FRS-Two-Way-Radio Reviews

You willbe surprised to see that (2) one pair of these are located at iwon.com shopping area for sale at the price of $69.99,and if you have some of those cash points for playing their games that you no nobody ever won, the price goes from $69.99 less $13.00 cash points to cost you $56.99 and that is for the pair of the walkie talkies, not for just one as is this one.Since this is listed as Single, don't be mistaken, make sure you are buying a pair of them, otherwise you will be verymad with amazon.com Also,tell them here tolowertheir price alittle.LOL

Tired of yelling for the kids or your better half? Looking for them in the mall, in the house or at the camp site. Then this is for you! I've been a radio hobbist for years and these little radios are neat! You can use over 340 'channel' combinations on 4 AAA batteries. But here's the rub, the batteries only last 24 hours or LESS total time. The range is pretty good for only 500Mv (about one-half watt) in the city I can go about 3/4 of a mile. Clean clear communications, no static and a neat 'call' button feature. For a family this is a great little radio. Don't expect to get the 2 miles as claimed, unless you are in the desert on open field. Get the rechargable battery packs and charger, you'll need it!

I recently purchased one of thies radios and it was exactly the one i was looking for. the size is great. it is the only radio that i can fit in a pocet without looking like i have big hips. all of the feachers are great to like the water resistant frame, the channle lock and the back lite. But the most importand thing is the channles and privacy codes. All of my frends got somthing with 14 channles and 38 privacy codes and i was stuck with a one channle radio. so I bought this. I think that it is the best radio anyone could ever hope for.

I was counting on the brand Motorola, but...

Design is nice, but 2 big compaints are:
1. 3 AA batteries per walki's not to mention the weight. If you plan to purchase 4 of these that means 12 AA's! The batt level indicator is already down a level (in about 10 days).
2. Disapointing Range. They say up to 2 miles, but I get about 1 mile at the most. I live in a very flat (Michigan) and less populated area. I suspect the range will go down even more in a city area.

These are OK radios but they need the extra feature of 38 subcodes. When I take them skiing I often have trouble finding a empty channal. Besids that the radios are nice and small, well made but I would buy a different pair maybe the T6300 which have a lot more features.

I bought these to keep track of my 10 year old son after having several moments of him wandering off or getting lost at amusement parks or festivals. These work great! When we go somewhere I give him one and I keep one. The idea is whenever (or if) we get seperated all I have to do is talk to him through these radios and I can then find him. I haven't had to use them to locate him yet though, but we do communicate through them all the time. We use them when he goes outside in the neighborhood. I can ring him up whenever I want to know what he is doing or when it is time to come home. He can "call" me whenever he has a question for me or wants to check in.

The range is great and I can understand him the vast majority of the time. These have really helped me feel better about him playing around the neighborhood. How great is it to be able to call him to come home rather than walking or riding around the neighborhood for several minutes to tell him to come home. I also know he has these if he gets into any trouble or gets injured and needs me so there is a big safety/security benefit to having these. I can see so many uses for these little radios. Hiking, camping, hunting, anywhere that there are large numbers of people and you want to stay in contact with someone, and last but not least--to us mothers or fathers that want to have some peace-of-mind. Also a good cheap alternative to a cell phone (which my son wanted and I told him NO) I highly recommend these radios!

The radio looks good and has nice features, but there is a problem that cannot be overcome.

You have to press the PTT button for at least 2 seconds before talking. Why? The PTT button is a dual-function button. Obviously it is a PTT, but it is also a Monitor button. This makes it necessary to hold it down for at least 2 seconds before talking. Getting people to realize this and have them remember to do this is next to impossible.

This made the radio very frustrating to use. I eventually sent them back for a refund.

I bought this product because my family and I go hiking a lot, we have an age range of 55 to 5 on our trips with varying degrees of speed and endurance, these walkie talkies have let us enjoy walking together without everyone having to be in the same group, and everyone can enjoy the outdoors at their own pace without the worry of where we are and when we will meet up again. It is also nice to know how hot or cool it is as some of our trips are out in the desert, and the access to the weather channels has proven very helpful in our decions on how long the day trips should be and what trail we should decide on. I recommend these walkie talkies to anyone who likes to hike in groups.
The design of the radios as well as the headsets are extremely helpful once you get the hang of them of course, as they enable your hands to be free, and unlike some of the other headsets that are on the market where the mike is always on, there is a button that can be pressed to to key the mike. My ten year old and 5 year old are able to use them with no problems. We love them and are wondering what took us so long to get them.

I bought this radio because of the added features of a weather radio and a FM radio.
It has great range and the weather radio is really nice!
The FM radio wasn't the clearest...but what do you expect from a 40 buck radio?
The headset fit me perfect and works great!!
This is a must have!!

The radio looks good and has nice features, but there is a problem that cannot be overcome.

You have to press the PTT button for at least 2 seconds before talking. Why? The PTT button is a dual-function button. Obviously it is a PTT, but it is also a Monitor button. This makes it necessary to hold it down for at least 2 seconds before talking. Getting people to realize this and have them remember to do this is next to impossible.

This made the radio very frustrating to use. I eventually sent them back for a refund.

I bought this product because my family and I go hiking a lot, we have an age range of 55 to 5 on our trips with varying degrees of speed and endurance, these walkie talkies have let us enjoy walking together without everyone having to be in the same group, and everyone can enjoy the outdoors at their own pace without the worry of where we are and when we will meet up again. It is also nice to know how hot or cool it is as some of our trips are out in the desert, and the access to the weather channels has proven very helpful in our decions on how long the day trips should be and what trail we should decide on. I recommend these walkie talkies to anyone who likes to hike in groups.
The design of the radios as well as the headsets are extremely helpful once you get the hang of them of course, as they enable your hands to be free, and unlike some of the other headsets that are on the market where the mike is always on, there is a button that can be pressed to to key the mike. My ten year old and 5 year old are able to use them with no problems. We love them and are wondering what took us so long to get them.

I bought this radio because of the added features of a weather radio and a FM radio.
It has great range and the weather radio is really nice!
The FM radio wasn't the clearest...but what do you expect from a 40 buck radio?
The headset fit me perfect and works great!!
This is a must have!!

The Garmin Rino 110 occupies an awkward middle ground between being an
interesting toy and a serious tool for the outdoors. On the one hand
the idea of melding together GPS and radio communications via FRS/GMRS
is dynamite. Unfortunately the devil is in the details when it comes
down to actually using them. As others have noted the 110 can be
quite finicky about battery life, and even a slight jostle can cause
the units to shut down. There's also the issue of range. I have
found that best way to use the 110 is for car-to-car communication, or
within the controlled distances inside of a campground. I would be
very careful before trusting the 110 in a real "hardcore" outdoor
situation.

Within those limits the 110 is a nifty little device. I am quite keen
to see that the folks at Garmin come up with next. I for one would be
willing to pay more for a unit that is more "ruggedized" or requires a
license but gives you more radio output power in return (and removes
the FCC restriction about sending GPS data at GMRS power levels).
Also a more clever approach with regard to batteries/power management
would be a huge plus.

OUTSTANDING to say the least. I carried a Rhino 110 for a year during operation Iraqi Freedom. It suffered more abuse in this year than any normal person would subject it to in 2 lifetimes. The radio performed well when other handheld radios failed from abuse and dirt. The GPS is user friendly and proved to be as accurate or more accurate than Army issue. I personally know at least 20 other soldiers who are using either Rhino 110s or 120s here who are equally satisfied with this piece of equipment. The only hiccup I have found so far is the unit will shut down from a sharp blow, but it will always power up again.

Nice radio/gps for the price. I bought two of these radios and the position reporting feature is really neat. I also like the polling fearure which allows you to locate another radio without them sending their location. This of course must be enabled in the settings. Navigating through the menu is relatively easy. Reading the manual does help though. Range is as expected...I usually get at least 1 mile outdoors. Garmin also updates the software which you can download from their website which fix minor issues. You must buy the serial cable to do this. The unit is also waterproof, not just "water resistant". Battery life is about 15 hrs using the gps and radio at the same time. You can turn off the gps or radio if you want to use only one. I'm very happy with my purchase. These are good quality gps/radios.

i give it a 5 star because it gets great range. i measured it once and it got 5 and a half miles with hills. this radio exceads the ordinary radio by far. i have one and my dad has one and we can talk back and forth 2 miles with some obstructions. i think that the batteries work a very long time, i've gotten 5 hours out of them with the rechargable batteries. i got 2 mile radios about 4 christmases ago and they made barley half a mile. these are very good radio's and i would recomend them to anyone.

THIS RADIO IS THE BEST RADIO I EVER USED.

ITS RANGE IS GREAT AND EVERY THING COMES IN REALLY CLEAR.

IT USUALLY HAS A RANGE OF 2-3 IN THE CITY AND 5 MILES IN THE OPEN COUNTRY.

THE MOST RANGE I EVER HAD WAS 16 MILES.

THIS RADIO-- AUDIOVOX 1525 IS THE BEST RADIO I EVER HAD.

IT WORKS FINE IN THE CITY AND BETTER IN THE COUNTRY. I GET 2-3 MILES IN THE CITY AND 4+ IN THE COUNTRY.

THIS RADIO IS CLEAR AND HAS ALOT OF GREAT FEATURES.

Quality is decent, though the on/off volume knob feels cheap. Good range in the suburbs. Included belt clip a plus. Will only take the FRS-EM8 and the FRS-EMC8 earbud microphones

I bought this radio to communicate with my family in the ground floor of my apartment and the quality was exceptional. I even used it to tap radio transmissions and this can perform very well in bad weather conditions also, If u want to buy a radio , I personally suggest GO FOR IT!!!

I got them a couple of months ago and they are so cool. I have used them on car trips and campouts. They seem to be made very well. And for this price I think they are amazing.

Quality is decent, though the on/off volume knob feels cheap. Good range in the suburbs. Included belt clip a plus. Will only take the FRS-EM8 and the FRS-EMC8 earbud microphones

I bought this radio to communicate with my family in the ground floor of my apartment and the quality was exceptional. I even used it to tap radio transmissions and this can perform very well in bad weather conditions also, If u want to buy a radio , I personally suggest GO FOR IT!!!

I got them a couple of months ago and they are so cool. I have used them on car trips and campouts. They seem to be made very well. And for this price I think they are amazing.

I bought 2 of these radios a few days ago. I am not sure how the idea got around that this is a 1/2 watt unit, because it is a 2 watt unit, and it DOES require an FCC license. The manual and the FCC registration says it is a 2 watt unit. I was very skeptical of this radio, because it seemed like I was getting alot of radio for less money, but I am glad I bought it now. We are getting around 1.5 mile range in the neighborhood, and about 2.5 miles out in the country were there are less obstructions. My father has 2 motorolas (5100 model). We tested these units against the Unidens head to head. The Uniden GMRS480 sounded much better than the Motorola 5100s every time. The secret is to not hold you mouth too close to the radio when you speak. No need to speak loud either. The Uniden's were not "tiny micy" sounding at all. I would have given this unit a rating of "5", but I must tell you that the thermometer is not very useful. I believe that it cannot get a correct temperature reading when you are holding the radio. It can be around 40 degrees outside, and if you are holding the radio, it will read in the upper 70's. I guess if you sit the radio down and don't touch it, it may get a "true" temperature reading. The SCAN function works, but is kinda weird in my opinion. You have to hold down either of the up/down channels for several seconds to get it to scan. Therefore, you actually change channels 1 thru 15 many times, and then the unit goes in to scan mode. Also, you can't use the radio while it is on the charger, which really disappoints me. But the batteries (NiMH), lasted us on the farm on one charge, Sat, Sun, & Monday, with the unit turned on all during the daylight hours. By Monday evening they still had 2 out of 4 bars left on the battery meter. The weather band is good, it picked up the NOAA channel about 50 miles away. Seems pretty weather resistant, but I try not to get anything wet that is electronic. Good thing that the radio is simple to figure out and use, because I could have written a better manual. You can download the manual from the Uniden web site before you buy it. It is only a few pages. The folks at Uniden have been very helpful in answering my questions. They have responded to every email I have sent them. I recommend the Uniden GMRS480, but since it is GMRS and 2 watt, it does require an FCC license.

First of all, sorry for my english.

I agree with most of what have already been said here, I've tested the unit and seem to have a very good long range coverage, for me I could say that easily triples standard FRS coverage. One feature that has not been described here is an useful monitor button that when you hold it for a few seconds it cancels the squelch and keep it that way (doesn't have to keep pushing the monitor)and that gives you add'tnl coverage. At long distances signal could be poor to break the squelch but if you open the line you could clearly hear the other party. When using any radio in adverse circunstances try to get into high and open places, if you get onto a building or a mountain you would be impressed the coverage of the unit. I use this mainly for vacations at Isla de Margarita and from my apartment I cover all Porlamar city and it's surroundings and even talk miles away with a small mountain in the middle.

The vibrate option is very nice, when you'r fooling around malls nobody notes that someone's calling you cause when activated in cancels the ringer sound. Unit looks very sturdy.

The cons: Lettering on the radio tend to erase by the use and sweat.

Don't doubt getting this unit.

This radio is ideal for the money. I tested these radio's in the city and got almost 4 miles in range. I had one outside and my friend had the other one in his truck driving away from me. We were able to keep constant communication the whole time. He was driving through busines and residential areas. These will be great from car to car and out in the mountains.