[Doug E]

Looks like Santa took care of me for future Fun Runs as he left me 4 hand-held radio's for X-mas!

Based on the lesson's learned from the last Fun Run we really need to try and make sure that everyone has one of these in their car for all future runs.

[Jim Richards]

Yeah, that sounds like a good piece of equipment to carry along. Where's the best place to buy them?

[Doug E]

Jim - my wife picked these up at Staples and with the rebates they came out to $19.99 a pair. These are made by Cobra and have a 2 mile radius and 14 channels so for that price it seems like a good deal.

There are units out there that have 5 mile radius and privacy channels but the cost differential doesn't seem to be justified as those units tend to be $49.99 +.

I have seen units also for sale at Best Buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack and Wal-mart.

[Charlie Stylianos]

Jim,

Motorolla is the original maker of the 'talk-about'. You can buy them in pairs at radio shack, circuit city, best buy, they are everywhere. They are multiple channel, hand-held walkie talkies that operate in a specific frequency range and can transmit on multiple channels (like a CB) with a range of about a mile (if i remember correctly).

There are other manufactures (audiovox is one) that make similar hand-held units that are compatible with motorolla.

A friend of mine has the motorolla units (2) and and the Audiovox units (2) that he bought at Costco as they were cheaper than motorolla and were also compatible. We found through tesing in separate vehicles that the audiovox units are indeed compatible but their range is minimal, no where near the motorollas' range. I dont know about other motorolla-compatible units, but I would not reccommend the audiovox.

-Charlie

[BW911]

Doug, So if I pick up a couple at one of those places, can I presume there will be matching frequencies with your units? Seems to me like a pretty good idea to have them. I wasn't on the last fun run but I guess you had some excitement.

Regards,

Bill

'88 Carrera

[Doug E]

Bill -

Yes, any hand-held unit will work on the primary frequencies (channels 1 through 14). The more expensive units have "privacy channels" which only work for the units set to the same primary/privacy channel.

On the last Fun Run not everybody had the units with the privacy channels so that's why I decided to go the cheaper route and get the basic units.

From a cost standpoint I couldn't justify an additional $30 or $40 for privacy channels so I just went with the more basic units.

[targa911man]

For future reference, I've got 2 Motorolas.

[87turbolook911]

They were definitely handly on the last run. I just gotta remember to check or bring new new batteries....duh