Sector
Two-way radios for farms and estates
A farm is a big, spread-out workplace with no mobile signal in half of it and people working alone with heavy machinery. The combine driver needs to call the trailer in, the stockman needs the vet called from the far field, and somebody needs to know if the lone worker on the quad has not checked in. Farms have used radios for this for decades, and digital radios do the job better.
We normally set farms up with Hytera HM785 sets in the tractors, combines and the farm office, HP605 handhelds for people on foot with man-down for lone workers, and a repeater on the grain store or a mast to cover the whole holding. Large estates, shoots and equestrian events hire packs for the season.
Farms usually buy the fleet outright, and we handle the Ofcom licence and keep it renewed. Harvest and lambing hire adds radios for the busy weeks.
Typical accessories
- Tractor mounting kits
- Heavy-duty speaker mics
- Noise-cancelling headsets
- Chest harnesses
What matters in farms and estates
The problems radios solve here, and how we set them up.
Distance and terrain
A 45 W vehicle set and a repeater on high ground cover thousands of acres. Handhelds cover the yard and the nearer fields.
Lone workers and machinery
Man-down alarms raise the alarm if someone is thrown or trapped. Lone-worker timers cover whoever is on their own.
Mud, rain and drops
IP68 handhelds survive the yard. Vehicle sets are sealed against dust.
No mobile signal
Radios do not need it. Where a business spans several holdings, PoC radios use whatever signal there is.
Recommended radios
What we send to farms and estates customers
Licensed digital DMR
Hytera HP605
Hytera's rugged mid-range radio. IP68, 2 m drop, 20 to 30-hour battery.
- UHF 400–470 MHz (VHF 136–174 MHz available)
- 1024 channels, 64 zones
- 4 W / 1 W UHF (5 W / 1 W VHF)
Vehicle and base
Hytera HM785
Hytera's vehicle and base radio. Up to 45 W, colour display, 1024 channels.
- UHF 400–470 MHz, UHF 350–470 MHz or VHF 136–174 MHz
- 1024 channels, 64 zones
- 1 / 5 / 25 / 45 W UHF (50 W VHF)
Repeaters
Motorola SLR 1000
A weatherproof 10 W repeater that mounts on a pole, a wall or a mast.
- 1–10 W UHF
- 100%
- 64
Farms and estates: common questions
Will radios reach across the whole farm?
Handheld to handheld covers two to three kilometres in open country. Vehicle sets and a repeater on high ground extend that across a large estate. Send us a map and we will advise.
Can we hire just for harvest?
Yes. A pack of handhelds and a couple of vehicle sets can go out for the harvest weeks and come back afterwards.
Do we need a licence?
A farm fleet needs a Simple UK licence, £75 for five years, which we apply for. A repeater needs a site licence, which we also arrange.
Related sectors
Enquire
Tell us about your farms and estates job. We'll spec and quote it today.
How many radios, the dates, where you are and what the job is. That is enough for us to put a kit list together.
- Email[email protected]
- Monday to Friday, 08:00–18:00. Out-of-hours support for live events by arrangement.
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