Motorola XTR446 (8 Channels) Two Way Radio

Fantastic Radios.

These radios are pretty weather resistant, although they definitely won't appreciate being submersed - they have a weather sealed battery compartment and all the buttons are well sealed as is the headphone jack. The speaker can be seen through the grate on the front so obviously water can get in here easily. Having said that, I'd feel happy that these could perform fine in pretty tough / damp / sandy conditions.

They feel good in the hand, not too heavy but at the same time they feel robust enough to be worth the slight premium these units command over less expensive PMR446 radios like the Binatone Terrain 550. Volume levels are good if a little distorted at full volume, like most all radios...sound quality is v good at lower volumes. I have not used the ear piece, doubt I ever will.

They were really easy to set up - I programmed in my desired 10 channels with sub-channels in 5 or 6 mins - the manual is really easy to follow. Screen is clear and easy to read and the rubber antenna feels solidly in place.

The one thing that does slightly annoy me is the charger. When both units are placed into the base station charger their respective red LED charging lights come on. Now, you would have thought that after their 16hr required charging time for the NiMH rechargeable batteries was reached, and the batteries had reached full capacity that, the LED's would change colour to green and charging would cease. No?

In fact you have to keep a stopwatch on the charger and remove the radios after the allotted 16hrs have passed. Silly. Or you could forget about the charger and just use standard AAA alkaline batteries and get another 40% life over the rechargeable ones.

I like the room monitoring feature / baby monitor / spying tool (!) - it is really easy to use - just one button and it automatically transmits any detected sound (at variable detectable sound levels 1-3) discretely to the other handset. I is also a perfect baby monitor that and self respecting gadget fan father should use over those fisher-price toys that cost the same!

As far as range goes - who knows? These are only 0.5w output after all. But find a clear channel and sit on a mountain in clear cold conditions with a direct line of sight and your probably going to get a good few miles out of these. In a block of flats you'd be lucky to get 3/4 floors. If you need to communicate in built up areas I'd suggest getting some 4/5W UHF radios (with licence), but for non-critical applications such as sport / holidaying / family etc...these are perfect.

Motorola XTR446, good value for money PMR446 radio, perfect licence free short range communications.

The walkie talkie's work very well no nonsence good range simple to use.
GREAT product as you would expect from Motorola

A good battery that is much better then using regular cells.

A single charge will easily last all day