GXT1000VP4

Works well and not difficult to use. Change teh light to turn green when charged. Also, screen gets multicolored in hi-heat days (>90f)

Bought a set of these a little over two years ago for the intended purpose of using them to help herd a pack of Cub Scouts around on various outings. Originally, I needed a set of radios that would work over a mile, mile and a half range of various terrains. Tested when received over the ground I initially needed them for, mostly flat, but the longest range was not line of sight and partially screened by a copse of trees. Radios worked just fine. Since then I've used them in more varied terrains from heavily wooded to urban and in ranges of up to three miles (that one urban) with no issues. My original usage intent was at our yearly Cub Scout day camp. Sometime we would need to split off a group of the boys to go to different locations with a set of adult leaders. (Like a trip to the john, nurse or Webelos activity.) One radio would stay with the main group and one would go with the others so we'd have a means of linking up should the main group have to move on to the next activity before the others returned. I've also used them on hikes and nature walks with the pack. I'll put one at the head and one at the rear of the column in case line of sight contact has been broken. (Just try and stay in sight contact in a corn maze - LOL!) If we need to spread out even further, I have an older, cheaper set of FRS/GMS radios with less power which I can distribute through the group and we can relay messages if the lower power units don't have the juice to transmit all the way. We've also used them when spread out over a larger, urban area to co-ordinate during our Scouting for Food Drives. They've worked out well. We have an effective means of maintaining contact without resorting to shouting at each other and trying to get the others attention. Battery life has been more then sufficient for a one day outing. Bear in mind though the more you transmit, the faster the batteries are used up. That's just common sense. I love having the ability of swapping the battery packs out for AA's if necessary. This brings me to one peccadillo about these radios which is mentioned in another review, but I believe is buried in the comments section, so I'll bring it up in the actual review. When recharging one of the battery packs, even though the battery is completely recharged, when placed in the radio and switched on, the unit fails to operate. There is an easy fix for this. Simply take the battery pack out of the radio and switch it on for a while. Then replace the battery pack and the radio should function just fine. Not sure why this is, and it's certainly a bit annoying, but there ya go... In my opinion, most reviews lack a discussion of two things: First, the weather alert function of these radios work extremely well. Living in the Mid-West, weather can blow up, especially in the summer, very quickly. The safety of my Scouts is my primary mission. Being alerted to changing weather is absolutely critical. My MIL lives in a very rural area and I took these radios along when we visited last. A line of tornadoes blew through the area and these radios warned us when we needed to take cover and when it was safe to come out. Secondly, to operate these radios legally in the GRMS band at maximum power (and maximum range) you NEED an FCC license. The current cost of the license is $85.00 (although there is talk about dropping the license requirement) which seems steep when compared to the roughly $59.00 cost of the radios. However, the license is good for 5 years, which breaks the cost down to $17.00 a year. Now, obviously, your chances of getting busted by the FCC is virtually nil, but it would be my luck to be Mr. Nil. (Plus I'm using these with my Scouts, so I feel obligated to be "morally straight" and be licensed.) If you don't want to spend the money to be licensed, simply use only the FRS bands or throttle down the power on the GRMS bands. At low power you don't need a license, but be advised that you're lessening your range doing so. So, I'm pleased with these radios and do recommend them. I'd buy them again in a heartbeat. Just bear in mind the range claim is wishful thinking in the extreme. If you have needs like I outlined above I have every confidence you'll be happy with them, too.

Can't say they work as far away as they say (maybe on a flat prairie). But they are simple to use, great sound quality, durable, and held a charge ALL DAY and well into a second day. Very impressed so far. I would have given it 5 stars but bought this set because of the ear pieces. Wish the ear pieces that came with them were more comfy. I will probably have to replace those. They also made it very hard for them to hear me.

I went with Midland because they offer a line of mobile gmrs radios also I can talk about 3.5 miles on high power with me at the house on the back deck and my friend inside his car. Range would be farther if one party was up high and had a clear line of sight. This is comparable to any handheld radio [ham, commercial ,marine ] so dont get disappointed if you cant talk 36 miles from your living room to your wife at Walmart. The radio works well and has a nice feel to it.Appears to be of good quality.Has plenty of volume and some nice features like scan,weather channels etc. The receive seems to be pretty good I had it on scan today and it was picking people up on a distant repeater and also some local farmers during the harvest season .This just setting atop my entertainment center inside the house Battery life is typical for a handheld.You can also power it up with AA batteries if you need to So these fall kinda in the middle.You could get a chinese radio cheap [ Legal? } or move up to a ham handheld more money [can only talk to other hams] On another note looking at the most critical review nimh rechargeable batteries output 1.2 volts where standard alkalines output 1.5 volts .So the radio operates on 6 volts Thats why you only need 4 alkaline batteries. If you use only the amount of power you need you will extend the battery life. Thats normal with any handheld.Your not going to talk 36 miles unless your on top of a very tall building or mountain and your not going to talk forever on high power with the battery capacity you have. There are only 22 shared frs/gmrs channels not 50.The extra channels above 22 are existing channels with a pre programmed privacy code.Which is nice .Not really extra channels tho Folks get led astray .Its possible for hams to talk to the international space station on 5 watts so when they say 36 mile range it is not a false statement but it is not typical. 50 channels well sort of.Midland has done the work for you.Want to use a privacy code go to one of the channels above 22.Already done for you. With realistic expectations whats not to like Read the directions and take a look online at the frs/gmrs channel guide because each service has different power limits except channels 8 to 14 which are only low power 1/2 watt only. Go online and there are several radio line of sight calculators you can use to estimate your radio range I hate to see a bad reviews from folks on something when really its more lack of knowledge and operator error not the products fault Update 6 months later my radios are still going strong.I have had no problems.The 700 mAh battery packs have worked ok .But they are only 700mAh.Typical for AAA batteries.Going to a AA alkaline could get over 2000 mAh and last longer but not rechargable. AA lithium ion rechargeable batteries 1.5 volt are available but they are expensive. Your going to need some spare batteries and packs thats just the nature of handheld battery powered radios whether frs/gmrs ,Ham,Marine ,business or whatever.

I bought this set for a summer trip to Michigan's upper peninsula - it's a different world up there. A week into the trip, my buddy had taken off 30 minutes before me in his pickup to get to the second campsite. My straight six 3.0L BMW was humming along working to catch up to him as I only knew the approximate area of our next campsite, not the exact location, but it was about two hours east. The clouds were thick and gray hiding every ounce of the blue sky... but that didn't matter - I was in awe passing the luscious green hills sprinkled with abandoned farm houses every few miles. There aren't many street signs up there, but you don't really care as there is picturesque beauty all around you. About 45 min away from the campsite area, my Uniden GXT1000 in the passenger seat suddenly came alive. "Dragonfly to Raven.... come in..... Dragonfly to Raven... do you copy!??" Smiling at the shock of actually receiving his transmission with NO other vehicle in sight, I hurriedly picked it up and said, "Dragonfly... where the hell are YOU?" His response, "I don't know, I'm just following GPS. These are some great radios though!" We laughed and kept the conversation going for a few more minutes before focusing back on the drive. I didn't see his pickup for about another 30 minutes and followed him to the campsite. I can't give specifics on the distances achieved, but the radios were impressive. Phone service in that area is spotty, so these radios are ideal. Some reviews state the included batteries are rubbish, but the FIRST charge is supposed to be for 24 hours. Charges beyond that are for about 11 to 12 hours and only when the battery gets low (there is a low batt warning displayed). The charger does NOT have a timer, nor does it automatically stop charging. I mostly use Japanese rechargeable AAs as I don't have to worry about overcharging them as can happen with the Midland batteries. Two of the Midland batteries lost power over a few months, possibly due to older stock. I called up customer service and was pleasantly surprised when an American customer service agent answered the phone. Within a few minutes she had two new batteries shipped to my door for free. Great customer service and she actually KNEW the product very well! The NOAA weather station came in loud and clear and provided alerts of impending bad weather. The radios can select 50 different channels, however channels 23 and higher are repeats of 1-22 with the coded tones permanently set. So, if another FRS/GMRS radio (Midland or other brand) is broadcasting on a same frequency that you are using and YOU have a tonal code set or switched to channel 23-50, YOU won't be able to hear them, but THEY can still hear YOU. Unless of course they have a specific tone code set on their radio. Tones set on your radio only block you from hearing others, they don't scramble or encrypt your transmissions. FRS 8-14/GMRS 1-7 and 15-22 462.5625 ch 01/23/42 462.5875 ch 02/31/50 462.6125 ch 03/24/43 462.6375 ch 04/32 462.6625 ch 05/25/44 462.6875 ch 06/33 462.7125 ch 07/26/45 467.5625 ch 08/34 467.5875 ch 09 467.6125 ch 10/35 467.6375 ch 11 467.6625 ch 12/36 467.6875 ch 13 467.7125 ch 14/37 462.5500 ch 15/27/46 462.5750 ch 16/38 462.6000 ch 17/28/47 462.6250 ch 18/39 462.6500 ch 19/29/48 462.6750 ch 20/40 462.7000 ch 21/30/49 462.7250 ch 22/41 The only negative that I found is the channel scan is slow, but I get so much use out of them it doesn't matter that much.

update July 2010 : after further testing we mounted the charger in the race car and hard wired it to the 12v electrical system. Worked great. Tie wrapped the radio to the mount. No power issues now. now we are working on a more reliable headset for use in a race car with PTT and helmet. The standard motorcycle setup is useless. Made a hybrid setup. Worked great, but the wires are just too weak. Could not take the abuse that my drivers gave it. Now trying a tactical throat mic setup with MIL-spec cables. I purchased these for our endurance race car team for an upcoming 24 Hour race at Nelson Ledges in Ohio in October (24 Hours of LeMons, Lamest Day). We were using the Midland motorcycle helmet speakers and mic setup that works with these radios. Initially in the pits while testing they worked great. But when you got on the track you could not hear each other. After speaking with other racers and Midland Tech Support we will be trying out the FBI style in-ear piece. The radios worked well. Just remember that to use these radios on the non-FRS frequencies you will need an FCC license. The range was good. But because these have the FRS frequencies, the antenna is not removable. It would have helped us if we could have mounted a roof antenna but can't due to FCC law. We had good coverage until the Carousel (turn 7-9) and picked up again just before turn 10. This kinda sucked under Yellow as the area is blind at speed. You were on your own.The trees are what caused the blackout, so it really was not the radios fault. Now the batteries did well, but they did not last the full 24 hours like we expected. They lasted only about 14 hours. This really did suck as we were not allowed to swap out radios/batteries in the hot pits due to the rules. There is no facility on the radio to plug it into a 12v supply. Now the charger base that comes with the radios does have a 12v adapter, but this is not stable enough to use in a race car. These are little issues that mainly concern fellow racers, but to use these as they were meant these radios would be awesome. I did contact Midland customer service about some of the issues. But they were not very helpful. More like sales people that had to look up the facts before answering my questions, which really were never answered. And they were not willing to work with me on trying to figure out how to make these work in our conditions. The company we use for our in-car cameras, [...] and [...], bend over backwards for us as we try and help them make better products. I expected that from a company like Midland. If you are reading this Mr or Mrs. Midland, please contact me. We have some ideas that could add a whole new market to your radios. Bill Strong Racing Strong Motorsports The Toyota MR2 Owners Club RSm was a 2009 24 Hours of LeMons Top 10 in Class Finisher! Twice! See our videos at [...]

These work.great. clear transmission of sound

Batteries died too quick. Range is not anywhere near what is advertised, with perfect LOS if I were further then 1 mile- i could not be heard and i could not hear.

Supero mis espectativas, se escucha muy bien, los uso en distancias cortas, no mas de 1/2 kilometro, en ciudad y con edificios de por medio y no tiene ningun problema, por el precio es muy recomendable. El paquete esta muy completo, sobretodo poderlo cargar en el coche, aunque la bateria le dura bastante tiempo.

Buena recepción de sonido, buena calidad

Me gusto la calidad del producto y lo que incluye en el paquete

Work perfectly

Excelentes radios para comunicarse a distancia en las montañas, las baterías le duran el día.