An occasionally funny review of some GMRS radios. If you’re in the market you may find this information useful.

Steve

Team Tierra Buena

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The New York Times

May 8, 2003

Two-Way Radios Reviewed By DAVID POGUE

Of all the phrases in English, "up to" is among the most powerful. Thanks to its implied disclaimer, "up to" provides ironclad truth protection in almost any kind of statement. You can tell your friends that you type up to 120 words a minute, that you can bench-press up to 500 pounds, and that you earn up to $2 million a year. Legally, you're covered.

Few industries capitalize on this linguistic loophole with more gusto than the walkie-talkie business. Of course, their manufacturers would go bald in horror to hear the term walkie-talkies; the proper term for these grown-up products is two-way radios. In the coming weeks, you'll be able to buy these radios in enhanced editions that purport to offer a range of seven miles - or rather, "up to" seven miles.

I was eager to try out the Audiovox GMRS-7001, Cobra PR 4000 WX Microtalk and Midland G-225, whose product descriptions boldly declare, "For up to 7 mile range." I found it peculiar, though, that Motorola, a pioneer in this category, had nothing to offer in the new seven-mile category.

The reason, according to a Motorola spokesman, is that there is no such thing. He pointedly observed that there haven't been any regulatory or technological breakthroughs since the debut of "five mile" radios. He went so far as to claim that Motorola's own "up to five miles" radio, the T7200, would offer better range than its rivals' "up to seven miles" models.

Some of Motorola's competitors very much doubted it. As a Cobra spokesman joshingly put it, "Liar, liar, pants on fire."

Now, it's easy to appreciate the benefits of two-way radios, even the older, cheaper "two mile" models. They're ideal for communicating car to car on road trips, checking in with offspring playing down the street, and coordinating family movements in malls, theme parks and sports stadiums. Of course, they're also valuable tools for hikers, campers and skiers. In short, they're ideal for people who don't need two-way communication often enough to justify the expense of two cellphones and their monthly fees - or for people in places where the deer and the antelope roam, but cellphones still don't.

But a range of seven miles would send these radios into a whole new realm of usefulness. It would permit communication not just across the block or the mall, but even across town. When you discover that the video store is out of the movie you want, you could place a quick radio call home to discuss a second choice. Coordinating after-school pickups and errand runs would be infinitely simpler. And as for real estate agents, sales-force personnel and pizza delivery vans - well, you get the idea.

Each of the four contestants in this radio roundup has a stubby antenna and a backlighted screen that identifies the current transmission channel (of the 22 available). Except for the Midland, each has a built-in weather radio. A set of AA or AAA batteries lasts 12 to 20 hours, depending on the battery type (alkaline or rechargeable) and other variables. Each radio also offers subcodes: thin frequency slices of each channel that help prevent crosstalk from other radio owners in your area.

Over the years, the government has created standards for two kinds of consumer radios. First came the Family Radio Service, or F.R.S., a low-power (half-watt) mode for very short distances. The higher-powered General Mobile Radio Service (G.M.R.S.) provides better range but uses up the battery faster. The Cobra, Audiovox, Midland and Motorola are all dual-class radios, offering both F.R.S. and G.M.R.S. channels.

You're supposed to obtain an F.C.C. license before you use a G.M.R.S. radio, which involves completing a form available at www.fcc.gov/formpage.html and paying a $75 fee. The radio makers acknowledge, however, that this requirement may be the most universally ignored regulation since the invention of jaywalking.

The Midland and Audiovox radios could be twins wearing different outfits. Each is very inexpensive ($60 per two-pack for the Midland, $100 a pair for the Audiovox), and feels it. Each is also tiny, no bigger than a bar of Ivory. Both are far hissier than their more expensive rivals, and don't have as much range (more on this in a moment).

Note, too, that each of these bargain units has a design flaw or two. The Midland's Monitor button, which is designed to produce continuous static so that you can adjust the volume, is where the Push-to-Talk button ought to be. And the Audiovox radio is too easily turned on by other gear in the same luggage. (At one point during a vacation, it turned itself on unexpectedly at 3 a.m. and treated me to the loud voices of a couple of drug dealers inside my backpack.)  The Cobra ($120 for a pair) is a far more substantial, navy-and-black radio that feels like a sculptured oval brick. The Push to Talk button requires a surprising amount of force, making you wonder if it shouldn't be relabeled the Strain-to-Talk button.

But surprisingly, the Cobra is the only model in this roundup to include such obvious outdoorsy tools as an alarm clock, a stopwatch and a digital compass. It even has a vibrating alert, presumably so that your fellow hikers can page you without waking up the grizzly bear next to you.

Finally, Motorola's T7200 ($130 for one) is a heavier, more rugged radio that accommodates either four AA batteries or a rechargeable battery pack (included). It comes with interchangeable faceplates for the fashion-conscious hiker - sunshine yellow, camouflage green and dark green. But the real beauty of this radio is its sound quality, which stands head, shoulders and torso above its rivals. Only you can decide if this far superior sound is worth paying a price that's double the Cobra's and four times the Midland's.

All of that is great, but the real question is, how's the range?

Now, the manufacturers admit that they get seven miles only in ideal conditions, when there are no trees, houses or anything else in between the two radios being tested - in other words, on the moon. But they also say that you should still get three miles of range even in terrible conditions - for example, from inside cars.

All I can figure out is that the radio makers and I live in parallel universes. In my suburban tests, these "seven mile" radios began introducing heavy static and lost syllables at nine-tenths of a mile apart, and lost all contact at 1.1 miles. On the highway (but out of the car), the Midland and Audiovox gave up the ghost at 1.5 miles, and the beefier radios lost touch at 1.7.

Before releasing the services of my good-natured testing partner ("Geek Freak to Mama Bird: Can you hear me now?"), I gave the radios a final test that should have been an easy lob: communicating directly across open water. In this case, the miniradios managed 2.5 miles, and the Cobra and Motorola models finally lost all staticky contact at 3.3.  The manufacturers call these freakishly poor results. They chalked it up to the kinds of environmental factors that can affect range: humidity, wires, vegetation, buildings, clouds, hills, airplanes and even sunspots. (Now there's a high-tech corporate excuse you don't hear every day.)Don't get the impression that these radios are worthless. True, that "seven mile" business may be the greatest bit of marketing hyperbole since P. T. Barnum. But even with only a mile of range that you can count on (on land, anyway), they're still great for malls, theme parks, ski slopes, hikes, car caravans, and other short-range situations.

The two-watt Motorola offers uniformly richer, cleaner sound at distances greater than most of its three-watt rivals, but it's by far the most expensive. The Cobra lets thicker static creep in as the distance increases, but ultimately remains intelligible slightly longer than even the Motorola. It also offers many more features and costs less than half as much.  As for the Audiovox and Midland - well, sometimes you get a pair of what you pay for.

No matter which brand you choose, after you buy a pair, you should test whether the range will be good enough for your purposes and then return them if the answer is no. (You certainly wouldn't be alone.) And you never know. As the manufacturers would surely tell you, up to 95 percent of their customers find happiness with these radios up to 99 percent of the time.