those little walkie-talkie things...

[Chuck]

..that have become so popular recently: do they work on CB frequencies? just wondering....I know there are some amateur radio buffs here.

[jcanavera]

Those work off of special frequencies that are called Family Radio channels. I forgot how many there are. We have a set that we use at rally's and also for backing instructions.

Jack

[zduke4x]

There are hand held portable CB radios out there for the price of the better hand held family freq.....about $69.00 up each...both have there uses...I have an old Radio shack hand held with about 5 channels that I loan to fello travellers that don't have a CB...jem

[ViewRVs]

My recommendation is to skip the FRS radios and go straight to GMRS radios. The prices have come way down to the same as FRS. The GMRS have a 5 mile range as opposed to the 2 mile range of the FRS radios.

They come in really handy. We have used them in Wal-Mart, at soccer fields, at home when the kids go to a neighbors, at campgrounds, backing up the beast, car to car, etc........

Sam's had a pair of GMRS radios from Motorola with charging stands and hands free headsets for $47.xx.

The GMRS and FRS do share SOME channels but not all. CB channels are completely different from FRS and GMRS.

[ALANSD]

My experience is - we bought a pair of Cobra FRS at office depot, with a rebate that made them 20 bucks a pair. They have worked great. I had a pair of motorola GmRS we got at work, they were awful. Hard to use, did weird stuff like get stuck in a mode and couldn't get out, etc. I suggest you ask about varying brands and types, and decide from that which to get. The Cobras are easy to use, and have been problem free for a year.

[joe hall]

for free when we purchased a new set of Michelin tires for our Expedition. We had no idea it was even an offering until they showed up in the mail one day soon afterwards. They set on a shelf for about a year, never opened. When we boiught the trailer, we though "what the heck, let's give them a try." They work up to about 3 miles, very clear reception, and have proved great for staying in the loop when in two vehicles (we sometimes pull the bass boat to our destinations as well). The kids always find reason to play with them, and they are great when backing and filling in order to get into a tight parking place. We now can't live without them, and our brother-in-law (Avion owner) recently got a set out of envy. Cheap purchase, too!

[radio-dude]

This is an interesting thread. I just want to pipe in that I agree that GMRS radios are better than the FRS only, as long as you keep one thing in mind. If you transmit on any of the GMRS frequencies (462.550 MHz, 462.575 MHz, 462.600 MHz, 462.625 MHz, 462.650 MHz, 462.675 MHz, 462.700 MHz or 462.725 MHz) or if you use the offset frequencies in between those channels at greater than 500 mW of power, an FCC License is required. The FCC License for GMRS lasts 10 years and covers the entire family, including parents, children, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters (and maybe some others that I am forgetting) under the same license.
Here's where you can get more information about this:
https://www.gmrs1900.net/blog/93-tut...r-gmrs-license
Now for the really exciting part!
On GMRS, high level repeaters are allowed! That means that you transmit from your radio to the mountain top (or the top of a high tower or building where the repeater is located) and the repeater on the mountaintop does just what the name implies: it simultaneously repeats the signal to the people listening. This gives your radios the effective distance of how far you can see from the top of the mountain or building on which the repeater is located! Of course, the radios required for doing this are different than the little "blister pack radios" (as we in the industry call them) that you get at big box retailers, but the investment is worth it.
ALSO, with a valid GMRS license your power level you can transmit from your vehicle or base station can be as high as 50 watts. A mobile radio with a roof mounted antenna on your tow vehicle should allow communications 15 - 30 miles, depending on conditions and terrain. With a repeater that range increases exponentially. With a 30-watt mobile in central Arizona, using the White Tanks Mountain repeater (operated by the Arizona GMRS Repeater Club) we successfully communicated between a point just about 30 miles East of Quartzite to Florence Junction. That's about 140 miles!
There are repeaters that travelers can use, all over the country. Go to mygmrs.com to see a listing. I can always advise you on what radio to use for communicating through these repeaters.
This is all to say that there is just SO much more that GMRS can do than most people can think or imagine.

[radio-dude]

Originally Posted by radio-dude

This is an interesting thread. I just want to pipe in that I agree that GMRS radios are better than the FRS only, as long as you keep one thing in mind. If you transmit on any of the GMRS frequencies (462.550 MHz, 462.575 MHz, 462.600 MHz, 462.625 MHz, 462.650 MHz, 462.675 MHz, 462.700 MHz or 462.725 MHz) or if you use the offset frequencies in between those channels at greater than 500 mW of power, an FCC License is required. The FCC License for GMRS lasts 10 years and covers the entire family, including parents, children, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters (and maybe some others that I am forgetting) under the same license.
Here's where you can get more information about this:
https://www.gmrs1900.net/blog/93-tut...r-gmrs-license
Now for the really exciting part!
On GMRS, high level repeaters are allowed! That means that you transmit from your radio to the mountain top (or the top of a high tower or building where the repeater is located) and the repeater on the mountaintop does just what the name implies: it simultaneously repeats the signal to the people listening. This gives your radios the effective distance of how far you can see from the top of the mountain or building on which the repeater is located! Of course, the radios required for doing this are different than the little "blister pack radios" (as we in the industry call them) that you get at big box retailers, but the investment is worth it.
ALSO, with a valid GMRS license your power level you can transmit from your vehicle or base station can be as high as 50 watts. A mobile radio with a roof mounted antenna on your tow vehicle should allow communications 15 - 30 miles, depending on conditions and terrain. With a repeater that range increases exponentially. With a 30-watt mobile in central Arizona, using the White Tanks Mountain repeater (operated by the Arizona GMRS Repeater Club) we successfully communicated between a point just about 30 miles East of Quartzite to Florence Junction. That's about 140 miles!
There are repeaters that travelers can use, all over the country. Go to mygmrs.com to see a listing. I can always advise you on what radio to use for communicating through these repeaters.
This is all to say that there is just SO much more that GMRS can do than most people can think or imagine.

I just wanted to let folks know that the link with instructions on how to get your GMRS license has changed. Here's the new link: https://www.azgmrs.org/how-to-get-a-gmrs-license.php