The antennas keeps falling off, and the belt clips break.

These were so helpful on our cruise. The reception was occasionally spotty but for the price you can’t beat it!

do what they need to do

Mediocre

After a couple weeks I need to put around a zip tie to make it work, some kind of defecton battery or radio

A FCC AMATEUR LICENSE IS REQUIRED TO OPERATE THESE RADIOS. Do not use without license or you may possibly be fined big money !

I ordered these as I've grown tired of the nonsense that has flooded the market when it comes to the FRS/GMRS pre-programmed handhelds out there. As someone who is licensed for the GMRS frequencies, I decided to try these out exclusively on the GMRS frequencies. Each radio comes with 16 channels (selectable), a small stock antenna, an earpiece with built-in mic, a belt clip, a wrist-wrap and a battery. First off - DO NOT USE THE RADIOS UNTIL AFTER YOU'VE PROGRAMMED THEM! with the pre-programmed frequencies, you may interfere with local law enforcement or other off-limits frequencies! Yes, you have to find the GMRS frequencies. REMEMBER: These radios are set to 5 watts TX power. If you are not licensed for GMRS, buy the name brands - as they will be pre-programmed for FRS frequencies and you may use those. The hardest part is finding the software to program the radios. I won't paste a link here to where I received the download so as not to upset either Amazon or the website owner. However, It is searchable on the Internet. You will need the programming cable so make sure you purchase that. Once you have the frequencies you want, you can copy and paste them into the software. Save the file then upload it to the radio. I did it several times to make a few tweaks to the radio's settings as well as to upload the frequencies I wanted. Once completed, I did some minor testing at home and the audio was crisp, clear and loud. I took them with me camping and had my daughter use one while I used another. She did a little bit of hiking (within a mile of my location) and there were no drop-offs, static on the transmissions or inaudible transmissions (besides those of user error). The battery life is amazing! We used them with the power turned on the whole time we were camping (2 full days) and although the battery came close to dying, we were still using full power without drop-off! I'm going to perform some more extensive testing on these, like taking them out for longer distances to see just how far they'll reach in a more urban setting. I'm sure that they will have more limited distance due to structures and hills, but I'd like to try anyway. The only drawback to the radios I received was that two of them came in with the power/volume know 'tight' to turn which indicates a 'bent' component. Otherwise, they worked perfectly fine. REMEMBER: You will need to obtain a GMRS license to use these radios AND you must program them before using them so as not to interfere with local law enforcement! A GMRS license is easy to obtain. There are no exams/tests for the license, just a simple purchase. And, the license is good for you and everyone in your immediate family (spouse/child/parent).

The radios are good for infrequent and less experienced communicators, unfamiliar with advanced operation. Their om/off operation and pre-set programmed frequencies allow them to be used in small groups within a larger network without bogging down frequencies.