FRS radios

[helen]

Does anyone use those FRS class of radios? Any hints or things to watch out for when one is buying them?

[speedtek]

buy the longest range rated ones if possible. Best deals are at thee swap meet. I bought a 5 mile Motorola pair for $25 new in the package.

[craigwatanabe]

I have two from Uniden. They sit in charging cradles and have a 12-mile range. Not bad but too many buttons on the front and I hate multi-function buttons where the same button controls the channel, volume and mode controls making them awkward to use when changing channels.

Breaker breaker, any takers?

[Konaguy]

Breaker breaker, any takers?

Hehe :) I'll take you up Craig. My younger brother has tons of FRS radios.
Actually our house looks like a radio station as my brother is a HAM Radio
operator.

[helen]

I purchased the Uniden GMR325-2 from Wal-Mart for under $18. Had two radios in the package and each takes 3 AAA batteries with a 3 mile range. Will play with them after the Christmas weekend.

[helen]

Been buying a couple more sets of the Uniden GMR325 from Wal-Mart. Picked up a set of Uniden GMR638 for $28 this past week. It has a 6 mile range and uses 4 AAA batteries but it comes with rechargable batteries and a charger. I suspect that the max range of a radio is for the GMRS channels (1-7, 15-22) while the FRS channels (8-14) have a lower distance range.

[adrian]

Does anyone use those FRS class of radios? Any hints or things to watch out for when one is buying them?
Since I used walkie talkies for a few years, I've been using headsets (http://direct.motorola.com/ENS/web_accessories_detail_T6400AA.asp?Country=USA&language=ENS), specifically, the bike (or handsfree) boom mic. Sure, it sucks if you drink or eat and the mike is infront of your mouth, but atleast people can hear you clearly.

And I use Motorola radios, specifically their t6400 phones, which has 7 FRS channels and the 14 GMRS channels, each with 38 subcodes.

The GMRS channels really didn't help in distance, as when I used them I was within 2 miles of my party (if we need to walk from city to city, then we'd use the nextels - atleast I didn't) but for some reason we had more people on the GMRS than on the FRS, especially during the evening/nighttime hours.

And for those people who uses the GMRS channels, do you have a license? ;)

[helen]

I don't have a license so that is why I am using the FRS channels instead of the GMRS channels. And if I am not mistaken even though I could get the license (at a cost of $80 for 5 years) the people who can use it beside me would be my family members, not my friends or assoicates.