Base station with a remote handset

[Blaise]

Is this a thing? 

I've been using a 5 watt ht around the house and yard, and it works great when I'm on the second or third floor, but at ground level, it's got maybe a 1/4 mile range.  I'd love to be able to leave one for my wife so I can talk to her when I'm in town with my mobile, but 90% of the time, she wouldn't hear me.  I know a relay would solve this, but it would be super-limiting since we'd only get to use that one channel/code, so communicating with others or scanning channels would be impossible.

It occurs to me that if I had a base station in the attic that we could use remotely from the kitchen or yard, we could easily communicate with my mobile or local friends from maybe 5-7 miles, which would be super useful, but I'm not aware of the existence of such a magical device.  Do they exist? 

[jsneezy]

1 hour ago, WRXE944 said:

Coax to a rooftop antenna?

It sounds like he's looking for something that would function like a repeater, except be switchable from the handset that could be carried around wirelessly. There is an option to maybe do a wireless headset to the radio that might be sitting upstairs, but Bluetooth range is pretty limited. Maybe those Wi-Fi Zello radios that @OffRoaderX has reviewed lately would fit the bill better. With the exception that I don't think simplex would be an option with those, and would require using repeater on the Zello network.

[BoxCar]

There are several amateur radios that will use a Bluetooth headset or microphone available but, I'm not aware of any such radios made for the GMRS market.

[jsneezy]

8 minutes ago, BoxCar said:

There are several amateur radios that will use a Bluetooth headset or microphone available but, I'm not aware of any such radios made for the GMRS market.

One example would be the BTech GMRS-Pro. There's also a few adapters that connect via the headset port on an HT. 

[gortex2]

Depending on use sorta. As some mentioned BT sometimes will work, however from experience at my house even with LMR BT mic I loose connection when i leave the same floor as the base radio. I use a TRA on my control station and have remotes on each floor. Unless you switch to commercial gear that's not an option normally on GMRS gear. This doesn't help the outside yard use but for inside its a standard solution thats used in many public safety and commercial applications. 

[Blaise]

8 hours ago, jsneezy said:

It sounds like he's looking for something that would function like a repeater, except be switchable from the handset that could be carried around wirelessly.

Exactly this.

[Blaise]

1 hour ago, gortex2 said:

I use a TRA on my control station and have remotes on each floor.

At the risk of once again sounding like an ignoramus, what is a "TRA"?

[gortex2]

Sorry I should have been clearer. A "TRA" is a Tone Remote Adapter. The TRA hooks up to the Radio then a "Tone Remote" is wired back to the device with a phone line. Normally this is a 4 wire connection however in this application a 2 wire would also work. The Tone remote is similar to a phone and has a PTT on the handset as well as on the unit with a speaker. 

Looks sorta like this one 

 

Newer ones are capable of signaling functions as well as other items. Basic ones can normally be had pretty reasonably on fleabay. Just dont get DC remotes or DC Remote Adapter. Unless you have experience with DC circuits it gets messy. They still work very well but the industry pretty much went to Tone style years ago. You can have multiple Tone Remotes hooked to one TRA. In my environment I have a TRA on each floor of my house and one in my shop. I also run Ethernet ones in those same locations but those are not for the faint of heart cost wise. 

[nokones]

I believe, if you're going to use a Telco Pieceout or RTO circuit, you have to use a Tone Remote as opposed to DC signaling because Telco will not provide a true analog dedicated circuit. If the circuit is not a digital copper circuit, it'll probably be a Fiber circuit. This has been the case for almost 25 if not 30 years now.

Even the two-wire circuit went away about the same time and if you try to order a two-wire circuit, you'll get a four-wire circuit.

[MarkInTampa]

I've got a VGC VR-N7500 Bluetooth 50watt base radio that is totally controlled by a Android or iPhone app, doesn't even have a head on it. The Bluetooth works about 40ft, good enough that can sit on the back porch with my tablet or cellphone to use it but not on the other side of the house. However if I leave my tablet connected to the radio and on internet, I can run the app on my cellphone and access the radio anywhere over internet (kinda like Zello) and can control the frequency and tone of the radio remotely - but not scan or other features. It's a fun radio to play with but I hate the interface so it sits on the shelf most of the time.