List Price: $29.99
Sale Price: $28.49
Today's Bonus: 5% Off
Motorola makes a whole family of walkie-talkies (or 2-way radios). This set of Motorola FV300 2-Way Radio is the cheapest and smallest available. They are so light and compact that even a kid can handle one of those with ease. But don't let the small size and low cost fool you, they actually work just like the real things provided you start with the correct expectation...
First of all, forget about the advertised range of "up to 10-mile". As in the case with ALL walkie-talkies, the claimed transmission range is the best case under most optimal conditions. Namely: transmitting from one hill top to another with clear line-of-sight, no other RF interferences, weather is perfect, Jupiter aligns with Mars, etc. In real life urban environment, a range of 1-2 miles is more likely. With that in mind, those walkie-talkies are still useful for communication in a large shopping mall, for example. Or you can just hand them out to your kids as toys.
Secondly, forget about the claimed battery life of "32 hours" because it is the time in standby mode. If you do a lot of transmission back and forth, a set of 3 AAA alkaline is likely to run down in 3-4 hours. This is because the power requirement is much higher during transmission (just like the case with cell phones). Here is my measured current consumption:
During standby: 25-30mA
While receiving: 50-100mA (depending on volume)
While transmitting: ~350mA
If you don't like to keep buying alkaline AAA batteries, here's a suggestion: use rechargeable batteries. You need 3 each of AAA rechargeable cells for each radio. I recommend using low-self-discharge NiMH batteries such as Sanyo eneloop (best quality) or Tenergy Centura (lowest cost). You also need a good 'smart' charger that can handle odd number of cells, such as the Sony Cycle Energy BCG34HLD4KN Power Charger. Note that each radio actually has a charging port near its base. But to use that you have to buy the Motorola charger, instead of a general-purpose AA/AAA charger.
When you first power-up the radios, you need to use the MENU button to configure some options, such as which channel to use, ring-tone, sleep timer, etc. One pleasant surprise is that: the walkie-talkies actually remember your previous selections when you replace the batteries (provided you swap in the new batteries quickly). This is very helpful because you don't want to repeat the setup every time you replace the batteries.
Considering its low cost, this pair of Motorola 2-way radios is a great bargain. It is a practical tool for short-range communication, and great for kids to play with, too.
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