UHF/VHF

[radiogaga]

In which case if secure is what you're after with your radios you don't have that with the 888's.

Odds are stacked.

I bet every man and his dog have 446 in their scanners, one they hear the inversion sure as eggs is eggs they'll be in to their 888 setting the same lame excuse for encryption.. Sorry, you're gonna need to spend if you want secure.

[paulears]

You are in the security business. Using any public and overcrowded band means that you will (not could) miss important messages. Radio in security MUST be reliable and instant! So scrap ideas to use handheld to handheld if they are more than 500m or so apart. Shop watch systems radio to radio can be pretty unreliable when clipped onto bodies.

Look at your two sites. Look for one that will let you put an aerial on the roof, as high as it can go - preferably with a small space maybe in a lift motor room or other accessible area with power. Install a repeater, technically assigned license at £75 a year. If geography wise, it's a good site then it may cover the other site pretty well. Get somebody to test it for you and see how it works. Digital at the moment doubles the repeater cost, but offers useful features.

If topography means neither site is good, consider finding another site that will work to both locations. If this doesn;t work, then two repeaters, two licenses and some linking via the net might work, but your costs are going up big time now. You just have to live with the fact that reliable communications costs. If you want better than the 888 type radios, which frankly work pretty well but are delicate - consider some of the cheaper icons motorola and kenwoods of dubious origin - they're actually pretty decent products and more reliable and chunky. the usual eartube add ons work fine on these too.

Your choice is a public bodged up semi-reliable system for pocket money, or a serious system for paid work. It's an allowable business expense anyway, and looking at how much I see being paid to the security guys I work with, even a serious system pays for itself pretty quickly.

If one of your blokes needs help urgently, and you had provided him with a £20 radio that had issues contacting another £20 radio, do you think a court would consider this adequate in a duty of care case? You are in an industry with badges, licensing, testing, checking and frequent contact with the authorities. Radios are an essential component, not toys. I've been looking at all the gear I bump into - none use 446 and none so far are on business light because in my area, those channels are very busy. Some are on the hire channels, and most on technically assigned using repeaters.

[thelad]

looking at your other posts it seems you could be a bit of a time waster?

[Admiral]

I would say go down the RT3 (or family) route with a Simple Licence at £75. As previously said some level of security, you could add encryption and relatively cheap and semi secure(ish) except for the determined.

If you use the enhanced security setting on these, so long as you don't leave them on default FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF then trust me, they are about as secure as you can get, I doubt even GCHQ could decipher it without the key.

The only issue being that it puts an extra strain on the battery, if the OPs employees are working a 10 hour shift with frequent comms or check-ins then the RT3/TYT380 will die after about 6 -8 hours with full encryption, and probably less when they have aged. Also there's a lot of buttons to tinker with and potentially make the unit incompatible for the shift if something gets twiddled, you would be better off with something like the new TYT680 that has no screen or buttons to twiddle with, just program them up and job done, they also claim to have 10w which will easily do the range the OP wants.

[paulears]

If anyone needs really cheap digital with no buttons - then have a look at the Anysecu 280 - dPMR, and quite cheap. wquality very similar to Baofeng 888 in that they're pretty plasticy - but I've had a pile out with a client who wrecks all radios regularly and they're doing pretty well. On off/volume and channel change - plus encryption. They work happily with Kirsun dPMR.

[LeakyFeeder]

Tetra? Now we getting into the realms of Walting...

[MrWeetabix]

If your comms are really needing to be super-secure,then using HAM, CB or PMR radio is NOT for you. Use a mobile phone.

If you're needing this level of security, then that moves beyond a hobby into something else really :-/