[Jerry]

My wife gave me a set of Cobra hand-held walkie talkies about seven years ago and other than the kids playing with them they have sat on the shelf unused. Too bad. They are perfect for many situations we find ourselves in. Over the years we have commented that we should have brought the walkie talkies.

I dug ours out of hiding a few days ago and found one unit would take a charge while the other was completely dead. Our local Radio Shack gave me a price of $22 for a new rechargeable battery pack which I declined. The solution was to install four separate AAA cell batteries, not as conveniently rechargeable as the pack, but better than the twenty-two buck alternative.

I think anymore people use cell phones to communicate when the wife goes one way and the husband goes the other in places like shopping malls, county fairs, camping trips, etc. But, there are many places where cell phone service is not available and the little FRS radios are excellent replacements. Sometimes on our backroad events we find ourselves out of our vehicles exploring old towns, historic sites, large displays, and other places where hand-held radios would come in handy.

And don't rule out FRS for car-to-car communication. Walkie talkies don't have a long range and their tiny speakers are necessarily small therefore difficult to hear over background noise, but in certain situations the radios work better than CB. Sometimes "skip", that nasty garbled static of voices that often invades CB frequencies, is so loud it practically drowns out our transmissions. At the same time FRS radios are wonderfully quiet and clear. An inexpensive alternative to CB (sometimes) as long as everybody has one.

It would be interesting to hear how other folks use their FRS and GMRS hand-held radios.

Jerry