Quality Aspects of Two Way Radios
There is a bewildering choice of walkie talkies and two-way radios for sale throughout the UK. Whether surfing the internet or visiting a specialist it can easily make the mind boggle. Stepping back from it all though, and considering what a 2 way radio needs to do and it's reliability is really one of the most important points to consider. Great communications are available these days with many brands like Motorola, Kenwood, iCom, Hytera, Entel and Opus. And there are even more brands some of which are very low cost. So why buy radios that cost more than the cheap devices on the market? There has to be a reason (or reasons) why customers in fact often will not even consider some of those cheap walkie talkies. Surely a radio is what it's supposed to be right? Well actually that's not always the case and some handsets could get you in to trouble.
Quality is a best choice consideration than a price point:
We have been selling and supporting wireless radios for many years and have met many different customers with different needs. There are many specifics for what they need but a few important things include:
- Robust quality: Many users need radios that can
withstand considerable abuse in a tough working
environment. The equipment we supply from major
manufacturers is not made to be of low quality.
Buying any piece of equipment that fails because of
the build quality letting down the operation of the
unit is really not worth considering. Quality
matters!
While some customers might only need very light use and low cost devices, there IS a limit that for even those customers we would not recommend particular brands. For example the 'Baofeng' brand of radios that are prevalent in the UK these days (typically bought from eBay and Amazon) we have seen fail many times. While the pricing of those units is low, there would be no way to repair them cheaply. Some customers use them until they fail and then buy another... not recommended! for any serious use.
- Serviceability: All of the major brands that we
sell are capable of being serviced and repaired
properly. These are generally brands that you will
have heard the name of even if you have never bought
radios before. Let's face it, brands like Kenwood
are world famous and similarly Motorola. If you have
bought and used radios before our other brands will
be well known to you. We choose these brands because
they all offer the ability to buy spares and to get
serviced.
Again, there are actually hundreds of no-name Chinese or Far Eastern two way radios that often look great on paper with slick designs. But once you try and use them you quickly find that many products don't work well. And that important support and spares may be hard to find. - Approvals: Every radio we can supply is fully CE
approved, RoHS compliant and is UK sourced. Some
companies however, import products from other parts
of the world which are typically not correct
specification and/or carry incorrect documentation;
some of those units don't even accept the regular
accessories thus making them difficult to upgrade.
For any handset that is not UK sourced you might save a few pounds on the cost, but in the long run there is no question that if the seller ceased trading then you would have difficulty with service and support. But far more importantly some of those radios may not be approved for use in this country and you would be committing an offence by using them.
Lastly for this type of import (they all look the same on the outside of the box!) that is not a UK device you will notice that the power supply is often including an adaptor for your country - a sure-fire sign that the unit is not a UK device. - Guarantee: All of the long range wireless two
way radios that we sell come with a genuine UK
warranty. Being in business for over 30 years is not
really a guarantee that we'll be here in the future,
but it's far more likely than many of the companies
that sell and supply radios. We strongly recommend
that you check out any and all companies at
companies house to ensure you make an informed
decision about the prospective supplier. Feel free
to check our company any time.
For the products that you buy from companies that import non-UK devices there really is no warranty except from the seller and communications sellers come and go. If you buy from one of those companies expect little or no warranty.
Clearly, there are some clear cut similarities with wireless devices that scope across paging systems too. There are many unsuspecting customers that are not aware of these sort of details and we strongly recommend that you contact a reputable long standing company such as ourselves; we can help with absolutely no commitment on your part. And remember we will match any price for 'like for like' radios of any brand that we sell - and we sell most!