Radio Reviews

I purchased two of these units for use in shopping centers and on cruise ships. My wife and I had previously used a pair of older Motorola FRS radios, which were just not powerful enough to transmit through all that steel. We used the T7200 units today for the first time and they worked as advertised. We had complete coverage anwhere throughout the Mall of George, in Atlanta (a VERY large multi-level mall). Transmissions were strong and crystal clear (MUCH better sound than our older units). The weather channels also work very well and we listened to them all the way back to North Carolina. My only complaint with the T7200 is that the volume of the call tone is keyed to the level of the position of the volume button on the radio. If the volume level is accidently turned down (which happened to us once), the call tone cannot be heard when the unit is inside a pocket book or bag. This is a minor complaint and should not stop someone from buying the T7200. When it happened to us, my wife did not hear the call tone, but she did hear my spoken message, while the radio was inside her purse. Just be careful if you're not carrying the unit in the supplied belt holster. The T7200 is a great radio.....very functional and built like a tank! I would have given the T7200 4 1/2 stars, but the choice was either 4 or 5.

I purchased these radios for use in a heavily wooded, hilly state park in West Virginia that has no cell service. They performed very well up to about 1.5 miles. After that the performance varied depending on terrain. Each of three families had one yellow radio in their cabin and we kept them on continuously for one week (much of the time in the charging cradle).

These radios can be used in voice activated mode without accessories, and hence can be used as a reliable baby monitor, for eg (although going 1.5 miles from your sleeping child may not be such a good idea). Turning off the tone-coded squelch (interference eliminator codes) seems to increase the range a bit since you don't miss weak messages. In rural areas you will be alone on the channel anyway. We also have a pair of motorola T5820 1 watt radios. Those radios, while smaller, had a range that was about half of the T7200s and had inferior sound (although more then passable). The T5820 did not have the eavesdrop reducer code feature so we turned that feature off on the T7200s as well.

Battery life on the T7200s using NiMH is as advertised (13 hr or so in standard use). The charging cradle works well for these radios. you can charge the radio while it is still in its belt holtster and you can leave the radio on so you won't miss messages. Note that w/o the charging cradle, you can't charge the radio and leave it in voice-activated mode turned on because you charge it through the headphone accessory port and that cuts out the speaker. So the cradle is really needed for extended use.

The main limitation of these radios is figuring out a use for them. In most places cell phones work better (if a little less fun) and are much smaller. we used the T7200s while tandem driving and that was fun. i think a headset would make them even better for that use (we did not have headsets).

In terms of size, they are definitely big enough that you are aware that the radio is hanging from your belt. I was able to play golf with the radio in the belt clip, however, without any problem.

I'm a communications officer for an Army aviation battalion currently located in Baghdad, Iraq. When we first got here soldiers (to include myself) were purchasing the smaller Motorola radios to augment communications. After a few months though, the unit was able to purchase 118 of the 7200s with operational funds. It was a good investment. There are plenty of channel presets available to avoid crossover with other units using similiar radios. The 5900 series radios, while also listed as "up to 5 miles" were never up to the task. They would barely push 2 miles on fairly open terrain. This radio, however, does seem up to task. The 5900s would give me about a day on a single charge. This radio, the 7200, gets me a little over two 12 hour work days. I haven't seen how far it can go but it doesn't have a lot of problems cutting through the the large metal hangars scattered throughout our area. Now that we've used this radio no one wants to go back to the other smaller Motorola radios we have. There's really no comparison in range or quality.

*One note though, none of the radios on the US FRS or GMRS bands (roughly 460-470 MHz) are compatable with the European unlicensed radio bands. Those run about 440 MHz.*

This is a good radio for a flight line or other open work site and the rechargeable batteries are key to keeping operating costs down.

You have this bulky box radio, with sharp edges, and NO handle to carry it by! AND, somehow the engineers didn't even consider adding a telescoping antenna for FM reception. Furthermore, its AM reception, when I last tried it, STUNK! Couldn't even provide some legs for it, so it can be used on a carpeted floor (like MINE)...or at least the instructions tell you you shouldn't. Bose's sound quality is probably just as good, however. So far it's just been sitting in the box it came in, for a few months. Keep telling myself that I must take it out and try it again, but I doubt I'll get any better results from it now then when I first eagerly took it out of its box. :( Furthermore, GE Super Radios (not sure they make them anymore, unfortunately) get FAR better AM reception. I must admit, however, that the sound IS superb when a signal comes in clearly. Otherwise, was much disappointed, though wasn't quite sure whether to rate it a 2 OR 3, the latter being based, of course, on the superior sound quality.

I am astonished and pleasantly surprised to find a product which I purchased as a gift for my parents more than 10 years ago is still being sold. This Sony table radio (remember that means it has to be plugged in) is a real winner and its longevity in the marketplace is a testimony to that fact. Even in the age of digital everything, this radio is definitely worth considering. As a fussy listener I can assure you that for a radio of its size the sound quality is outstanding and its attractive appearance will fit into both home and office settings. You will not be disappointed.

I bought this radio as a gift for my sister. She mentioned after a recent trip how much she enjoyed listening to classical music on a public radio station on her drive. Sometime later she also mentioned she'd like a radio for her kitchen. This radio fills the bill on both counts. It has connections for an external FM antenna, but with it's strong tuner it's not needed; even for those low powered public radio stations. The slide band tuning is easy and quick to tune and has a solid quality feel. The sound is great. If you're looking for an affordable quality table radio, this is the one.

I'd rate this a 1 star, but I didn't only because maybe I didnt understand what these radios are all about.

Here on the north side of Chicago, these radios were unable to establish contact over a distance of 4 blocks. Repeated calls back and forth to the other party, while they walked this 4 blocks, gave extremely disappointing results.

Maybe its because traffic is really heavy, but I still find this unacceptable. It really only worked well up to about 2 blocks away.

The radio automatically comes on with channel 1, subchannel 1 selected. There were no others on that channel. I manually scanned all 14 channels and found almost no one else on these frequencies. Maybe these radios just aren't for city use. I think they stink. I avoided giving a worse rating only because I don't want to scare people away. One woman says she uses it to call her husband working in the yard. I'm pretty sure it can handle that task. But not much more.

I bought a pair of these a couple of months ago, mainly to keep in contact with my kids while they're out in the neighborhood playing. The sound is incredibly clear...no static what-so-ever. One of the best features is the sub-codes. I haven't had any interruptions while talking to my children, thanks to the sub-codes! I haven't really tested the range but, my daughter did walk to a little neighborhood store about 4 blocks away and we had no problems at all understanding each other, or interference. Another great feature is the keypad lock. This prevents the channels from accidently getting changed while being in a pocket, bumped, etc. If you're looking to buy FRS 2-way radios to keep in contact with your children while they're playing out in the neighborhood, the Motorola Talkabout 5420 would be an excellent choice, and I highly recommend it!!

Excellent quality, durable, good range, clear signal. We've been very happy with these. We mostly use them when my husband climbs on the roof to do something like reposition the satellite dish or other thing like that where one of us needs to be in the house and the other needs to be on the roof. I'm afraid of heights so I never "need" to be on the roof but he goes up and snaps one of these to his belt. He can hear me and talk back (in a nice way) without having to hold it which is especially nice when he's on the roof. As I said, its clear and has good range so we're quite pleased. It fell onto the driveway from about 10 ft up at one point and survived the fall but I don't recommend doing too much of that.

I've only owned this machine for four days and I'm absolutely blown away by it. The alignment of the speakers really does create a nice 3D sound effect even when listening to AM radio. There are several different equalization presets that bring out different sound qualities depending on what you're listening to. I am very impressed with the way the controlls are laid out on the machine. They are separated into groups so it's easy to find what you're looking for. This is especially useful for me because I am totally blind and it is easy to remember the functions of each controll because of how they are arranged. Where this machine really stands out though is in it's sheer power. I thought the "Power blaster" thing sounded a little corny, but not after hearing it. This machine packs plenty of power and I don't really agree with the reviewer who said you lose bass as the volume goes up. Granted, a mini system would deliver more bass, but this boombox does a nice job in bringing out eh bass and it doesn't drop off when the volume goes up and believe me, the volume goes up! In short, BUY ONE! You'll love it. Oh, and my jog dial works fine also.

I am very pleased with the purchase of this boombox. It is very easy to use and the sound quality is geat. I would recommend this boombox for anyone interested in buying a quality boombox at an affordable price. I have only owned it for one week, therefore, I can not comment on the durability of the equipment.

This panasonic boombox is wicked,haha. I love the futuristic look. The sound quality is good, I can bump my rap or r&b and the speakers can pump that bass. It's fairly easy to operate as well. The radio stations come in clear and you know they had to include a remote right? Yup, I don't have to get my lazy a$$ up to change radio stations or perform other functions if I don't want to. The sound virtualizer makes a song sound spacey, real raw. Now I know I said stick to Sony with portable audio but Panasonic is trying to come up. This boombox is great for 3 main reasions: One - It's size makes it easy to fit in any room or set up, it fits just fine on top of my small bookshelf. Two - The style can't be beat. The whole futuristic layout worked good. And Three - Sound quality is bumping. It can hang with some of the bigger and more expensive audio sets. That's my two cents on this boombox, I'm out.

Incredibly light-weight and small.
Easy to learn and use.
A lot of features.
Only uses one AAA battery!

Reception, as with all Panasonics, is not that great (Sony reception is a lot clearer).
Buy different headphones. The ones provided are uncomfortable.

I have been using this radio for a very long time. If you are a serious radio listener(especially talk radio), you want to get a radio that has station memory. One of my only complains is that there is a lack of a belt clip. The headphones that come with them are okay, but I ended up getting another set because the original set kind of hurt my ears. If you are worried about the battery use, just do like I did and get a rechargeable battery set. They help anyway if you have some other devices that eat up batteries. I go to school at Georgia Tech and I commute, so I get bad reception in many places, however, it's like that with other radios also. I find that the analog tuners cannot get my favorite AM radio stations. I remember just sitting there tuning forever. It's just a waste of time. This reception is almost as good as my car radio. They are great if you want to go to the stadium and hear the game while watching because some stadiums require small radios that don't get a great signal, but this model has a reception that is just about as good as you can get.

I workout a lot of times in the gym and run on the treadmill all the times.i mostly carry the waist pouch with CD/radio but it's inconvinient all of the time switching the bag left and right in order to avoid hiting something.when i run in the treadmill, the pouch bag also bounch up and down.
I've been looking for armband radio that come with am/fm radio and i think this one solve the problem. the sound is Great with extra bass (XBS) on all station. even my wife try it and love it, now i need to buy another one for myself co'z she got the first one i have.
Overall , Highly recommend
Nat

Incredibly light-weight and small.
Easy to learn and use.
A lot of features.
Only uses one AAA battery!

Reception, as with all Panasonics, is not that great (Sony reception is a lot clearer).
Buy different headphones. The ones provided are uncomfortable.

I have been using this radio for a very long time. If you are a serious radio listener(especially talk radio), you want to get a radio that has station memory. One of my only complains is that there is a lack of a belt clip. The headphones that come with them are okay, but I ended up getting another set because the original set kind of hurt my ears. If you are worried about the battery use, just do like I did and get a rechargeable battery set. They help anyway if you have some other devices that eat up batteries. I go to school at Georgia Tech and I commute, so I get bad reception in many places, however, it's like that with other radios also. I find that the analog tuners cannot get my favorite AM radio stations. I remember just sitting there tuning forever. It's just a waste of time. This reception is almost as good as my car radio. They are great if you want to go to the stadium and hear the game while watching because some stadiums require small radios that don't get a great signal, but this model has a reception that is just about as good as you can get.

I workout a lot of times in the gym and run on the treadmill all the times.i mostly carry the waist pouch with CD/radio but it's inconvinient all of the time switching the bag left and right in order to avoid hiting something.when i run in the treadmill, the pouch bag also bounch up and down.
I've been looking for armband radio that come with am/fm radio and i think this one solve the problem. the sound is Great with extra bass (XBS) on all station. even my wife try it and love it, now i need to buy another one for myself co'z she got the first one i have.
Overall , Highly recommend
Nat

Incredibly light-weight and small.
Easy to learn and use.
A lot of features.
Only uses one AAA battery!

Reception, as with all Panasonics, is not that great (Sony reception is a lot clearer).
Buy different headphones. The ones provided are uncomfortable.

I have been using this radio for a very long time. If you are a serious radio listener(especially talk radio), you want to get a radio that has station memory. One of my only complains is that there is a lack of a belt clip. The headphones that come with them are okay, but I ended up getting another set because the original set kind of hurt my ears. If you are worried about the battery use, just do like I did and get a rechargeable battery set. They help anyway if you have some other devices that eat up batteries. I go to school at Georgia Tech and I commute, so I get bad reception in many places, however, it's like that with other radios also. I find that the analog tuners cannot get my favorite AM radio stations. I remember just sitting there tuning forever. It's just a waste of time. This reception is almost as good as my car radio. They are great if you want to go to the stadium and hear the game while watching because some stadiums require small radios that don't get a great signal, but this model has a reception that is just about as good as you can get.

I workout a lot of times in the gym and run on the treadmill all the times.i mostly carry the waist pouch with CD/radio but it's inconvinient all of the time switching the bag left and right in order to avoid hiting something.when i run in the treadmill, the pouch bag also bounch up and down.
I've been looking for armband radio that come with am/fm radio and i think this one solve the problem. the sound is Great with extra bass (XBS) on all station. even my wife try it and love it, now i need to buy another one for myself co'z she got the first one i have.
Overall , Highly recommend
Nat

I was very impressed with the range of these radios. Other radios I tested also claimed to have a 5 mile range, and while they ALL failed to reach even four miles in perfect conditions, these radios managed to reach a respectable 3 miles while maintaining understandable transmissions. I was also impressed with the voice clarity of these radios. I was able to transmit without over exaggerating my speech and pronunciation. I had already bought different manufacturers radios and was highly disappointed. I had almost decided to give up on hand held radios all together until I found these puppies. I am very happy with this purchase, however, there are some things that could be improved upon. I would have preferred some kind of rubberized body to help protect against dropping or banging the radio, however they are pretty sturdy compared to most. I would also have preferred a charger base as opposed to plugging each individual radio into a separate wall outlet. Setting them in a charger base looks more professional than having radios lying everywhere charging up. Overall these radios are well worth the money and will give considerably higher priced GMRS radios a run for their money.

We just rec'd the radios via UPS and couldn't wait to try them out. Aft. putting in the battaries and reading the instruction manual, I went out around the neighborhood while my wife stayed in our apt. I was very impressed w/ the clarity of these radios. I had bought a diff. brand last yr. at Wal-Mart for hunting (in WV Natl. Forrests). They also had a 5mi. range. We were lucky if we could understand each other at 100yds and these were a major brand. Our older 2 channel Cobra Walk-abouts were better than those. Needless to say, I returned them for refund. These new Cobra's are incredible and loaded w/ features. The only thing that has me puzzled is that there's no place to clip the wrist straps that came w/ the radios. These I'm sure, will prove to be a great investment. Thanks Cobra!
Be blessed!
SN

I must say I was very impressed with the 950DX Radio. This is the first radio I have had where I did not get excessive static while talking. I tried another brand, instead of sticking with Cobra, and I will never do that again. I live in a woody and hilly area and the reception is still good, even from a couple miles away. I would definitely recommend these radios to anyone.

I agree with practically all the critics and their thoughtful reviews of the Motorola T6220 AA 2-Way Radio (that's "Walkie-Talkie" for us over 35 years of age). "Evergreen" is simply its color and of cosmetic value only, like a cell phone's face plate.

I've just edited and updated my original review of September 2001 to reflect the fact that, although this particular model is technically obsolescent in some ways, there is a good medium-sized PRO that is built into the unit that is worth considering when purchasing it. The individual consumer's decision is to weigh that against the various CONS that have to do with the intervening 2 years'-plus worth of the newer units' technology (especially the improved storage formats of proprietary, rechargeable battery packs.)

As most reviewers agree, Motorola is terrific value, a good tradeoff of function for the dollar. It is no surprise that Motorola units lead the market together with Cobra and Uniden with their Citizen Band heritage.

Experience and talking with other enthusiasts have generated a few general recommendations about the "Walkie-Talkie" format in general and perhaps some relevant buying tips. If you'd like to see them, please refer to the re-edit of original review dated September, 2001, which bears the re-edited title "The Ironies of Time . . . "

Thank You.

Allen Smalling.

I just got this radio last month and I already love it. It has the perfect amount of features: just enough, but not too many. If you want a radio a notch above the usual, with useful features like scan, vibrate, and weather radio, this is the radio for you. Reception is excellent, as with all Motorola radios. This is a great FRS for the money. However, I give it 4 stars because it is a little confusing to learn. For the elderly or small children, I would reccommend the Motorola 5200s. They do not have all the features, but they are super-easy to use. Overall though this is a great buy for the money.

Let me start out by saying that I agree with all of the positive points made in earlier reviews, so there's no need for me to discuss the cool features such as weather alert and "roger" beeps.

I was very concerned about the microphone placement after reading the other reviews. I even considered returning the package unopened as soon as it arrived. I am very glad that I did NOT do that!

Unless you have some oddly configured hands, it's virtually impossible for your hand or thumb to cover the microphone while pressing the talk button. I've held it in both hands and it isn't covered no matter how I hold it! Try picking one up in the store if you don't believe me and you'll see what I mean.

Great radios, easy to use, tons of cool features. And no, I don't own stock in Motorola. :)

This is Uniden's base station equivalent of their popular first generation handheld Trunktracker scanner. The 895 can track ONLY one trunked system at a time and while doing so excludes all conventional frequencies you might have programmed. The Scan List function (memory for storing favorite trunking talk groups) is limited to 50 slots, and that may be too few slots to accommodate large metro area trunk systems.

This is one gadget that you will need to read the manual before using. They squeeze a lot of options into this scanner. If you need to monitor a trunked system this one will do it. The only problem is that it could take you a while to figure out how. Overall, I highly recommend this product.

I have been using this scanner for about 3 weeks now. I own 4 other different models of scanners -- 2 from Radio Shack (PRO-92 / PRO-2067) and 2 from Uniden (BC 245XLT and BC 235XLT).

I like the BC 895XLT because:

- Fast scanning of 100 channels / second. The Radio Shack (GRE made) scanners that I own only go 25 channels/second. And while they are more technically sophisticated, I miss the scan speed which is desirable if you live in a busy area.

- CTCSS tone capability - What this does is let you enter in a special "code" that filters out different companies using a frequency. In busy urban areas it is not unusual to have three or four businesses on the same frequency. They use a special code called a "PL" code which allows their radios to only hear their broadcasts. The 895xlt supports the use of the PL tone through the CTCSS tone capability built in.

You might want to rethink your purchase if:

- You want to follow BOTH trunked and conventional frequencies at the same time. This scanner only follows one or the other --- and if you are following trunked frequencies you'll only be able to monitor one bank of them at a time.

- This scanner does not monitor a common type of trunked frequency called EDACS.

Overall:

I strongly recommend this scanner. Even though it has a few limitations, you cannot beat the price/performance. In reality I have found that I monitor very few trunked frequencies -- and that the bulk of my local action is the local PD and FD. Even if one town is trunked there is usually more than enough action to be heard on surrounding towns.

My one exception to the above advice is if I lived in NY or another big city that had LOTS of trunking, I'd probably wait for the 780xlt model.