[FedCom] FRS Radios

[Steven Rutledge]

It IS incredible how many agencies are using FRS radios.  It makes
perfect sense.  I work for a governmental agency.  I purchased five VHF
radios for simplex work on a frequency licensed to my company.  The best
price I could get was nearly a thousand bucks each!!!!!!  Of course they
were Motorola rigs.  Another department had the same issue and they
bought FRS radios for less than $100 a pair!  They get better service,
range out of them than the stuff I bought.  When they break, they just
throw them away and buy new ones.  Further, the Motorola radios are
about four times larger than the FRS radios.  Motorola STILL can't make
a convenient sized rig to use.  We have an ASTRO 800 MHz trunked system
but the delay and lack of talk-around makes close range, constant comms
out of the question.  Also, if have had to haul around an 800 MHz Sabre
with the battery it requires, you know how worthless they are.