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First Look: Rocky Talkie 5 Watt Radio

By

Jason Albert

The new Rocky Talkie 5 Watt Radio is a GMRS radio built for sustained m mountain missions and intra-group communications.

The new Rocky Talkie 5 Watt Radio is a GMRS radio built for sustained mountain missions and intra-group communications.

  Backcountry radio communication (colloquially known as “comms”) had a new entrant to the scene in late 2019: Rocky Talkie. In little time, the Rocky Talkie Mountain Radio generated some buzz. Simple to use, rugged, and fitted with a shiny (and legit) carabiner, it was no surprise the climbing and backcountry communities quickly adopted the…

Responses

  1. Beacon.shovel.bearspray

    Saw this pop up in a targeted social media ad, and planned to investigate further. Thanks for posting this at the perfect time. The dual channel monitoring is less important here in the backwoods of Montana where we don’t (yet) have communal, agreed-upon channels. But I could see a not-too-distant future where that becomes a reality in our backcountry, as it already is in CO and UT, and that feature is a nice touch in that scenario.

    I’ve been using my cheap Motorola FRS (eats through batteries sooooo fast) to date, but this year may the the season to spring for a new shiny toy.

    Thanks again

  2. OphirG8Keeper

    Great review. I’m particularly intrigued by this radio for its robust speaker mic, which seems to screw and lock its attachment point with the radio body. I’ve had too many speaker mics either break or come unplugged during ski tours. Is there consensus on the GRMS license requirement if one is only transmitting over FRS channels?

    1. Jason Albert

      OphirG8Keeper—thanks for reading. The handheld mic—I’ll add some images to the story to provide a visual. But the mic is robust. It does screw and lock on like a BCA handheld mic, yet the pin patterns are different. Rest assured, at some point, we’ll be dunking the radio and mic in a tub too. FWIW, I also used a real-deal screwdriver to tighten the mic onto the unit rather than hand tighten—we’ll see how this holds up. As far as use of a 5W GMRS radio on FRS channels might be up for debate. But as I read it, it is the wattage bump (from 2 to 5) that makes a license a requirement. That said, we don’t want to mislead folks about anything at THR (even the statement that any snow is good snow—it’s true, it’s just that some snow is better than other types of snow.) So if someone has other information, please chime in. In the meantime, I have passed on this question to folks at Rocky Talkie.

      1. OphirG8Keeper

        Thanks for adding photos of handheld mic Jason! I appreciate the clarification about the GMRS requirements–makes sense to me.

    2. Jason Albert

      Me again: confirmed from Rocky Talkie, it’s the higher power (5W) that triggers the license requirement (here in the U.S.) for GMRS, even when using the same frequency channels as the 2W radios.

  3. Slim

    The GRMS “license” should really just be called registration. I did it. It’s online, you just fill in the info, click on agree and pay the fee. Done.

    1. Jason Albert

      That is true.

    2. Slim

      I just meant to say, it’s super easy and quick.

  4. Slim

    Boy, so the weight weenie question is:
    28g gator clip, or ~25g carabiner+ ~20?g attachment ?
    Obviously the carabiner option is heavier, so WW rules say pick the clip.
    But, it’s multipurpose gear…, so WW rules say pick the carabiner…

    1. Jason Albert

      You ask a good question, in particular, regarding the EMI issue and no on/off power switch on the handheld mic. Maybe the carabiner allows for more options to secure the main radio unit on the pack’s exterior (or someplace to quick access it internally) if one chooses to use the handheld mic. Just trying to think of quick/efficient ways to power down the unit during a search when using the handheld mic.

    2. OphirG8Keeper

      Aesthetics would say chose the speaker mic–much cleaner!

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