two way radios
 

We are planning to take two teen age granddaughters on cruise in June. We were considering two way radios as way to keep in touch on ship.

Has anyone used them on ship and do they work well?

If you use the "search this forum" box at the top of this page you'll get lots more about this, but in short, heres a summary of past responses:

-Yes, they work pretty well.

-You'll get a headache listening to all the kids saying "can you hear me now" as they talk to their friends.

-the only thing that limits them is too many layers of steel between you and the person you are talking to.

-they work well in ports and to chat with family who are not with you as you visit the ports.

-Only radios sold as "FRS" or Family Radio Service are legal to use in the U.S. right out of the box without a license.
Others sold that say that you can talk more than 2 miles on (such as 5, 7 or 9 mile range) require that you purchase a license for their use from the FCC. However, they are all sold in the same stores and hard to tell apart.
If you want to be legal and not buy a license, look for "FRS" on the label or those that say the range is up-to 2 miles.

Hope this helps, again if you want more on this subject, the search box above helps a lot on many common questions like this one.

Have fun, and by the way, a pair of these radios (FRS) are pretty inexpensive..about $20-30 at any major store like WalMart, BestBuy, KMart, Circuit City, etc.

We always take a pair and it saves a lot of shoe leather searching the ship for family.

They are great, but extremely annoying to those in your granddaughters vicinity. The loud squawking and the voices are very disrupting.

I can understand why you want them, but as the above respondent said, everyone around you and them will be very annoyed. Maybe there will be lots of other families using them and you can all listen to each other. Are there any out there that plug into the ear so those around you don't have to listen,too? Just curious.

We have a pair, but ours have earpieces very similar to what you use for a hands free cell phone. That way, no one around you is annoyed, they work just like cellphones, including a "vibrate rather than ring" feature. They totally rock. They have a two mile range. We both carry cell phones as well, but the radios work quite well. But mostly, we are together 99% of time. On the odd occasion we are not, the radios add a nice bit of comfort level.

Wanderlust5 -
Would appreciate brand/model and where-to-buy info on hands-free/vibrating two way radios. Sounds like the only way to go. Thanks!

Darcy:
Motorola "Walkabout" T5710 is the maker/brand. It all comes as a kit, with the charger, earpieces and little mic's, and cover plates for the radios so you can change the colors if you like. They also will use 3 "AA" batteries if your battery pack charge dies and you aren't where you can recharge.

I bought the set at Costco about 3 years ago.

They have 22 channels in case there is interference and you need to change the channel to get clarity.

I love them!