Seeking a decent lower cost "walkie talkie"

[John in WI]

Hello folks. I very nearly bought a pair of Cobra walkie talkies at the local farm supply store. The boasted an impressive 16 mile range. I decided not to impulse buy them, and after reading some reviews, it seems like you'd be hard pressed to do a half mile with them. I wouldn't expect 16 miles out of a $40 set of radios--but that seems crazy to me!

Can anyone recommend a halfway decent walkie? Something stripped down and basic is fine. They would be used for backup communication in emergencies, and more likely to carry while hunting ( to communicate, especially when doing a drive). Even if it could reliably do a mile or two, it would be fine for my purposes.

If the decent name brand companies (Cobra, Midland) can't be trusted with their specs, I can't imagine off brand cheapo Chinese units on Amazon are going to be better.

Can anyone recommend a good value on them? Ideally, a set of 3 or 4 would be perfect.

 

[JimCosta]

Suggest you add information on your needs.

1. Are you experienced in radios?
2. Do you have a particular meter in mind? 2 Meter? HAM frequencies?
3. What are you intending to do with them?
4 What distances do you intend to cover?
5. Terrain: Mountains, hills, desert?
6. Licensed for HAM now?
7. Intend to have a more powerful Base Radio?

 

[Proud Prepper]

Buy from Amazon with free returns. Try I out. If not satisfied, return and order a different one. Repeat until you find the ones that work for you.

 

[Survivor_316]

Could you buy them and return to the manufacturer if they don't work for the 16 miles?

Ours were very cheap and work great, but we were only looking for range between all the neighbors' houses.

 

[Cindyd]

This doesn't answer your question, but we've got cobra..(5 of them) but we only got them for use on our property...(which isn't 16 miles of area). They work great for our needs here if we need them. Haven't tested them beyond that.

For what it's worth I think canadian prepper recommends Motorola talkabout T480 and popular mechanics (again for what it's worth) supposedly has done testing and has recommendations in a top 8 best list for various needs. You might start there?