FRS Radios Who has used GMRS?

[fred ferdlap]

Has anyone used the new GMRS 5 mile range radios on the ships?

We used the FRS or 2 mile radios and had medium luck. We had to come up with handles, otherwise everyone was mom and dad.
No privacy codes.

It seemed that the FRS radios almost worked everywhere around the ship, but were flakey in certain areas/distances/floors.
It would not reach from the ship to castaway cay( Family beach) That's less than 2 miles?


Are the GMRS that much better?

 

[tiptoen]

I've tried both and the GMRS was only a little better. I wouldn't spend the extra to get them. I would on the other hand get radios with sub channels.

 

[Parrotheader]

It might also depend upon the type of GMRS radios you get. One of the main differences between the FRS and the GMRS (besides the frequencies) is that I THINK GMRS has to operate at a slightly higher wattage level. Some GMRS radios only boost their wattage power to the bare minimum required by the GMRS standard while others (like the Cobra models I got my dad last Christmas) will boost their power above and beyond the minimum requirement which should theoretically help. I could be wrong on that though as its been awhile since I did the research. I do know that on relatively flat terrain our FRS radios would operate clearly at a little over a mile while we were able to get over 2.5 miles clearly with my dad's GMRS units.