At 08:10 PM 4/30/2005, you wrote:


>If no one has used these.... I would be curious to know more about GMRS 
>radios and how well they work in different environments and what kind of 
>range they have proven to get. I know they are "5 mile range"... but 
>realistically they may get much more (or much less?).

I have been using GMRS radios for a long time now.  For basic stuff they 
are pretty good, and they are cheap.  The "5 mile" range is under perfect, 
line of sight conditions.  They might actually work well in ballooning 
since you are normally in line of sight with your chase crew.

There are new GMRS radios that I just heard of from Midland that are 
actually 5 watt and Midland claims that they are the only ones out there 
with 5 watt transmitters.