FRS-Two-Way-Radio Reviews

I will be returning the radios. They both worked well the day I purchased them. The next day one unit would not pick up the signal.The batteries also get low quick.

i just received this pair of frs radios and have worked with them for 3 days on the same bateries and with excellent results. i live in a desert community of over 300 people and i have cut down on my cellphone use between me and my work partner .i use them at work and because they are so small they are easy to carry even in a pocket or on a belt with the built in clip.i dont have any problem with interference as this is the only pair in the community but now and again i can here someone 6.5 kms away .there are some nice features e.g. vox which helps when both hands are needed for work. The call feature is good because in a noisy work situation it helps to hear a ringing tone when someone is looking for you. i think the only problem i have is that i would like to buy a case for them and have not been able to find one --i dont live in america so that makes it more difficult. the radios seem very well made and the battery cover is closed very securly. i have not used any other type of frs radio but for the price i dont think you can beat these

I purchased these radios a couple of years ago and plan to purchase another set. Taking them camping is great and they function well within the stated 2 mile radius. At about that point the sound is fuzzy, but expected. They work great between cars on the road, at amusement parks, or even at home. My son loves to take one to the park and that way I can still keep tabs on him. When I want him to come home, I just page him. Definitely a good buy for the money.

After getting in my car with a pair of the 6400's as well as a pair of the older talkabout 200's, I drove 1.2 miles and tested both of them individually. To my astonishment, using the GMRS frequency at 1 watt added no improvement over my older family frequency radios. In fact, I believe my older radios with the ALLEGED 2 mile range using FF, out performed the new ones using the 5 mile frequency (GMRS). The clarity seemed better. Aside from the bells and whistles on the 6400 series, the range and clarity improvements are unremarkable and frankly, I think Motorola should be sued for false advertising. Neither the 2 mile FF or the 5 mile GMRS even remotely live up to Motorola's claims even in good conditions. Finally, I have to say, I am disappointed with Motorola because they have changed the ports to which the audio accessories (I. E. microphones.) connect. This is a nasty move that forces consumers to buy different $40.00 microphones just because we chose to get a new model radio. Pretty unethical if you ask me. I am considering different brands due to my disappointment in Motorola's ethics. The only perk to the new 6400 series is that they have some convenient features although, I am not sure the newer FF models didn't have these features as well. If it's distance you want or bang for your buck, save your FCC licencing $$ and stick with FF or take the leap and get the Distance series radios. At the least, dont pay full price for this radio. The current rebates definitely make the Motorola's more reasonable. Also, consider the option of other manufacturers that don't charge the premiums that Motorola does. Bottom line,,, can I get the features and performance I enjoy from a different manufacturer for much less money? That remains to be seen but, I have a feeling the answer is yes.

These radios have some great features like the automatic shut-off, but ultimately the sound quality is not that much better than the lower-end Motorola models. The voice scrambler is useless, it ends up making your voice sound like a robot.

I got mine from Office Depot for about the same price as the lower end T5300 series using a combination of store and manufacturer coupons. Otherwise, I'm not sure they'd be worth the extra money.

I started back when there was only one channel in FRS. I bought two radios from Radio Shack, they were the best of the whole bunch, but the dog chewed off the antennas one day. Ever since then I have not found a decent replacement. I bought other radios but had issues with them all. The good thing about these 6400's over other radios I have owned:
-rechargable batteries save a lot of $$$
-rubberized trim for protection
-auto-off to save batteries
-call beeps, we use them as "code"

-large display
-good size belt click with no need for a case
-the dog doesn't like the taste of these antennas. :>

I have two of these, I am buying a third for guests. I found the best radio!

This Christmas season, I have noticed small
GMRS handhelds being sold as"family radios"
at mass-merchandise stores. Wal-Mart, Target, BJ's Wholesale
Club, Best Buy, and others are now selling these radios.

Audiovox started this trend with the GMRS-1525, and has now been joined by the
likes of Midland, Uniden, and others. Sold in blister packs, often in pairs.
They look, smell, and taste like FRS radios, but with a big difference:

On the packaging, much is made of "4-mile range" and "2 watts of power."
Little or no mention is made of the FCC license which is required to transmit
with these radios.

Apparently, these are becoming quite popular as the "next generation of family
radios." A quick check of GMRS frequencies on the scanner revealed lots of
children, call tones, and roger beeps. Just like the FRS frequencies.

What are your thoughts on the manner in which these radios are being marketed?

Legal?

Ethical?

In dealing with FRS (family radio services) radios, this has any of them beat hands down. I've owned four Motorola Talkabout FRS radios and found that in a high user environment there is too much interference from other users. I use these radios in a wet and cold environment where the temp. reaches the teens. These radio's perform with no variation of the signal. Yes they are battery dependent but in a 4 to 6 hour stint I've found that keeping them charged works fine. So keep the battery charged and you should get the range they advertise and get an ear piece so you don't have to have to volume on high...

I just recently purchased a pair of these radios and I have to say that these are the best that I've tried to date. I've tried the cobra 900 series gmrs , a few of the motorola radios,and have a set of audiovox frs radios. The pr2000 wx ... is great. The distance is the best I've seen. At least 3 times the average frs.I use them when riding my motorcycle with an after marked headset and the clarity is good.The best for your money. ...

I bought a pair after losing an older T5200 (also from Motorola) which is not manufactured anymore. I figured that the new & more expensive model (which also has 1 Watt compared to 1/2 watt of the T5200) should work as good or better.

I was very disapoointed. Very poor sound quality. Audio is not clear and in many cases has breaks. I still have one T5200 left (I lost 1 out of 2) - eveyone in my family wants to use the older unit as the new T5820 does not perform. Plus, I paid for the T5200 half of what I paid for thr T5820...

I recommend not to buy this product. Go for the new cheaper & better T5720 (1 Watt as well, compact, great sound quality. The only limitation - no vibration alert. See my review on it).

The quality of voice coming from the speakers is very poor. You can hardly understand the person talking to you.

To those who have problems with getting clear reception:

If you normally set you volume control to max, try turning it down a little (or more) if your reception sounds muffled.

I've tried this several times within city transmission and it helps alot with removing the muffled reception some users have reported (especially those who have purchased sets with rechargeable nicad batteries).

I think the volume control and speaker interface has not been designed well for max vol transmissions. (Note that new T5620, T5720 and T5920 have sound enhacing improvements for clearer voice transmissions, check motorola site for specs and launch dates)

Reason I like this set:
The 1.0 watt transmitter helps increase talking distance in built up areas as opposed to 0.5 watt frs radio sets. Price was a good deal with rebate. ...

Everything I wrote about this unit one year ago is true, just that they are not built to last. I used them every other weekend while I was riding my ATV. OK lot's of shaking and dust but still I had expected them to last a bit longer. First the clip, than the speaker button - both of them fell literally apart.
Hard to find a quality unit. Other manufactures are not any better. I do believe that those FSR and GMRS units are generally built cheap. O.K. considering the price you still might wanna give'em a shot.

I bought 2 pairs of these radios because of their great price. They are built well, and are easy to use. All the features you would need, and they are more compact and powerfull than Motorola's. On the downside each set came slightly unadjusted, which caused them to squelch every 5 seconds. Midland handled it well by walking me through a simple process to readjust them over the phone. With the great features for the price I would buy them again.

Quality
I had these for about 2 weeks. Where shall I start: Maybe to say that they are very handy and the overall impression is that you have a rock solid product of quality in your hand. The manual that comes with it explanes everything clearly and in 10 min you are set to go. You've got all the options of connection external accessories, like intercom and Headset/Mic Jacks (VOX); which I personally don't need.

Manufacture defect - and how to fix it
I have to tell you though that this is already the second pair I got and the new ones I got had exactly the same defect like the first pair. The squelch of just one radio was adjusted too sensitive, so that it would turn itself one every few seconds without receiving a signal.
Because I didn't want to send the 2nd pair back, I call the TechService of Midland and they talked me through. Here is the simple procedure to adjust squelch sensitivity which worked perfectly well for me:
- Losen the 2 screws on the back of the radio and another 2 in the battery compartment
- pull off the on/off switch by simply pulling it vertically of and away from the radio (you don't have to twist)
- pull the back of the radio carefully off (don't rip off the wires that are connected to the front part)
- put the batteries back in the batterie compartment and turn the radio on
- in the middle of front part of the radio you will find 3 screws; the closest to the on/off switch is the one to adjust the squelch
- turn the screw slowly to find the spot where the squelch turns itself on (the point where the hissing sound turns on)
- from that point turn the srew 1/4 of a rotation clockwise
- Put everything back together and ... you are set.

Battery size and operating time
To me a more important aspect to consider is the kind of batteries you wanna use. I do have some other gadgets like a GPS, torches and a GameBoy ... wich all run on AA Batteries and I wanna stick with one kind of rechargeable batteries. I'm not very much of an electrician but I'm pretty sure that the 3xAA at 1.800mAh (NiMH) give you the edge over the 4xAAA at 700mAh (NiMH). On an camptrip I had them on for over 30 hrs at High Power, was talking regularly and they didn't give in. If it helps any they drain at 65 mha (for the electricians of you). The Battery extender you can forget about. You have to switch manually to 'low power' which reduces your transmitting range dramatically. But range is what you wanna have in the first place otherwise you would have bought yourself a FSR radio. So I don't see much use in it.

Transmission range
The most important category is the range to transmit and receive signals. The power they operate at is 2 watts, a considerable advandtage over the equaly solid build Motorolas at only 1 watt (only the more [spendy] Motor. operate at 2 w). I ran several test on them. The result is that in an urban area -me driving in a car between buildings and my wife in the house- we were able to communicate at a distance of 2mls. The same situation, only me in the car in the open field, it was about 4.5mls. The most impressiv performance though is in the straight line of sight. My friends on the campground and me in the car (w/o any external antenna attached to the radio), I couldn't believe my ears when I tried to contact them 6.8mls away and picked up strong and clear signals (all distances exactly measured by GPS). This proves that the company-claimed 7mls over sea is not exaggerated. The signal quickly deteriorates to under 2mls thought, when mountains are in between.

Price and recommendation
Finally the price: I'm absolutely sure that you won't find any better for this price. I would ever buy 'em again even considering the minor factory defect.

Bought a pair of these 8 or 10 months ago. They work fine though mine had a rubber cap on the base that was so loose that it fell off the one my wife was using never again to be seen. Mine stays in the drawer at home now. It's nice to have but falls off. Lousy design and manufacture.

My wife has a problem using it as she doesn't remember NOT to push the buttons with her fingernail. When you do that the button sticks in and has to be hit several times to come out. She's stuck it in the call mode several times and until I've found her and fixed the button it'll continue to transmit forever, driving you nuts.

The UP and DOWN buttons will often jump a couple of channels at a time but for the price what do you expect???

Seems to have a good range and battery life. Thank goodness you can lock the unit so it can't have the channel changed or my wife would never figure it out. It's great when shopping and seems to have a fine range even inside buildings.

You have to figure out how far from your mouth to hold it and how loud to talk. Otherwise it'll overmodulate so badly that it'll be distorted and you can't understand what's being said.

I paid the same after a rebate as the price here and consider it a very good value. I'm buying a pair as a special gift for our grandson as a birthday present in May so he an a neighbor friend a couple of blocks away can use them.

I am a part of an Law Enforcement group that recently depended on this type of radios. When I first tried these radios, it was in a covered parking garage, with 3 levels of parking spaces. We had people stationed at every corner, at all levels, and next to the nearest building, which was .5 miles away. These radios worked perfectly. The only complant I have is that the bottom cover that keeps on falling off. After my first encounter with those radios, I bought my own, which was the Motorola T289. Since we had radios without codes, we had to use the regular 14 channels. With outside interference, my radio, and along with other brands of radios, worked flawlessly with these. I highly recommend these radios, but if you can find a better deal (which I did), then these radios are only for those who can't shop around.

OK I WILL GET TO THE POINT !!!! i WAS A GOOD RADIO MAN TALKING
TO THE UNITED KINGDOM I MEAN ALL AROUND THERE EVERY WINTER
FOR YEARS & ALSO TALKING LOCAL & ON MY BIRTHDAY I KNEW I WAS GUNNA HAVE TO TAKE MY ANTRON 99 DOWN SO I DID
SO I WAS OVER @ A RADIO FRIENDS PLACE & i WAS LOOKING AROUND HIS BEDROOM & HE HAD A PAIR OF THEASE PERSONL BAND RADIO ON
452 MEGS AND THEN i GOT THEASE MODEL # UFR-805 & i LOVE THEM
NOW I CAN SIT @ MY HOUSE & HE IN HIS HOUSE A FEW BLOCKS AWAY & STILL KEEP IN TOUCH & ALSO I TOOK THEM OUT TO BE IN CONTAC WITH MY ICE FISHING PARTNER & OVER WATER BIG LAKES YOU GET OUT BETTER
THANKS FOR GIVEING ME A GREAT PRODUCT!! & FOR THE PRICE YOU CANT GO WRONG !!! AND ALSO i HAD SOME KIND OF MIKE IN MY HAND SINCE I WAS 12 YEARS OLD !!!