Staying Connected: The Best Two-Way Radios for Talking Off-Grid

The Baofeng family of radios is very popular worldwide. You’ll often see them being used everywhere including casual Airsoft players who want to simulate military communications, as well as warehouses and other large complexes where cell phone service may be restricted, limited, or inconvenient. Earlier generations of the UV-5R were not so limited in their frequency range and this could cause people to get in trouble with the FCC for breaking into restricted radio frequencies outside of the FRS range. However, newer versions of the UV-5R like the BF-F8HP have completely eliminated this possibility but they are still quite useful and when equipped with the right accessories can have great range and battery life to get you through a week of camping communications.

A simple and affordable solution without a lot of complicated options, the Motarolla T100 Talkabout radio is a great cheap option for driving caravans and camping parents who want to keep tabs on their kids when at a public campground. These radios aren’t flashy or tactical looking but they are quite durable and have great battery life and use commonly available AAA batteries to power each of the radios. Honestly, the best feature of these radios is their superb durability from inevitable drops bumps, and scrapes. Even if they do break, you won’t be out but $40 for the entire set and they are easily replaceable and won’t require a bunch of complicated setups to pair with your older radios.

This two-way radio set combines both the durability of the Motorola option, with the range and rechargeability of the Baofeng option. The Midland GXT1000VP4 set comes with rechargeable battery packs, a pair of boom mic headsets for handsfree communication and are both waterproof, and capable of communicating on both FRS and GMRS channels as well as access to the NOAA Weather Can and alert system for keeping track of severe weather when out camping or hiking.

MURS radios are a bit odd in the grand scheme of things but they can still be quite useful especially if you’re not in a congested radio traffic area. MURS radios give you access to about 5 channels with a further 38 privacy sub-channels that allow you to keep your conversations private or to keep busier channels less congested with idle chatter or irrelevant information. These little radios aren’t the most feature-rich but they will last about 40 hours on a single charge and they are stupid simple to use.

Similar in form, function, and features to the Baofeng series (because it basically is) but with much more range and a better display are the BTECH DMR-6X2 FRS/GRMS radio. The BTech DMR-6×2 is excellent value for the money (particularly since supplied with two batteries), providing all the DMR features desired, in a physically solid package that has good sound quality, receive and transmit. It is made by AnyTone, on the same hardware as their 878, and differs only in firmware and surface details – important because AnyTone is one of the higher quality Chinese manufacturers and QUITE POPULAR. This last means that there are many users of this radio “family”, with lots of online advice (some of it even accurate!), pre-programmed code plugs are available to download for many metropolitan or regional DMR repeater networks, etc.
The BTech version shares 95+% of its programming and menus with the AnyTone 878 series, and can even accept code plugs programmed for the 878. You will have a popular radio that is well supported.