Two way radio suggestions

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Two way radio suggestion. Need suggestion for radio for construction crews working downtown Boston must be able to work over multiple blocks not line of site. What are you suggestions , four crews
 
Consult with a commercial Vendor like WORAD in Worcester.

Maybe you could use Motorola 1410 UHF similar to the units used at Cabelas and other retail stores.

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Follow on post: UHF usually works better in dense urban areas.
 
What sfd10 said. It's a commercial application so you can't use FRS or Ham frequencies, I think they've stopped issuing GMRS for commercial applications as well (not sue on this). A commercial vendor should be able to make sure you get any licensing you may need.

There is also the option of cell phones with the PTT feature. These work very well when distance and line-of-sight are an issue.
 
Zello app on smart phones is an possible solution using everyone's personal phones. Otherwise you need to rent or buy radios from someone who can lease you time on a commercial repeater. Similar to what taxi companies use. Search for Motorola dealers near you. Here on South Shore you could try Industrial Communications in Marshfield or Radio Solutions in Norwell.


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Depending on how long you'll be on the job site, consider renting radios on a commercial system, such as the MotoTurbo system run by All comm Technologies of Revere. Simplex radios will always have range and obstruction issues, and you probably aren't interested in the expense and hassle of setting up your own infrastructure based system.
 
I think they've stopped issuing GMRS for commercial applications

Correct. They are "Family" Licenses now. Old ones are Grandfathered, so there are some users out there, but new ones are only for family use. I can hand my GMRS radios to the kids and let them go have fun, but if my neighbor and I wanted to use them on a fishing trip (you know, to keep track of the guns that fall out of the boat) that would be in violation.

I just realized... I have more FCC licenses in my name now than I do gun licenses. I need to correct that.
 
Correct. They are "Family" Licenses now. Old ones are Grandfathered, so there are some users out there, but new ones are only for family use. I can hand my GMRS radios to the kids and let them go have fun, but if my neighbor and I wanted to use them on a fishing trip (you know, to keep track of the guns that fall out of the boat) that would be in violation.

I just realized... I have more FCC licenses in my name now than I do gun licenses. I need to correct that.
That's me, grandfathered, GMRS system license, includes base, mobile, portable, and repeater.

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Depending on how long you'll be on the job site, consider renting radios on a commercial system, such as the MotoTurbo system run by All comm Technologies of Revere. Simplex radios will always have range and obstruction issues, and you probably aren't interested in the expense and hassle of setting up your own infrastructure based system.
I'm a ham, but no expert on your type of needs, but this sounds like very good advice.
The only way to ensure non-line of sight comms is to, well, have line of sight buy using a repeater high up on a building. Your antenna can see it up there, and it rebroadcasts your signal back down all around itself with a lot of power. I really doubt simplex (radio to radio without a repeater) can do what you need. I suspect what RKG is saying is there are commercial repeaters (infrastructure) around the city you can use for a fee.

Using the ham repeaters and my little 5W Baofeng UV-5R hand held I can reliably talk to people 10-30 miles away, depending on the repeater height and location.
 
I'm a ham, but no expert on your type of needs, but this sounds like very good advice.
The only way to ensure non-line of sight comms is to, well, have line of sight buy using a repeater high up on a building. Your antenna can see it up there, and it rebroadcasts your signal back down all around itself with a lot of power. I really doubt simplex (radio to radio without a repeater) can do what you need. I suspect what RKG is saying is there are commercial repeaters (infrastructure) around the city you can use for a fee.

Using the ham repeaters and my little 5W Baofeng UV-5R hand held I can reliably talk to people 10-30 miles away, depending on the repeater height and location.

The system to which I referred is even better than an in-cabinet repeater (I.e.,, one without satellite receivers), as it is a form of trunked radio.
 
Rental radios from cybercomm, allcomm or one of the other big Companies in the Boston area will do what you need. There's no licensing or hardware cost to you, just the rental price

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I would look into the MURS (Multi-Use Radio System) family of radios. No license required, and its limited to 5 watts. Also, the radios can be multi-channeled, allowing for all the sites to communicate to each other at the switch of a knob.
 
MURS is limited to 2 watts. Not much better than blister pack FRS radios in practice.

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Radio rentals can get extremely expensive when compared to the cost of running your own under your own license. Depends on how long you need it.
 
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