Are these any good ?

Link

36 mile range?

-Emt1581

they work  real nice in the 2 ,mile range .

the ones yer NOT supposed to have (use)  same brand marine....
will get cha 5 miles on fresh battries.

Yea, the 36 mile range is what got my attention.

They're 2 mile radios, tops, for normal use, and I wouldn't count on that.

Range figures on FRS (and consumer GMRS radios like this) are mostly outright lies, they might have that range from mountaintop to mountaintop on a clear day.

Edit: If you read down in the description, there's a * by the range number. This is what they say:
* Maximum range can only be achieved over water or open rural areas under optimum conditions.

Even with that qualification, that's being generous beyond belief.

I thought that was a little hype.

Would hand held CB radios be a better option to communicate over short to med distances ?

Most handhelds in my rolling terrain work 1 mile max- even the 5 watt handheld amateur radios.  For more you need antenna elevation.

Check out baofeng uv82s.

Not really, because their antennas are way more inefficient. Full power GMRS handhelds (4 watts) would probably be
the best handheld option, closely followed by MURS (2 watts). GMRS requires a license but it's just a fee,
and and cover your whole family. MURS is license-free. Neither is going to work further than 2 - 5 miles
with handhelds depending on terrain, location, etc. They're more expensive radios, but not incredibly so.

You can go to mobiles (CB or GMRS) to get out to 10 miles or so (car based GMRS can go to 50W out, so it's
quite a bit better than SSB CB, which is 12 watts. Terrain permitting, though, either should get you 10 miles.)

Realistically, if you're trying to get to 30-40 miles, you're going to need to go with repeaters or NVIS HF
(a type of shortwave radio propagation that uses the sky like it's a satellite).

There might be GMRS repeaters in your area that are open, but it's rare. Ham repeaters in the area are
almost guaranteed, (ham license requried, which for a technician license is easy but requires studying,
and for HF NVIS, a general license is needed, which is just slightly harder.) Everyone using it will need
to study and pass the exams. Feel free to poke around in the ham radio forum here for more info.

Yea I've looked in that forum before but got intimidated pretty fast.
I'm don't know squat about electronics.

Yes the 36 mile claim is pure BS  unless your talking strait up.

 In a bald earth situation, every 6 feet of height for your ant = about 3.4 miles of range. So if you are 6ft tall and your buddy is 6ft tall you can talk almost 7 miles max. If you elevate one of the antennas by putting it on a tower, or up a mountain then range goes up. But that is still line of sight, so any hills, buildings or vegetation between the radios will affect the total range, In the ham world there is a saying that young guys talk about power out, while old guys talk about antennas.
 .
.

Don't be afraid of the ham board, As long as you are willing to learn, You will be welcomed.   I haven't played with radios in almost tweanty years, and I literly went from no license to a general class in a couple of months.  Its really not all that hard.

Bye the way, . I have those same radios in your link and the rechargeable batteries left a lot to be desired.

ymmv.

We talked abt 15+ miles from mtn top to valley with 10 year old Motorola FRS radios a couple years ago.

Antenna positioning [polarization] was critical.

Holding a chicken wire reflector [screen mesh] behind the radio at abt 1/4 wave spacing from the antenna made a significant improvement.


Putting the radio inside [at the FP] of, let's say, a 30" Wifi parabolic surface, would make for reliable, but awkward, coms.

IIRC, the channel used had 1/2 watt [output?] power.

Just did a quick test over a similar path with an HT w/ the supplied antenna, with 1, 2, 5 watt xmit output, listening to the output at the receive location via a local area network, bridged to the remote location.

At 1 watt there was some noise but the signal was entirely readable, at 5 watts, the signal was as far as I could tell, nearly or full quieting.

Just about any handheld 5watt radio with a directional antenna like a yagi will meet the requirement you are looking for as long as the person you are talking to has an elevated antenna, I.e. a tower. RELIABLE commo farther than that will take a 12v backpack radio and maybe a General license upgrade.

I've got a kenwood thf6a that performs fairly well on the stock rubber ducky, it will hit a 75 foot repeater almost 30 miles away, maybe 5 miles talking to an another ht or passing car. You have to remember that any rubber ducky or collapsible antenna that will ship with a handheld ht will be a negative gain antenna. Even the worst j-pole is a huge step up in performance.

I'm looking at one of these for it: http://www.arrowantennas.com/arrowii/146-3ii.html
You want the split boom model, it packs up tiny.

Get everyone a Ham tech ticket. Go buy some handheld radios, even the Baeofeng radios. I like the GT-3 i have. Get better antennas for better short range communications. Buy one of the N9TAX antennas for longer range communications. You can toss it up into a tree if need be. With the N9TAX antenna just tacked to the ceiling in my bedroom of my 1 story ranch and my GT-3 i can hit repeaters 20 miles around me in any direction with full quieting.

I like that antenna so much there is one hanging in my attic that is my main 2m/70cm antenna.

Edit: the study guides Here got me my tech and general ticket with no problems. Started to go for extra but had a few family issues, work issues and a couple of major surgeries get in the way. It is on the 2015 to do list.

Yeah, the Slim Jims  work well in my experience, too.

I think I will check the Ham forum out.

I have a few things to get squared away before I'll have time to do any studying.

I would like to have some reliable communications laying around.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_10_22/604477_Ham_Radio_101.html

ar-jedi