Binatone Terrain 550 Long Range Two Way Radio in Black
Posted by Notcot on May 6, 2010 in Portable Sound & Vision |
Product Description
The Terrain 550 license-free Walkie Talkies are the latest model manufactured by Binatone. As well as the range of great features you would expect, the Terrain series also comes with a Superbright illuminated backlit display, VOX, vibration call alert and TRUSOUND, the pioneering noise reduction technology delivering enhanced sound quality
- 304 channel combinations – Scan function – 8km Range
- Call alert tone – Vibration call alert – Battery low warning
- Volume control – Signal transmit & receive indication
- VOX – Superbright illuminated backlit display
- TRUSOUND – pioneering noise reduction technology
My ‘near’ elderly parents have this model of radio for when they go shopping, boot sales, intercom use in the house and as a form on communication between convoy vehicles.
I helped test and found them simple to use, with nice audio on the transmit and receive. Loud and quite clear for a small radio. Display is large and helpful. The unit fits nicely in the hand.
Battery life on receive only is about 30 hours which of course would be radically reduced with x amount of transmit use. Battery powered radios are not really for chin wagging on. With that in mind, in reality they should easily last a full day on receive with the occasional brief transmission of messages.
Binatone tell no fibs about the range. The instructions give a simple, diagram/chart of expected ranges vs terrain. With *upto* 2km in built up area and 8km in open terrain.
No matter what make or model, ground wave UHF radios like these will have limited range. They are effected by the terrain and weather conditions.
Ideal conditions for these type radios are “line of sight”, nothing in between to absorb or reflect the signal, no buildings, trees, falling snow, fog…. MOUNTAINS! It is in true line of sight when you can achieve and even exceed the maximum *usable* ranges claimed by the manufactures (in this case 8km).
Soon as you take away the direct line of sight, start adding walls, trees and so on, the signal will starts getting absorbed and the range decreased.
Think of your local town, different densities of building plots mixed in with open plots of land and roadways. Different materials used in those buildings such as glass, brick, concrete slabs, metal. Slight hills and valleys you are not normally often aware of when driving through on way to work. Couple all those characteristics of your local town with the fact that radio waves can bounce off surfaces and get reflected in all sorts of random directions it means there is not an exact science to state the range of these radios in the urban environment.
In reality you might be able to use the radio at 1,2,3km or more in one part of town but have no radio communication with each other only 200metres away. You might have good radio signal in one spot, walk a few strides away and find the signal is terrible and unusable. As long as people can bare those realities in mind and it fits in with their expected radio use then they will get along just fine with these walkie talkies. If wanting life or death comms in every part or town then these and many other types of radio (even professional) will be unsuitable.
A lot of range problems can be addressed by holding the radio upright when using the radio. Holding it at weird angles will effect the range. A radio in the horizontal position will have trouble picking the radio waves from the other radio(s) held in the vertical position and vice versa.
In all, a quality product for the price but do not expect it or any other PMR radio to defy the laws of physics.
Rating: 4 / 5
Purchased these units (2 sets actually) after having used a friend’s radios (same model) in the French Alps where they worked particularly well (crystal clear reception with users on opposite side of a mountain.)
Particularly impressive is the clear voice quality – much better than other models I have tested (and I’ve tested a lot!)
Contrary to other reviewers, I’ve found the range good for this model (good in mountains), although all users of any 2-way radios need to be aware that range is always restricted in built-up areas or if one user is inside a building.
IMHO they are difficult to beat at the price.
Rating: 4 / 5
Having used a pair of these for about a year now, I have been quite pleased with them. The range varies according to the terrain – I’ve had over 6 miles from a hillside across a flat landscape, but less than a mile in an urban landscape. Sound quality is clear. The rubber buttons are wearing well, though do now show signs of use as my sets are in daily use. The batteries hold enough charge for the day, but I don’t know how they’d hold up if you were transmitting all day long!
Setting sub-channels is simple ( please remember to set a sub-channel other than zero !! ) and the only drawback I have found ( and it really annoys me )is that when you press the “call” button, the calling handset bleeps as well as the receiving one. If anyone knows a way to disable this I’d love to know how.
Rating: 4 / 5
I used these for outdoor sports including skiing, rock climbing and mountaineering and found the range and clarity to be exceptional, a definite asset on multi-pitch routes when traffic or wind noise gets in the way, and on a mountain they are indispensible for groups who want to stay in touch.
Unfortunately my one criticism coincides with the reason I no longer have these. The clip that attaches them to a harness or rucksack strap looks fairly rugged, but in practice wasn’t able to withstand physical abuse of the kind you might reasonably expect during outdoor pursuits. My two are now residing somewhere on the side of Gearr Aonach above the Lost Valley of Glencoe and in a crevasse 4000+ metres above Chamonix respectively. I would consider replacing them like for like, but spend a bit more time setting up some kind of lanyard system with a screw-gate krab to stop them flying off.
Rating: 4 / 5
I bought these walkie talkies a few weeks ago to make comunicating on the skiing slopes easier without finishing the holiday with £200 mobile phone bill. I have been very pleased with them.
Like most walkie talkies available for use in europe they are PMR-446. PMR stands for Private Mobile Radio and 446 refers to the frequency 446mhz that these liscense free radios operate on. As with all PMR radios there are only 8 real channels. Because of the rather limited number of channels, there is potential for interference if many people are using these walkie talkies in a small area. To combat this, many of these two way radios have Continuous Tone Squelch System (CTSS) built-in. Such radios continuously emit a subaudible tone which can be recognised by the receiving handset. This allows the handset to filter out other calls on the same channel but on a different CTSS. There are 38 CTSS per channel hence they are often quoted 304 channels. This is a misnomer because as already stated there are really only 8 channels but your handset can be set to receive only 1 of 38 CTSS on a channel.
Does this distinction matter?
well yes because if someone else is transmitting on say channel 5 with a CTSS set to 16 and you also want to transmit on channel 5 at the same time but say on CTSS 29 only one of your signals will get through (the stronger/ closer one) the other signal will be blocked which would not happen if they were true sub channels.
The other point about PMR is that they are all limited to a maximum power of 0.5watts. This in effect means that the ranges are all very similar between the different handsets. If you want more power / range you have to get a proper radio ham licence for which you have to be qualified and of course pay. So for most of us PMR is as good as it gets in Europe.
The range on these handsets I found to be good. It was effectively line of sight range. Therefore if I could see the area where the other person was even 8km away they would work. However they are very weather dependent. In heavy snow for example they equally would work as far as line of sight even if that was only 50metres. Obviously if you are skiing in a different valley without line of sight they will not work.
The build quality on these is reasonable and they last for 12hrs on a charge. Batteries are NiMH type rather than the latest Lithium ion.
So do I recommend these? Yes. They are relatively inexpensive and will save you a fortune in mobile phone bills if you are a skier. You can also prentend to be Richard Burton “Broadsword Calling Danny Boy” as you ski in the Austrian Hinterland. What better toy could a man want.
Rating: 4 / 5