Two-Way Radios Reviews

I bought this T6500R set 2 weeks ago and to my dismay, this claimed 5 miles range 2-way radio barely even reached 1 mile of successful clear transmission. It wasn't even operated in a closed area like in a house or a building. I used it in an open area, with the 2 radios seperated by couple of blocks. As a matter of fact, it didn't even reach 1/2 mile when transmission starts breaking up and gets noisy. If gone further than that, it's a total transmission lost. Moreover, the battery drains pretty fast also. Gotta say that it's really dissapointing having to spend 50 over dollar for below 1/2 miles of talking range.

I used brand new Duracell batteries with these radios, and the reception was still horrible. We had to repeat ourselves about 5 times for the other person to understand what we were saying. The only good (nay, excellent) thing about these radios is the weather updates. Perfect for camping, especially when you see flashes of light in the distance (turns out where we were camping had a severe thunderstorm watch, which turned to a warning while we were leaving at 2 AM). Possibly saved our lives, because the next day it was reported that someone else who was camping nearby got struck by lightning. However, there are other things available for that purpose. These things are junk for 2-way radios, but lifesavers for weather warnings.

The battery died after about two days of use; it would not recharge. I emailed Audivox and Powtek (the battery manufacturer) and got nothing back from either. It's a shame because the transceiver device itself worked great, but the batteries are lemons, can't be replaced, and there is apparently no support.

BUYER BEWARE!!

I got the Audiovox wrist two way radio as a present. When I tried to recharge the battery, it wouldn't recharge. My parents tried to find a new battery. They finally wrote to Audiovox. Audiovox wrote that we could purchase the battery from them (...). The model number for the battery is GMRS2WBAT.

I put these on my sons when we go shopping, If they walk off I just push the call button and walk in the direction of the call signal. My son walked away from me in a large store one day and he called me on the radio and told me where he was and I went right to him. Not too great for long range communication, but it works for what I use it for

UPDATE:
I'd like to update my previous review of this product. I emailed Uniden customer service, and advised them how unhappy I was to get 30 minutes of battery life out of $5.00 worth of alkaline batteries. After a few emails back and forth, they offered to replace the radios with another unit, the GMR638. Two days later, a package arrived with two refurbished GMR638 radios and a prepaid mailer to return the GMR325 units. I was pleased to see that the new radios included NiMH battery packs and a charger. While it's hardly a comparable radio (MUCH larger) it has a lot more features (CTCSS tones, VOX, etc.), more range and terrific battery performance. Of course the battery packs and charger was a nice surprise too. (The radios will accept 4 AAA batteries too.)

So while I'm still disappointed in the GMR325 (which I specifically chose for it's small size) I have a lot of respect for the way Uniden chose to resolve the situation. I'll certainly purchase their products again...but next time I'll check the reviews here first! To anybody else who is dissatisfied with this product, don't hesitate to contact Uniden.
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ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I bought these locally last Saturday so my wife could keep in touch with me from shore while I fished on a local lake. I installed new Duracell batteries, turned the units on, and confirmed that they worked before powering them off. The following Sunday, I got out on the water and gave her a quick call. The radios worked great for about three brief exchanges, and then the batteries abruptly died in both units! I kid you not, we're talking about roughly 1/2 hour of "on" time, and about 40 seconds of "talk" time before the batteries croaked.

Nice design work Uniden. If anybody here still wants a pair, you can come get mine out of the trashcan.

I bought these for christmas for my sons the batteries didn't even last an hour I thought it was just me or something I was doing wrong but after reading the reviews I see it's the product
I wish I had read the reviews first. don't buy this product

I had the battery issue with mine, they would last 4mins or less. I contacted Uniden via website(you can call them too) and shipped the radios to them for $4 shipping(open an incident w/them first).

They replaced faulty capacitors which would allow the batteries to drain fast on the radios for free. Batteries perform better now, radios are easy to use.

Uniden can do better in keeping customer up to date. I had to request status often. Had the radios back in 1.5 week. Uniden shipped the radios back via FedEx and provided me the tracking number.

These radios are nice since they have great features: scan, key lock, 22 channels, small size, easy to use push to talk button.

Uniden was nice enough to fix them in a relatively small time, for free(except my $4 to ship to them).

I am never buying from midland ever again after I bought this item! Terrible Item I THOUGHT it was going to have 40 channels but it only had 23! Do not buy this item!

I bought this radio on the bases it said it was usable with GMRS repeaters and had all of the ctcss codes. While this might be true, you can only use these features if the factory or a Midland Tech programmed it to do so. For the user who is used to doing his or her own programming and being able to change their radio as needed, this is not the radio for you, or me...

These radios seemed to be an attractive purchase given the rugged construction, their re-chargeable nature, and that they support both GMRS and FRS frequencies.

The fact is that there are no FRS compatible channels on these radios, that are evident. There is no mention of this capability in the owners manual that comes with each radio, which in itself is very poorly crafted.

Finally, each of the radios comes with a seperate charger. I ordered two radios with chargers. One didn't work at all.

Needless to say the were returned....

I coulnt even get 1 mile. Plain and Simple Dont waste your money. I have gotten farther range on cheap FRS Radios. The GMRS doesnt get any more range.

Love the features, but the range is not as advertised. In my test I used channel 22 on high power. 1/2 mile was about the best it could do. I bought to use playing paintball, so it should be okay for that, but I was also hoping to use it at places like large malls and theme parks to coordinate with the wife in kids. Oh well.

Disappointing, thats about all I can say. I wasn't expecting to get the claimed 7 miles on land (who knows, it may get 5-7 on the water), but I have trouble just getting 1 mile on the land. Seems a small hill can even ruin the range. When I do get through the sound is clear, little to no squaks or breaks, and the privacy channels work well. Vibrating alert is very nice. It's just so very lacking in the range. I even took the time to register with the FDA so I could use the GMRS range legaly. Oh well.

DOA - dead on arrival. Powers up, display is ok. Appears to transmit, nothing on the other radio. Channel and security code set.

I liked these cause they are compact and easy to carry around. But the small size did not outweight the bad range. I had a Motorola 8 mile radio and the range was decent. Of course no where near the stated 8 miles, as none of these radios ever can acheive the stated range, but at least they were useful enough in a reasonable setting. These lost range after a city block once you turn the corner. I think the strategy with 2-way radios is to buy the highest range, like 10 miles, and hope to acheive 1/10 of the claim.

The sound quality was echo'e like from a tin can. The roger beep at the end of a conversation was too loud and can't be turned off.

I was very displeased with my Midland G-225 radios. I bought six G-225 radios so all of my hunting partners could stay in communication across a one square mile property. I chose Midland over Motorola brand radios because of the Midland's two watts of power compared to most Motorola two-way radios that are on one-half watt output. I assumed four times more power would increase communication distances. Was I ever wrong...

We found in side by side tests of the Midland G-225 and several different versions of Motorola's 1/2 watt systems that the Motorolas were far superior in reception across hilly and wooded terrain. At times, the Midland's could not communicate across distances as short as 200 yards, if there was any intervening terrain, while the various Motorolas had no problem with these conditions.

In addition, of the six G-225 units I purchased, two had major problems right out of the box, while two more went bad within three days of use. In my opinion, that is totally unacceptable quality.

We bought 4 radios to keep in touch while snow skiing. They replaced 4 older/cheaper radios that were 1/2 watt with no sub-codes. The Midland radios have the squelch unlock button right above the push-to-talk button. Both buttons are just little rubber-covered bumps on the side of the radio. A gloved finger can't tell the difference. We had to remove gloves to even use the radios because we couldn't tell when the button was pressed or which button we were pressing. An accidental double-click on the push-to-talk button activates the 3 second alert tone and shuts down all conversation. Three seconds is forever if it happens in the middle of your transmission. Half the time, we'd get only part of a transmission because the push-to-talk button wasn't getting pushed correctly. VERY FRUSTRATING! Remember that these were experienced radio users. We also found that any small hill between us would garble the reception. Friends who were with us were much happier with their 1/2 watt Motorolas. If I had my money back, I'd buy something else.

The pair I bought doesn't work at all. The units turn on, and you can go through the setup procedure specified in the manual -- but then just try and use them to communicate with each other. They're a joke.

I bought a pair of these less than a year ago and haven't used them much at all. On a skiing trip last month, one of them just quit working. It hadn't been abused or mis-treated in any way.

To add insult to injury, I've emailed Memorex 4-5 times about the problem and they haven't responded at all.

Definitely NOT RECOMMENDED!!!