Gotoky: Smartphone and Walkie Talkie

They also for the most part cost more than this, most people have smartphones and know how to use them fewer understand how to operate 2 way radios.

Considering that this is priced at or below most of the mid range consumer 2 way radios with the same features (500mw transmit power, same frequency coverage) but adds additional features like texting (which requires you to buy "professional" radio handsets) and co-location I don't see this as being that inferior.

And considering that the app can take out most of the user errors of using 2 way radios this might actually be more reliable than traditional handsets for most users.

And as far as the battery goes bring a battery pack / solar chargers you'll need it no matter if you are using this or a 2 way radio.

But most importantly if this is done right you have pretty much have self arranging mesh/cell network between multiple users even with some form of security/key-exchange as it can easily be done in software and you have a very powerful device - a modern smartphone to take charge of that.

I don't know of that many people that understand how to setup private, cross-talk and dispatch channels manually and pre-program them into their handsets and even if they do you still need to rely on users knowing when to switch to each pre-programmed channel.

Sure there are self arranging 2 way radios capable of building their own mesh/cell networks but those tend to be in the military range which puts each handset at several thousands of dollars no 100$.

If you want to talk to some one in private you can pretty much send them a "text" over a shared channel that will switch their unit to a private channel on its own. If you want to broadcast to everyone SOS style you can do that with ease rather than needing to remember which channel have you preset for that.

The app can also enable you to get access to emergency channels for virtually every rescue service in the world based on your location.

And there are tons of other use cases one could think of that are much easier / better with this setup than with a normal dumb 2 way radio.

- Gotoky: only 0.5 W of power vs. the Gotenna's 2 W

- uses FRS channels UHF vs. Gotenna's use of the MURS VHF bands, which have better propagation

I'd think even though they claim 5 mi line of sight, they would struggle to get 1/4 to 1/2 miles of range in normal city/event operation. They do even claim as much (<0.2 miles in Concerts and Events.)

I think the Gotoky is really just an FRS radio for your phone, while the Gotenna has quite a bit more capabilities.