watt. You can’t get any serious range going handheld to handheld. The lower power and small antenna limits the reach. Depending on terrain (buildings, trees, water, hills, etc) you might get 5 miles or so. The unlicensed radios claim 1 mile but seldom get this far. You would need to use a repeater to boost the signal strength and range. You can pay for repeater access from a 2-way radio shop. You can also become a ham and use a ham repeater. Kenwood radios are a good value. Motorola is good but tends to be pricey. Icom is also a good brand. There are many other brands available.
It’s not so much the low power that limits your distance, its using a small radio with an inefficient antenna. Without a good antenna, most of your transmit power is being turned into heat and only a little bit of it gets out as a signal. I don’t know of any “no license” walkie talkies available in the USA that are designed to use repeaters. (I live in Australia where we actually have UHF CB radios on 476 MHz that do just this – but I know this doesn’t help you at all.) If I were you, I’d be looking at MURS radios – which can use external antennas, studying for an Amateur Radio license or maybe using a Business Band radio. So start doing your research!