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Article Exposing Outrageous Range Claims Of Consumer Frs/gmrs Radios.
- Thread starter jwilkers
- Start date
Nothing new, we sell these radios as well, but I make sure to tell customers that the claims on the package are bullshit.
They are fine for a family group to use in close communications, that is about it.
We get lots of turons up here that use them for close car to car or when visiting Yosemite Nat Park to keep track of the kids.
This area is notorious for bad cell service because of the mountainous terrain, and these small radios do have some value.. just remember that they are line of sight radios.
73
Jeff
They are fine for a family group to use in close communications, that is about it.
We get lots of turons up here that use them for close car to car or when visiting Yosemite Nat Park to keep track of the kids.
This area is notorious for bad cell service because of the mountainous terrain, and these small radios do have some value.. just remember that they are line of sight radios.
73
Jeff
The wife saw the Midland version of these and the tremendous range they claimed and bought them from a vendor on eBay. I laughed and said there is no way.
We have used them twice. Once for backing my motor home out of the drive way and once when we took a car/motorcycle trip. We were insight of each other less than a mile apart and we could not communicate.
I told her the range they claimed is possible in the desert as long as one radio is up on the side of a mountain. I even got the license for the radios as required by the FCC. We now have a useless call sign floating around the house. I wonder if my General ticket will cover the use of these "Fraud Boxes?"
There are repeaters all over the country and if you live close to one you might actually get some meaningful use from these.
We have used them twice. Once for backing my motor home out of the drive way and once when we took a car/motorcycle trip. We were insight of each other less than a mile apart and we could not communicate.
I told her the range they claimed is possible in the desert as long as one radio is up on the side of a mountain. I even got the license for the radios as required by the FCC. We now have a useless call sign floating around the house. I wonder if my General ticket will cover the use of these "Fraud Boxes?"
There are repeaters all over the country and if you live close to one you might actually get some meaningful use from these.
As a licensed amateur radio operator you should know the answer to that question however since you need to ask I will tell you. The answer is NO definitely NOT. A license in one radio class does in no way permit operation in a different radio class.
I am often amazed at how little common sense knowledge the common person has of various things especially things electrical in nature. Things like the FRS radios covering 50 miles or a 1000 watt inverter running pretty much anything and everything in a house off of a single car battery for hours on end right down to any antenna no matter how small working across the entire RF spectrum from DC to daylight with amazing gain in all directions. It doesn't even have to be electrical. Some of the construction techniques I have seen to build 4-wheeler bridges would make me want to wade thru the creek on foot rather than even walk across them.
The general license comment was just humor.
If you really get some people confused try talking Photovoltaic and watts with them. One system that was advertised in Harbor Freight caught a friends eye and I had to burst the bubble of infinite power available for less than $400.00. The system would not even power a hair drier for five minutes.
In that case my apologies HOWEVER it is very hard to tell these days. When you have some EXTRA class operators asking about how to make a dipole and others asking if they can operate their HF radios on 11m if they reduce power to the legal CB limit you just find it hard to see humor in such posts even if it is staring you in the face. LOL I agree with you about the PV systems. I especially like the expectations of those little sun visor mounted solar cells to charge your car battery. They are usually rated at about 100mA. Good luck on charging the battery. LOL
My wife & I use them when we go on road trips because we visit large Flea Markets or Antique Malls & we can stay in contact with no problem with them within those type areas as well as at large malls & Bass Pro Shops across the Southeastern USA. I think I paid $15 for these that say they have 35 mile range & the farthest we have talked on them has been about 3 miles which was all we needed.Wish they had a removable antenna with a BNC or SMA connector so I could put them on a mobile or base antenna to increase the range.I do use my Baofeng HT's on those type antennas & they really get out well. {:>)
But if you're on water, or maybe in flat land Kansas, such claims could hold true. Marketing hype doesn't want you to know of the mass amounts of signal absorbing obstacles one faces in radio land.
Good thing most of us know this, and can laugh at such claims. OTOH sad for those who don't.
Or in space talking to your wife who's back in the command module while you put up your isotropic dipole.
Best range is still accomplished from hill or mountain top to hill or mountain top. Flat land or water still has a very low radio horizon.
Good thing most of us know this, and can laugh at such claims. OTOH sad for those who don't.[/QUOTE]
Sad indeed for those folks. I find the same thing with most audio amps these days and their ridiculous over rated power ratings especially car stuff. I had a young fellow at work try and tell me his Honda car had a 1200 watt amp in it and it sounded "AWESOME!!" He didn't like it too much when I said no way in hell it did. I asked him a few questions about battery size, wire size, and fuse rating. I even explained my professional background prior to the new job. I even tried to explain Ohms law and efficiency. How can a 30 amp fuse allow 1200 watts of power OUTPUT from an amp being run on 12 volts. In the end I left laughing and telling him that P.T. Barnum was right. There is a sucker born every minute.
This is why i love my nextel direct talk phones. Not only are they extremely secure for $10, it lets you know if you are connecting or not. No more "can you hear me now's". makes you wonder why anyone would use anything else.
Direct connect is dead as it was a cellular based service. Direct talk is phone to phone, and no cell service required. It operates around 900mhz, and hops frequency 11 times a second. It is very close to the same technology Motorola currently uses, but I forget the name.
It uses the same technology as the Motorola DTR
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