BAOFENG GMRS Handheld Radio Ham Radio Long Range...

Most Helpful Review

"Review: Kit of 2 BAOFENG GM21 GMRS Handheld RadiosThis is a challenging review for me, because there’s a lot here to unpack. First, a word about GMRS. GMRS sits somewhere between FRS and Ham. It has more power than FRS, and permits communication on more channels than FRS. It also requires a license, but not an exam like Ham radio.The license is interesting. To gain one, you have to be at least 18 years old and, “not a representative of a foreign government.” The license costs $35 and is good for 10 years (you must renew it before the 10 years are up). And here’s the really weird bit: the license covers you (the license holder) and your immediate family members, regardless of age. The definition of immediate family is a bit broad:Licensee's spouseChildren, grandchildren, and stepchildrenParents, grandparents, and stepparentsBrothers and sistersAunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and in-lawsThis broad definition means that all these relatives are covered by a single, 10-year GMRS license, regardless of whether they live in the same household as the licensee. The only common family members generally not covered are first cousins.The idea is that as long as you are responsible for the on-air behavior of your family (except for your first cousins), you can let your family talk to you on GMRS radios. GMRS radios have more channels than FRS radios (the 4 for $10 walkie-talkies they sell in the box stores), they’re more powerful (FRS goes to 2 watts at most, while GMRS handheld radios can do up to 5 watts *(the GM21 only does 3W), and if you’re crazy enough to spend the money, you can set up a base station or repeater and talk to your family (except for your cousins) on-air across the whole county.Having laid the foundation for understanding, we can now get down to the review, which is what you pay me for. This is a kit to get you started with GMRS, or to expand your family reach. It’s a remarkably comprehensive kit. It contains two of most everything you need: two radios, two each of three antennas (quarter-wave, half-wave, and a cute “stubby” that’s about 3 inches long), two charging bases, two wrist-straps, two belt-clips, two headsets, two USB cables, and one programming cable.Now comes the part that’s challenging: the radios. Like most Baofeng radios, they’re pretty feature-packed, but I have to admit that my favorite feature of these particular handhelds is their color (silly, I know). The chassis is translucent (almost transparent). It’s kind of awesome. They look as if the screen, buttons and antenna are inserted into an ice carving. I know this is a petty thing to get hung up on, but it’s really beautiful to look at (if you like seeing mysterious electronic guts through a translucent veil).The radios run the gamut of features we’ve come to expect from Baofeng handhelds. They’re multi-band (with channels running from around 108MHz up to almost 500MHz). They are designed to be programmed with as many as 1000 channels (separated into up to 10 channel banks with up to 100 channels in each bank). They even let you set up channel scanning for the NOAA channels (weather, earthquakes and other disasters), and you can even tune in (but can’t broadcast on) both AM and FM commercial radio bands.These are supposed to be programmable from an iPhone using bluetooth and a walkie-talkie app. Reviews on the app in the Apple app store indicate that the software may not be ready for prime-time yet. Happily though, the kit includes the appropriate programming cable to use CHIRP (which is very robust), as long as you tell CHIRP that the radio is a"UV-17ProGPS" when programming (for now… the GM21 is relatively new, and CHIRP will include it in updates coming soon).Summary: I love these radios. I love the choice of transparent cases, I love the inclusion of various antennae, and I love the flexibility and the impressive range. I like that the radios let the user program in up to 1000 channels, and the fact that I still don’t know everything that they can do. The price seems to be on par with other Baofeng radios (on a per-device basis), and they appear to be well-made. I am very pleased with this kit, and am giving it a 5 Star rating."