I am looking for a cheap gate call box that will operate on the FRS or GMRS frequencies. I found one but it was $800. I was hoping for something cheaper. I built a temporary one and put it out there but I would like to have something a bit nicer.
There is a Raspberry Pi intercom project. It's not wireless, but you could do it with a single buried (and properly protected) ethernet cable providing PoE (Power over Ethernet). The project below is for 3 points but could easily be modified by dropping one of the points. Raspberry Pi Intercom System Edit: Another one that even has a 3D printed case. Again, wired (you'd use PoE rather than WiFi...or you could use WiFi, you'd just need power to the unit). I built a wifi "walkie" talkie for my kids; now you can too!
Bring the wires out of your frs radio for ptt, speaker and microphone and mount in a weatherproof box...could do that for under $50 easily.
That is my plan at this point. I think I can do it for around $100. I found a stainless call box cover with speaker and button on fleebay for $40. Baofeng $25, Solar Panel $20, Weatherproof box to mount the call box cover probably $10-20. I found some complete units on the interwebs for $800-3000.
Push button and speaker from fleebay and weatherproof box from the home improvement store. Solar panel from an old automatic chicken door, Baofeng with external mic wired to speaker and push button, solar panel wired to gutted Baofeng desk charger, desk charger guts soldered to the Baofeng battery.
The RF works probably too well, I could not fit any antennas I had laying around inside the enclosure so I put an external antenna on a metal plate screwed to that fence post beside it. The good news is that it is down in a valley so the signal will not get too far. The solar charger setup, time will tell; I expected to have some trouble with it but it all seemed to work perfectly the first try.
The MURS is under an FCC Blanket Nation-wide Authorization the same as FRS, CB, and non-Commercial Aircraft and Maritime Stations...
