What's considered a "GOOD" FRS radio?

[K6GBW]

I had a pair of these when the whole FRS thing first came out. Small, light, rugged and simple. Not a lot of power but enough to do the job. I even liked the PTT being on the front so I could push it while it was on a pack strap. They ran on AA batteries and I could get through a week on two sets. The only downside to these things was the silly compander thing Motorola used. If they'd make a slightly updated version of this today I'd buy a half dozen of them!

 

[jkahn]

Maybe its just me, but I love my Boafeng. I bought 2 of them with everything included (chargers, USB charging cables, programming cable, speaker mics, earloops with mic, belt clips, lanyards) 128 channels, 2 bands (UHF/VHF). I have all our local GMRS repeaters programmed, still have plenty of room to listen to FRS, Railroad, Weather, coast guard, and whatever else I can find interesting by scanning on the VHF and UHF bands. All for under $50. I am about to drop $40 for the newest one, waterproof 999 channels and also adds the 108 AM aircraft bank, 1.2M band and will auto program itself to a radio frequency and tone that transmits next to it with the push of one button.

 

[JustinWHT]

What is considered a "GOOD" FRS radio?

Ones with longer rubber duck antenna. I've been using Midland 20 years with the stubby. 2 - 3 inch antenna and a 20 year old Radio Shack with 4 - 5 inch outperformed.

The Baofeng'd 7" antenna was best.

 

[tomk62]

Maybe its just me, but I love my Boafeng.

It's not just you, for 99% they're just fine and do the job.

 

[K6GBW]

Baofeng are fine for some things. On the ham bands they're not great because they do put out more spurious emisisons and those can be troublesome for repeater inputs. As a GMRS/FRS radio they're probably fine, other than they have lots of buttons that my fellow backpackers might push and cause issues. My current backpacking radios are Retevis RT22's because they don't have anything but an on/off volume and and up/down button for channels. They also can be charged with an external cell phone battery. Not water resistant at all but they've been beaten to death all over the southwest on backpacking and hiking trips and their still going strong. I was particularly impressed with them in the Grand Canyon. Our group got stretched out to about a mile and a half and they worked great.

 

[kayn1n32008]

The problem with using a commercial radio on the FRS system is that you can't readily change the PL tones to match whoever your are working with.

Motorola has MPL(Mulit-PL) and Kenwood has OST, Icom also has a method to select from a list of preselected PL tones as well.

It's quite easy to select PL tones on the fly, if you need to.

 

[K6GBW]

Yeah, I have MPL on several of my Motorola radios and they're great. But the Moto's are computer programed, heavier, and can't be charged with a USB-C charger. I think for FRS use case they aren't the best. I've been using the RT22's for a few years now and on the whole they're pretty good. I'm still searching for a radio that is more rugged, can be completely programmed from the front panel. I'm actually kind of liking the BTECH FRS-A1. They fit most of the things I'm looking for. I think the ability to use AA batteries in a pinch would be nice, but the AA battery thing as a whole seems to be dying. In the backpacking world most everything that runs on a battery is now rechargable. I suppose that might have something to do with the eco-friendly ethos that comes with backpacking. But my old Army days reminded me of just how handy AA's were...for EVERYTHING. Ah well, times change. The BTECH also has dual watch which can be kinda handy. In the hiking/backpacking world channel 3 is becoming the go to channel to vector help. We'll see if that works or not. Would love it if someone would make an FRS radio with an aluminum case! When I first started my careeer I was given a Motorola MX330 radio. They were pretty darned indestructable. I'd love to see an aluminum case like that on an FRS radio. But...price point and all that.

 

[bill4long]

Would love it if someone would make an FRS radio with an aluminum case! When I first started my careeer I was given a Motorola MX330 radio. They were pretty darned indestructable. I'd love to see an aluminum case like that on an FRS radio. But...price point and all that.

Or one made from the same sort of polymer as a Glock frame. Light and quite indestructible.

 

[rf_patriot200]

Or one made from the same sort of polymer as a Glock frame. Light and quite indestructible.

Don't crucify me, but considering the Anytone 878 will program the Frs frequencies, and is Extremely durable and will drop down to 1/2 watt and 2.5khz. and Sounds great it's a doable option. Granted, it IS overkill but aside from the removable antenna, the programmable abilities and digital options, it could almost meets the standards set. Just saying ...

 

[K6GBW]

Yes, the Anytone is a great radio for the money. I have one for use on our local DMR system. But if I handed it to my backpacking partners they would loose thier minds with all the buttons. Plus, when it comes to charging in the bush it would pretty much be impossible. So as an EDC kind of radio its great, but for and FRS radio that you hand over to a luddite it's not.

 

[kny2xb]

Don't crucify me, but considering the Anytone 878 will program the FRS frequencies, and is Extremely durable and will drop down to 1/2 watt and 2.5 kHz. and sounds great it's a doable option. Granted, it IS overkill but aside from the removable antenna, the programmable abilities and digital options, it could almost meets the standards set. Just saying ...

I know what you mean, my Alinco DJ-MD5 1st generation will drop down to .2 watts [actually, all the MD5 series do 5 W/2.5 W/1 W/.2 W]
My DJ-MD40 also drops to .2 watts [UHF mono-band, 1000 channels, superhet, also 5 W/2.5 W/1 W/.2 W]
My DJ-A40 does 5 W/2 W/.5 W

I think that they're the only rigs I have that meet the FRS channels 8-14 .5 watt power rule
As for the rest of the FRS rules, obviously not

 

[bill4long]

Don't crucify me, but considering the Anytone 878 will program the Frs frequencies, and is Extremely durable and will drop down to 1/2 watt and 2.5khz. and Sounds great it's a doable option. Granted, it IS overkill but aside from the removable antenna, the programmable abilities and digital options, it could almost meets the standards set. Just saying ...

I've got an Anytone 878+ for ham DMR usage. I think it would be too heavy for typical FRS purposes. Not to mention too expensive. [shrug]

 

[K6GBW]

It is nice to see radios that will go down to under a watt of power. To be honest, when backpacking we usually use channel 8 or 9 because they are half a watt and will save battery. Up on Sequoia National Park our group was about 3/4 of a mile apart. The radios still worked fine. I think way too much is made of power. I keep seeing 10 watt or more radios on the market now and it just seems kind of silly. The newer Army SINCARS radios can be turned down to as low as 200mw of power for area defense positions and they work fine. It's location more than anything. Fortunately my luddite radio backpackers understand that! No buttons to play with, just find a high spot to transmit from!

 

[sempai]

they're too expensive for me to ordinarily hand to children, but the GMRS-Pros are coming with us on vacation. last year i couldn't even find an airtag at Disney it was so saturated, so the location awareness and positioning will be great.

they're GMRS radios with dicey documentation but they might drop wattage to low on frs crossover frequencies for all i know. i can set tx power to low medium and hi but i can't find what wattage is involved on each.

ps the ham band version with a keypad is pretty great once they fix a weird bug where it keeps turning on digital for aprs on whatever channel you happen to specify eventually 🤦‍♂️ you can unlock them for tx and firmware updates not gated for your variant by tapping 10x on the "battery details" and "no firmware available" text respectively.

 

[KD8DVR]

Maybe its just me, but I love my Boafeng. I bought 2 of them with everything included (chargers, USB charging cables, programming cable, speaker mics, earloops with mic, belt clips, lanyards) 128 channels, 2 bands (UHF/VHF). I have all our local GMRS repeaters programmed, still have plenty of room to listen to FRS, Railroad, Weather, coast guard, and whatever else I can find interesting by scanning on the VHF and UHF bands. All for under $50. I am about to drop $40 for the newest one, waterproof 999 channels and also adds the 108 AM aircraft bank, 1.2M band and will auto program itself to a radio frequency and tone that transmits next to it with the push of one button.

Those radios, however, are not legal on FRS. I'm sure OP wants a legal Part95 certified radio.

 

[KD8DVR]

I've got an Anytone 878+ for ham DMR usage. I think it would be too heavy for typical FRS purposes. Not to mention too expensive. [shrug]

Not to mention, not legal.

 

[rf_patriot200]

Not to mention, not legal.

You're right, it's not. But like I said, it Almost meets the standards set, except for the removable antenna. Spectral purity is even clean, compared to other ccr's . I have tried mine, and it works quite well on that band.

 

[bill4long]

Do you really care about "legal" for short distance low power coms on frequencies that are itinerant?

One might even make the argument that the FCC has no Constitutional jurisdiction over short range coms that don't cross state boundries.

At any rate, maybe you shouldn't sweat short range low power temporary coms as long as you are judicious about the frequencies you use.

Just sayin'.

Discuss.

 

[K6GBW]

Do you really care about "legal" for short distance low power coms on frequencies that are itinerant?

One might even make the argument that the FCC has no Constitutional jurisdiction over short range coms that don't cross state boundries.

At any rate, maybe you shouldn't sweat short range low power temporary coms as long as you are judicious about the frequencies you use.

Just sayin'.

Discuss.

While I can appreciate the thought process involved here the truth is no one has ANY consitutional right to use radio waves. The right to radio is not in the constitution at all. Using the radio waves is a priveledge exteneded by license. So, we should be following the rules...more or less. I was a cop for over thirty years and we tended to enforce the "spirit" of the law vs. the letter...so be spritiual I say!

 

[Falcon9h]

Not to mention, not legal.

Who cares, it's short distance with portables, what, maybe a couple miles? That's radio Karen stuff. "They" don't have the manpower or inclination to care either. SMH