FRS Radios  You’ve seen those little half Watt handie talkies in the stores, selling for all kinds of prices from $29 to $99 each. They’re called ‘FRS’ or Family Radio Service radios, and fill the need for a citizen’s band solution better than the original 11 Meter CBs ever did. When they had a sale at Target and offered a ‘base station’ including the wall wart power supply for $17, I bit, twice. The units I bought cover 14 channels, run a little less than a half Watt (320 mW) of power, and scan the channels, but do NOT have ‘PL.’

 What you get with most all of these radios is a very competent transceiver, in my case a dual conversion receiver and 320 mW transmitter hooked to a base loaded quarter wave antenna, that will easily work up the street to a friend’s house (quarter mile) and, if you find a couple of hilltops, several miles. There was a report of a mountain rescue using them where the radio path was 70 miles. It’s not uncommon in Colorado, with its high peaks, to work dozens of miles with these ½ Watt radios.

Wal-Mart has them for $14.92, and that includes a 14 channel handheld with a selection of 38 tones to individualize your signal. The more expensive models have rechargeable Nicads, a charger, and voice scrambling. You do understand that any ordinary scanner can pick up the signal, and except for the scrambled models, eavesdrop on your conversation. If you’d like to do just that, here are the frequencies to put in the scanner.

7 462.7125 14 467.7125

These are ‘split’ channels between Class A allocations for (462 / 467 Mhz) Citizen Band. That’s another service that requires formalities such as a license. These little half Watters don’t need a license. With relatively high performance and low prices the band is going to fill up quickly. Though the signals won’t propagate across the country as 27 MHz CB does, there are shortly going to be an awful lot of people on here. Get one and listen in.

My radio manual says alkaline batteries will last up to 30 hours with a 1:8 ratio of transmit time. My battery budget likes the included 6 VDC wall wart power plug. Using the scan feature, I’ve left it on for half a day on the weekend but haven’t heard much yet six miles South of downtown Council Bluffs. In town on a Tuesday morning after breakfast there were several short conversations heard on Ch 1 and one woman asking for ‘Radar’ who said, "Nope, wrong one." when I offered the CB type reply, "You’ve got Radar here. Go ahead."

It’s forbidden to use more power - like a converted UHF Ham or commercial transceiver - or a better antenna, but there’s no harm using the best antenna you can find for your scanner to maximize listening range.

If you’re the type who likes to be aware of things going on in the radio world you may already have one of these or the frequencies in your scanner. If not and you’d like to, seventeen bucks for one that won’t cost you batteries seems to be a bargain. Recommended.

de Scanner Buff