Excellent features and amazing range
First of all all the distances advertised on any walkie talkie like this is based on mountain top to mountain top communication where the valley increases the range and no obstruction. That is where they based the 35 miles. For city use in malls house to house and areas with trees will be between .5 to 1 mile at most. Since I have been using Motorola Walkie talkies all my life so I knew what I was buying.
I experimented with 3 different models of Walkie talkies in the mall with my wife. First we tried the 5 mile Motorola. I was on one end of the mall inside Macy's and she was on the other side in Nordstrom. She could not even hear me.
We tried the 10 mile Motorola. This time she could hear me press the talk button and a few garbled words but that was it. We could not communicate.
We tried these 35 mile ones last. We were able to hear each other just fine. Not bad considering the distance and the number of obstructions.
I have also tried this on the open road for car to car communication and it can reach the horizon. If you want more power you will need to get a license and buy a 5 watt radio.
This Radio has many nice features you would normally find in Professional Radios 5 times the price of this.
UPDATE SEPT 25 2009-
This radio has a really nice feature I just discovered. It has the hands free iVOX capability. It will broadcast when it hears a sound. There are 3 levels of sensitivity. I tried it as a baby monitor. I left my wife and baby while they were asleep and turned on the radio to High power on one of the GMRS channels(I have an FCC license by the way so I can use this channel). I drove about 1 mile to my brother-in-laws house. The Radio worked as a long range baby monitor! It was impressive considering that the radio was indoors and I was not line-of-site and it reached a mile. Very amusing.
I would advice getting an FCC license so that you can use the High power GMRS channels legally. With these radios it is about 1.5 to 2 watts. If you use the FRS channels 8 to 14 all walkie talkies including this will only use 0.5 watts. Channels 1 to 7 are GMRS/FRS channels. You cannot legally use the high power PTT button if you do not have an FCC license. Channels 15 to 22 are GMRS channels where you can use the High power mode exclusive to GMRS radios. Go to the FCC website and pay the fee for a GMRS radio license it is good for your immediate family for 5 years. It is worth it if you use it all the time.
****Update October 26 2009****
I will now detail what I have found out about my Motorola:
Pros:
1. In door range - This is the mall slayer. Go to any mall and give your kids one and you will be able to talke to them pretty much anywhere they are.
2. Audio Quality - Very clear and very loud.
3. Outdoor Range - It has almost the same range as my Icom professional radio which has 3 times the power. That is basically because outdoor range is more about antenna height rather than power.
4. Flashlight - Very useful when you go camping. You dont have to bring an extra flashlight. It is bright. Excellent for emergencies.
5. iVox - Hands free operation. Very useful as a 1 mile baby monitor.
6. Call button - I can call the other radio so that they know I am trying to call them so they can pick up the radio.
7. Emergency button - It will send an alert so that the other person knows you are in trouble.
8. Weather channels - I use it to find out the weather specially before going Kayaking.
9. Privacy Codes - it has so many Privacy codes so you will never be disturbed by other radios.
10. QT - You can restrict the radios that you hear to only Motorolas.
11. Scan - well most other radios have this too.
12. 2 power settings - You can either transmit on .5 watts or 1.5 watts depending on the button you press. Unless you are using FRS channels 8 to 14 which are hardcoded to use .5 watts.
13. Vibrate feature - In case you are in a noisy place this is useful.
14. Ease of use - It does not get easier. Instructions are clear and it is intuitive.
CONS:
1. I am still trying to find one.
********UPDATE December 272009*********
I conducted another Distance and clarity test:
Equipment:
1. My Icom F21 UHF 4 watt Professional Handheld Radio(same one Police/Sheriff use. $380 for a pair)
2. My Motorola MR350($59 a pair)
Parameters of the Test:
I have a 40 Watt GMRS Base Station at home. My Home is by the Beach Blvd. I will drive North on beach Blvd and at every quarter mile I will get down from the car and transmit. I will transmit first with the Icom then the Motorola. I will also note down if I can hear a reply back and how clear the reply was.
Result of the test:
Distance
1. Icom- was able to transmit and receive clearly up till 3 1/4 miles. It then started to become choppy from that point.
2. Motorola - was able to transmit and receive clearly till 2 3/4 miles. It then started to become choppy from that point.
Clarity
1. Icom - There were times I had to ask my wife to repeat herself because it sounded a little muffled.
2. Motorola - Just like listening to an FM radio. Loud and crystal clear.
Conclusion
Although the extra power of the Icom gave it a slight advantage in range about 20% you can buy 8 pairs of these Motorolas for the price of the Icom. Let the result speak for itself.
Note: This test was meant to show that the Professional Radios only have a slight advantage over the Motorola. The distances were that far because I have a base station with a 10 foot mast and an external J-pole GMRS tuned antenna. Hand held to hand held still follows the laws of physics so it is the same as I mentioned at the beginning of the review .5 to 1 mile in the city. Completely different story if you are on an elevated position. Distance in miles = Square root of the Height(in feet) x 1.4.
*****UPDATE FEB. 042010******
I would like to now discuss the Cost savings of this MR350 over Professional Radios.
My Motorola MR350 is still going strong. I have since bought more Professional Icoms and have had to go through the hassle of tweaking them and programming them manually to get them to function the way this Motorola does when you first take it out of the packaging. I had to buy these Icoms because I am a member of a GMRS Radio Group here in Orange County and Los Angeles and I need the repeater functionality and external antenna.
If you buy a professional radio you will have to pay to have it programmed. It can cost from between $20 to $80 each time you need to have something programmed. I bought the software and equipment to program my Icoms and they were very expensive. Again this is something you will never have to do with the MR350.
Batteries on my Icoms cost about $60. That is even more than the cost of this MOTOROLA!!! Not to mention that I had to buy an external battery pack for my Icoms costing $45 so that I can use Energizer AA batteries. The Motorola can use the included rechargeable battery or you can use Energizer.
I have my Motorolas fully charged all the time so if ever the big earthquake hits LA this will be my primary survival gear together with my Swiss Army Knife.
Conclusion:
In a cost perspective the Motorola MR350 wins hands down. You will easily spend about $650-700(hardware and software) to equip a pair(2) of Professional Radios to have some(not all) of the features of this Motorola MR350. At the end of the day cost will always be a factor when we purchase anything.
Hope to talk to you on the air.
******UPDATE APRIL 192010*******
I just bought another set of Motorola MR350 radios. I leave a pair in my car for emergencies where I cannot use my car mounted Mobile UHF radio. I still think these are the best deal on any UHF radio.
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