With the ski season in full flow, families and groups of friends like you will be packing their goggles, gloves and sunscreen to head to the slopes. But how are you going to stay in touch while you are out there?
While roaming charges have come down, there is no guarantee that your mobile phone, or those belonging to other members of your party, is going to have any signal. And do you really want to take your shiny smartphone out on a black run with you and risk it being lost or damaged?
For many skiers, licence-free two-way radios, or walkie-talkies, are the answer but you need to make sure they are both rugged and all-weather proof to cope with use in the harshest of environments.
Pricing of walkie talkies will depend on the range you can use them in – between 4km and 10km are the most common. However, be warned, even the best mobile phone or licence-free radios may sometimes struggle when there are a few mountains in the way!
But as a cost-free way of calling other members of your skiing party to agree a location for lunch, let them know you are heading back to your chalet, or if you should need to raise the alarm should one of you party have a small accident, then walkie talkies remain the best option as they provide superb audio quality, a long battery life and a robust casing to survive a drop or fall.
We specialise in serving business customers and sell single, licence-free, radio handsets for use in hotels, schools or retail stores, but we have recently added more cost-effective twin-pack walkie talkies that are suitable for leisure use, such as a skiing holiday. See here
Andy Trout PCE Director