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My husband and I sleep separately because he's up several times a night, is a restless sleeper, and likes to have a night light on. Several times he's called me for help, but I'm upstairs sleeping soundly and his voice does not carry well (Parkinsons). Does anyone have experience with a type of call system that might work? First I was thinking a baby monitor, but we don't really need visual monitoring. Another thought was some kind of two-way radio system, preferably something that's voice activated and could just be on a stand so hubby doesn't have to fumble for a handset or punch buttons.

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Keep it simple. I used the Smart Caregiver Two Call Buttons & Wireless Caregiver Pager ($30 on Amazon). It's the home version of "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!" It has one base unit for the caregiver (it is small and can be clipped to a belt) and two Call Buttons which can be worn around the neck on a lanyard and/or mounted on a flat surface using Command Strips. The range between the pendant and pager is 300 feet. I could go outside to work in the garden and the range was excellent. I also took my folks on a cruise. My cabin was 2 away from theirs and the signal was excellent even on the ship! As long as he can push a button, it'll work. At night, I kept the base unit on my nightstand. The base unit used standard batteries but I had to purchase the call button batteries at Batteries Plus (it's made in China. Enough said). Highly recommend!!!
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Thanks very much. I'm not sure if the audio only baby monitors would allow me to speak to my husband or if they only transmit from the room where the "baby" is in to the receiver, but I can look that up. The other thing I'm now researching is a Google device or Amazon Alexa device because I've read those can be used as intercoms or to place calls. Although more expensive than a baby monitor, you could do other things with such a device and my husband might enjoy that. And unlike a baby monitor, the device wouldn't be on all the time but would just be activated by him if he needs to call me.
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LavenderBear Feb 2022
We just got Alexa last week. My Mom uses it to call me on my cell phone. All she has to do is say: Alexa, call LavenderBear" and Alexa makes the phone call. This is good for my Mom because she cannot see and it's hard for her to use a phone.

The set-up instructions were easily found online via Amazon.

You can also use Alexa to make an announcement to a partner Alexa in the house. For example, if you had an Alexa in two rooms. He could request Alexa to make an announcement, and it would be made using his voice. For example - my Mom could say - Alexa, announce "Lavender Bear come here" and it would repeat it using her voice on the connected Alexa devices.

One thing nice about it is the ability for my Mom to listen to music and the news just by asking for it. Definitely worth the money.

Some people don't like Alexa for privacy reasons. The one we bought (Echo Dot) has a microphone button on top that you can turn off if you don't want it listening for commands for awhile. Then turn it back on when you're ready to start using it again. We don't use that button, though.
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Baby monitor's the way to go. Just make sure you don't have it right next to you and keep the volume down, because they pick up every snuffle or shift in the bed and it'll keep you awake all night.
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You don't have to have the visual function of a baby monitor, you can find very inexpensive audio only ones ($20-$60) at stores like Target. Just make sure it has a far enough range.
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