Alternative communications/Ecom

H. Forth wrote:For benefit of our less affluent members, we can even
include their 900 MHz frequency hopping spread spectrum
eXtreme Radio Service TSX300 freq and
access code. See http://www.trisquare.us/tsx300.htm.

A very interesting device. Have you actually used it and confirm that it works better then FRS? Is the range actually comparable to GMRS simplex?

For evaluation of this specific piece of equipment,
eXtreme Radio Service TSX300
I checked with our local Ham Radio ERS Net Control person.
He remarked that this specific equipment seemed to drain battery
power very quickly and that readablility was not all that great within
his suburban highrise environment.
To me it seems that concept is good and maybe will eventually
be much better than FRS. Maybe FCC regs keep power levels too low.

Thanks for the update. I broke it off into a new thread since this was getting far from phone numbers.

Yeah, I can believe it drains batteries since it only uses 3 standard AA cells. That may be fine for FRS power, but not if you expect it to get GMRS range.

As for readability I wonder if it has a marginal vocoder or if it struggles with multipath.

Very interesting concept, but I'm leery that there's only one company. And they're not an established upper tier communication company.

What I like about it:
- No license
- No complex licensing test
- Usable range
- Secure communication

The last one is where Amateur Radio struggles. There's some messages you just can't send via Amateur Radio because anyone could be listening.