I am a teacher at my local middle school and I am in the process of starting a ham radio club for the kids. It has piqued the interest of students, parents, and staff alike. In doing this the principal has been asking me questions about the radios that the staff use for the building. They typically use them for communications in locating kids, lunchtime duties, bus duty, etc. The principal has told me that the radios they currently use are horrible and that they have a hard time reaching across the school.
The radio that the school is using is the Hytera PD362i, and we have about 8 of them along with some no-frill, basic Motorolas. When I asked him about who runs all the radios for the district and his experience he stated that the individual is IT guy and his knowledge of radios is very limited. The principal does not know why they use these radios specifically, but that was what was given to them. He has made complaints to the district about the radio not being able to reach all around the school and even within closer proximities. When he asked me to find out what radios would be good to have for the school and brought a couple of Baofeng UV-9g's to school and ran a couple of tests to gauge the distance and sound on them. I was very surprised that the UV9g's could be heard loud and clear on FRS frequencies everywhere in the school as well as outside of the building yet the Hytera's could not even make half those distances. I am not a professional in this field and my knowledge in doing such things in this capacity is almost nonexistent. I did tell the principal I would look into it and see what I can find out, I am a history major so business comms is not in my wheelhouse of expertise in any way. So I come to all of you who are experts in such things and know way more than I do in this subject. Any feedback or help would be greatly appreciated. The answers the principal got was that they were going to need to set up a repeater in the school and for some reason was going to cost them $10,000!!!! So as you can see this has been a touchy subject with admin because of the cost, yet these radios are vital for communications around the school. If anyone is willing to help us out and give us some info or if anyone is willing to volunteer their time for a consult over the phone with the principal or just point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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WRTT642
Hello all,
I am a teacher at my local middle school and I am in the process of starting a ham radio club for the kids. It has piqued the interest of students, parents, and staff alike. In doing this the principal has been asking me questions about the radios that the staff use for the building. They typically use them for communications in locating kids, lunchtime duties, bus duty, etc. The principal has told me that the radios they currently use are horrible and that they have a hard time reaching across the school.
The radio that the school is using is the Hytera PD362i, and we have about 8 of them along with some no-frill, basic Motorolas. When I asked him about who runs all the radios for the district and his experience he stated that the individual is IT guy and his knowledge of radios is very limited. The principal does not know why they use these radios specifically, but that was what was given to them. He has made complaints to the district about the radio not being able to reach all around the school and even within closer proximities. When he asked me to find out what radios would be good to have for the school and brought a couple of Baofeng UV-9g's to school and ran a couple of tests to gauge the distance and sound on them. I was very surprised that the UV9g's could be heard loud and clear on FRS frequencies everywhere in the school as well as outside of the building yet the Hytera's could not even make half those distances. I am not a professional in this field and my knowledge in doing such things in this capacity is almost nonexistent. I did tell the principal I would look into it and see what I can find out, I am a history major so business comms is not in my wheelhouse of expertise in any way. So I come to all of you who are experts in such things and know way more than I do in this subject. Any feedback or help would be greatly appreciated. The answers the principal got was that they were going to need to set up a repeater in the school and for some reason was going to cost them $10,000!!!! So as you can see this has been a touchy subject with admin because of the cost, yet these radios are vital for communications around the school. If anyone is willing to help us out and give us some info or if anyone is willing to volunteer their time for a consult over the phone with the principal or just point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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