What's the use of ordinary people buying walkie-talkies
Go on road trip with friends and relatives, communicate with many cars. If you don't know sign language, you can only call or WeChat, but the other party can't reply in time for various reasons. If you drive at high speed, the information will be delayed for a few seconds, and you may miss an intersection. At this time, if you can have a walkie-talkie, you can keep in touch in real time without waiting and zero delay.
When staying in a hotel, everyone is on different floors, and it is really convenient to have a walkie-talkie for eating, gathering and chatting. Traveling abroad in the future (I hope the epidemic will end soon) is also an excellent "anti-shame" artifact.
In short, the operation of the intercom is very simple. When the old people and children learn, the response speed is much faster than calling to send WeChat, and there is no communication fee.
Want to realize short-distance real-time communication, walkie-talkie is the most convenient communication tool, no one.
However, the traditional walkie-talkie is not friendly to ordinary people who don't understand radio technology: it has complex functions, numerous operations, troublesome charging and bloated appearance, and is easily regarded as a "worker". Xiaomi's "showstopper" and the latest "Xiaomi walkie-talkie Lite" (hereinafter referred to as Xiaomi Lite), with its extremely low price, simple operation and more acceptable appearance, make more ordinary people become "ham" (a general term for amateur radio lovers).
Before using walkie-talkies, put multiple walkie-talkies on the same channel. Xiaomi Lite supports two channels, one is the "public channel", and everyone can play at will. There are 20 such channels, which is convenient for changing channels when in conflict with strangers. The other is an amateur radio channel that needs "textual research" to be used. Although the former has no use threshold, its transmission power is low, only 0.5W, so its communication distance is short, about 1 ~ 3km. The latter transmits power of 3W, which can extend the communication distance to 5km. I will do the actual distance test later.
Use legal channels
The state has laws and regulations on the use of radio communication channels, so friends who have not been verified, please do not occupy amateur channels with frequencies of 430~440MHz. If found, it may be confiscated by the management department or even fined. Xiaomi Lite can store 16 channels at most, and the default frequency is amateur channel, so for most people, the first thing after unpacking is to modify the frequency, which is called "writing frequency".
Fast write frequency and synchronization
The traditional interphone frequency writing is very complicated, and it takes time and effort to write one by one, which is easy to make mistakes. Xiaomi Lite can write the frequency on the mobile phone simply by connecting with Mijia APP via Bluetooth.
As long as the frequency of public channels is between 409.7500~409.9875MHz, each channel does not need to be fully input, and the APP will automatically fill in the last two digits for you. For ordinary users, there is no need to change all the preset channels of 16. Generally, four or five channels are enough.
After writing one, you can synchronize to other Xiaomi Lite around you with one click, so that everyone has a unified channel. The whole process is very convenient.
Traditional walkie-talkies and Xiaomi Lite will be blocked by buildings. This time, I only tested the public channels that most people can use. The communication distance of the official public channel (0.5W) is 1 ~ 3km, which is of course less barrier.
test condition
I have read other people's comments before, and the communication distance between the open space and the rooftop is very good. It doesn't make sense for me to test it again. So I plan to be closer to my real life: my wife stays in the living room (the third floor on the west side of the banlou, not the balcony), there are many low-rise banlou and high-rise commercial buildings outside the community, and there are many bungalows with 1~2 floors, which are still very closed and the environment is very complicated. Please see the test results of different color labels on the map (for reference only):
Location ①: There are several banlou buildings and a high-rise commercial building in Yuan Shuxiang community, which has great influence. Although there is a signal, I can hardly hear it. When I was on Renmin North Road, there was basically no signal because of the influence of many tall buildings.
Location ②: I came a little further (400 meters). At this time, I staggered many banlou blocks in Yuan Shuxiang, and basically only one banlou was left in the north of my home. Although there are many low-rise bungalows in the middle, it is estimated that the impact is not great. You can hear each other clearly, but there is obvious noise. I'm not going to go any further, there are more and more buildings.
Location ③: At this time, I returned to the door of the community, close to home, with clear voice and basically no noise and murmur.
Location ④: Continue westward to the north gate of Zhousheng Primary School. At this time, the distance from my home is 200 meters. Because the middle area is full of bungalows, it has little impact. Because my living room is in the west of the building and the primary school is in the west, the sound is very clear and there is only a slight noise.
Let's compare the satellite images to see the influence of buildings on signals. On the left side are bungalows, and on the right side are board houses and commercial buildings;
We also did a simple test in other different locations, and the conclusion for public channels is:
1. In the same low-rise residential building, the sound is very clear even in the farthest two units.
2. When a whole board building is blocked, there will be slight noise. When more than three banlou are blocked, there will be occasional intermittent situations.
3. When there are large buildings (such as high-rise commercial buildings and large hotels), there may be no signal.
In fact, the distance from the official claim is not difficult to measure. My test results can be regarded as the "bottom", and your actual use is probably better than mine. For example, if you live in a tall building, there will naturally be fewer obstacles and the communication distance will inevitably increase. This is why the radio antenna must be placed high. In short, the public channels used by ordinary people are enough to cope with shopping malls, parks and hotels. Using more powerful amateur channels can obviously improve the clarity and transmission distance.
external
Xiaomi Lite does not have the "professional" mode away from traditional walkie-talkies. Like other products of Xiaomi Eco, it is simple and fashionable in appearance and available in black and white.
Although the fuselage is made of plastic, the surface texture is very delicate, non-slip and non-stick fingerprints, and it is not easy to scratch, and it will not be cold in winter, with moderate size and thickness. Anyway, it feels good. The weight is only 163g, and it has a detachable back clip, so there is no burden to carry it out. But what attracts me most is not the face value, but its function:
Speaker sound quality
Built-in 40mm large-size speaker, much larger than many traditional professional walkie-talkies. The alto is full, the voice is transparent and natural, it doesn't sound sharp at all, and it's not tired after listening for a long time.
Outdoor experience, the volume of the speaker can completely ensure that you can hear the other person's voice clearly in a noisy environment. If the "broadband" mode is turned on in the APP, the clarity of the sound quality will be significantly improved, and even the "saliva sound" of the other party can be clearly distinguished. However, the "broadband" mode is not as far as the default "narrowband" transmission distance.
Microphone noise reduction
The microphone of Xiaomi Lite is hidden in the grid of the speaker, which has a certain noise reduction effect: during normal call, the best pickup distance of the microphone is about 10cm, and it will be filtered as noise if it is far away-this can ensure that the other party can hear clearly. When measured in a good communication range, the environmental noise is basically inaudible.
Headphone compatibility
If you want to hear more clearly or free your hands, you can plug in headphones. Xiaomi Lite has a 3.5mm headphone jack (the same as the TRRS type of mobile phone).
We can buy the perfect earphone-H1. Its appearance is very combative, and the ear hook made of soft silicone is comfortable and firm to wear, which is common to both left and right ears, supports multi-directional adjustment and is suitable for long-term wear.
The microphone of H 1 also integrates PTT key, so that you don't have to reach out and touch the walkie-talkie, which is suitable for climbing mountains and driving. However, the headphone sound quality of H 1 is a bit thin, not as good as the built-in speaker of Xiaomi Lite, but the vocal clarity is completely fine.
If you think H 1 is too "combative", in fact, as long as it is a pure earphone with 3.5mm interface without microphone function, or a wire-controlled earphone with microphone function (or a headset), other external microphones (such as a collar microphone) can also be used.
I tested the compatibility of different combinations:
Because the whole system of Xiaomi walkie-talkie does not have recording function at present, it needs to be recorded with other equipment.
Contact-free call
You can open this function by connecting to the APP, which is very suitable for use when you can't spare your time, such as climbing mountains, cooking, bathing ... Please fill in other scenes yourself. Don't worry, it will broadcast all the sounds live. The call will be activated automatically only when you speak close to the microphone or when the volume is loud enough. However, the first two words of the call may be swallowed, so it's best to blow your breath or say "hello" first, and then continue the call when the indicator light turns green.
battery life
Xiaomi Lite has a built-in 2000mAh lithium battery, which can stand by for 5 days, and it hardly needs to be recharged during the small holiday. Different from the traditional walkie-talkie, it needs to carry a bulky charging stand, support Micro USB charging, and support charging while using, which is very convenient. Of course, it also has a small seat charger that needs to be purchased separately.
Although Xiaomi Lite has no display screen, you can press the power button briefly to hear the voice broadcast of the power prompt when you are in standby. In addition, in the standby state, the top indicator will flash three colors to indicate the current power.
Due to the popularity of mobile phones and the high cold of traditional walkie-talkies, walkie-talkies have never entered the public's field of vision, and only play a role in commercial services, engineering construction, military and police security and radio amateurs. Traditional walkie-talkies have the characteristics of real-time communication, answering every call, no need for base stations, unlimited areas, free calls and so on, and have advantages over mobile phones. As for the communication needs such as travel contact, team building and parent-child interaction, which need high efficiency, low confidentiality and low distance, Xiaomi Lite has the characteristics of ultra-low price, excellent workmanship, minimalist operation, convenient charging, small and fashionable, which are not available in traditional walkie-talkies, or more suitable for ordinary people.
How's it going? Are you going to buy a few sets before going out and have a "one-time response" with your family and friends!