2 Way Radios.... opinions?

[The Yeti]

A local retailer has the Motorola 12 mile set on sale. This set has the rechargable batteries. Opinions? Battery life? Anyone have this set and what do you think?

[gunflint]

We use them daily. Midlands, Batteries usually outlast the radios. 12 miles is more like a mile in real life.

[Macgyver55]

I've had 4 different sets. They ought to put a point in between the advertised number of miles they work on all of them. If they claim 10 miles its more like 1...if they claim 14 miles its more like 1.4 and so on. The one thing I will say is the Midlands seem to have a more clear speaker sound than the Motorolas do, and sightly better battery life. My buddy has Cobras and they seem to have a better sound quality than Motorola too. Even so, I do like my current Midlands for what I use them for. Other than that I doubt that any of them will transmit anywhere near the advertised distance even under the best of conditions.

[The Yeti]

That leads me into my next question. We had a hard time trying to get different brands of radios to tune in. Can you still talk with, for example, Motorola and Midlands or Cobra, or whatever brand you have?

[gunflint]

Our Midlands can talk to our old Unidens.

[Whoaru99]

I think the basic channels should be the same as long as you are GMRS to GMRS or FRS to FRS, etc. However, not sure about when a guy starts using the coded squelch features if Motorola's work with Midland, Midland work with Cobra, etc. I'd get radios where one can turn that stuff off if /as necessary.

[BobT]

I did a little searching a while back and found out how the advertised miles comes into play. Of course, false advertising is illegal so they must have been able to do it at least once. Truth is, the radios you are talking about are probably FRS or GMRS radios. FRS or Family Radio Service is limited to a maximum of .5 watts of output power. At best this gives a somewhat reliable range of about 2 miles. GMRS or General Mobile Radio Service is limited to a maximum 50 watts however most handheld radios are only capable of 1 to 4 watts of output power. GMRS also requires FCC licensing to be used. Many of the handhelds have both FRS and GMRS frequencies accessible but that does not permit the unlicensed user to use the GMRS frequencies.

So, how do they advertise 10, 15, or 20 mile ranges? These radios use frequencies that are line-of-sight frequencies. In other words, they signals do not pass through solid objects very well. Trees, buildings, hills, etc. will likely interfere. At the same time, if you can see the other person there is a good probability that you can communicate with them even over extremely long distances. Put both on top of a tall object with no obstructions and it is very possible they managed to communicate. GMRS also can use Skip to transmit over long distances.

Bob

[gspman]

I think another trick they may be pulling is the linear range is half of what they advertise it as. If the advertised range is 12 miles then it's really 6 miles in one direction and 6 in the opposite direction. This adds up to 12 miles but not in one direction. Also as long as you don't have security or privacy codes turned on you should be able to talk to any radio if you are on the same channel.

[kunk]

I'm on my fourth set and am still not satified. I've had Motorola, AudioVox, and Cobra. These were all 4 watt. One night on Kab my wife had the VNP rangers and the county sheriff looking for me. I was only 2 miles from the cabin over open water, and figured if she wanted to get a hold of me she'd call. Didn't get 2 miles out of them. Got back before they found me, but was I in the dog house. Midland has some 5 watt units out, and I'm going to try them next summer. If anyone's interested, the model is the GXT600, or with desktop charger, vehicle charger, and rechargable battery it's the GXT600VP4. They are cheaper than the Cobras that I have now.

[Fireguy]

The Motorola's are sturdy. We had one dropped 45 feet to a cement floor and there was no damage it still worked.

[LoonASea]

I use Midland radios 14 mi range ,,last fall we tried them out on the road (north shore) and by the mile markers we got better then 6 miles apart and had good signal and quality sound they work better then my Garmin Rino

I also like the ear piece/mic you can get with them and with VOX its hands free

Randoid

[Sutty]

I like the regular battery models. If you go on a remote trip (canadian fly in) or remote camping or somewhere you can't recharge and than you are stuck. I do like to use rechargeble batteries in mine but they are the regular AA ones.