two way radios

[SHLEPROCK]

I would like to know what is a good radio and if they are really useful for hunting?

[Get Bit]

SR,
We've been using the little Cobra brand radios for a couple of years now. They work great !! I don't know if they are as good as the Motorolas but they haven't failed us yet and they are a lot less expensive.

Get Bit

[birdhunter]

Motorola Talkabout all the way. I've got some 250's and don't know how I hunted without them. Price is reasonable, and they are well worth it. Range surprisingly good in timber and canyons. Very easy fit in any shirt pocket. Long battery life too. Hundreds of channels to choose from and plenty of nice features. I have nothing but good things to say about them.

[Fish Hunter]

Are the Talkabouts (FRS) way better than CB walkie talkies?

[SLEDDER]

I agree with birdhunter my experience has been identical with motorola. I am sure the cheaper models work well too.

[Dogfish]

Thr FRS radios are smaller, lighter, and have more features than most CBs. The Cobra and Motorolas both work fine, I have both. The Cobras seem to have a better range. I have gotten good signals from as far away as 3.5 miles line of sight, verified by GPS.

[Bait O' Eggs]

Fishhunter, the problem with a handheld CB is they usually take 10 AA batteries (more batteries = more weight) and the batteries dont last all that long in a CB. Only 40 channels and there always seems to be some trucker 3 states away with some hopped up system that walks all over you.

The talkabouts are nice and small and have decent range, lots of channels.

Some of the VHF marine radios would be great to use, since they use either 5 or 6 AA batteries and the batteries will last several days running all day. They come in waterproof models and are quite compact in some cases. They are not legal to use on land, they would perform well though.

[Fish Hunter]

Thanks guys. I don't carry my hand held CB's anymore. They aren't worth the trouble. Sounds like the newer frs jobs work better.

[Snake9t9]

You can buy a two pack of Bell South brand FMS radios at Wal-Mart for $29.95 they have worked super every time I've used them. They have the page feature and 15 channels I think. We have used them as far apart as a mile while hunting. Hard to beat for the $.

[Baldpate Basher]

Hey Shlep,

I haven't used radios for hunting yet, however, I have used them for paintball. They have made the difference between getting shot by some of my best friends and shooting some of my best friends.

But seriously, I can’t imagine them not being an asset in the field. I have mostly used FMS radios but CB’s could be very good too. The main difference would be the features and range. CB’s may have more range but FMS will have better features.

The radios I used were Panasonic hands free jobs that used the earpiece as the microphone and the wire for the earpiece as the antenna. Great little radio for hunting down your friends, neighbors and relatives. I’m sure they would work just as well for smarter animals.

[Snapset]

Make sure everybody in your hunting party gets the same radios. I would like to hear how the new 5 mile range radios work. FRS is much better than cb

[TheRogue]

I have a pair of the cheapest Motorola FR50's. Page feature, and 14 channels. I've borrowed 5-watt King programmable radios from work for years..can talk 20 miles between hilltops, if necessary, but pretty heavy. I was very impressed with the little Motorolas!! Took them on both deer and elk this year, no problems any place we went....anything within a mile, didn't matter the depth of the hole or the height of the ridge in between.

However!!!!!!!!! If you're going to be hunting a general season, especially on the east-side, you should get the models with the additional sub-codes. No matter what channel I used, I always had other traffic on it. Many hunters now use them, flaggers, construction equipment, surveyors, etc., all crammed into just 14 channels. Programmable would be great, but that won't happen with cheap radios.

My .02

kyle

[Sockeye]

Go with the motorala 250. We have them and just love them. With all the side codes it is easy to find a channel with nobody else on. That is 532 different channels!! We have talked up to 5 miles away. It depends on the terrain. On e-bay auction web sight you can pick up a new pair for approx $75.00. It also comes with a $15.00 mail in rebate coupon.

[crabbait]

And remember, discussing game movement on a radio is illegal and not very sporting. :smile:

[Robert]

How good are the cobra 2 way radios? I saw them cheap in the paper and was thinking about getting two. Thanks and hoped everyone had/has a great thanksgiving.

[Flathead]

We used both the Talkabouts and the Motorolas while Elk hunting this year. In the timber and canyons the Motorola had by far the better range. They were also much clearer with less static. A lot of the time it was very hard to understand the other person on the Talkabouts. The Motorola is worth the extra bucks!

[HOGTIDE]

We've been using the Motorolas the last couple years. Really clear reception, light weight and not too bad on batteries. I think they broadcast as far as our bigger CB's. You can get the T6200 at Walmart for $49 these days. Used to be twice that just a couple years ago.

[Dogfish]

The cobras work just fine. Only issue is that you are stuck with two channels that everybody else has. It doesn't seem like such a big issue, until you find a spot where 10 people are trying to use the same channel.

[willametteriveroutlaw]

I have two of the motorola 6320's. they are invaluable. We used them elk hunting last week, The added features of the electonic compass and the altimeter are nice. Also and advantage that the motorola 6220's and above is that you can turn off the roger beep after you talk and turn all of the beeps. And because we forgot our alarm clocks the alarms work great. I work at G.I joes and we generally take back a fair number of the cobras each year (not enought privacy codes)