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List Price: $59.95
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We purchased these to use on a cruise we were taking. When they first arrived there were several things I was grateful for. They fit very nicely in your hand and are easy for kids and adults to use. The charging plug uses one outlet but charges both devices at the same time (which is huge on a cruise ship with limited outlets).
Trying them out around town and they worked great. I sure wasn't going 20 miles but had no trouble going a couple of miles in the suburbs. On the cruise ship I was surprised at just how well they worked. We were unable to go from the top deck to the very bottom deck but could get pretty close. It made the whole trip much easier with less planning.
They provide lots of functions with a wide variety of channels and we never had an issue. The lock feature was nice so the kids didn't accidentally change channels but you do need to remember to unlock it before you are able to turn it off.
Overall, a great value for the cost, if your looking for long distances you will need to spend more.
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First off, anyone who knows radios knows no radio of this size and output can achieve the range they claim in the city, mountains, or forested areas. If you are on a lake, you can expect very good range. Anywhere else, forget it. So, I didn't expect anything else from these.
These are my third pair of Cobras. I bought my first pair 8 years ago and they are still working well. I keep them for emergency communication for our neighborhood's disaster preparedness committee. In our last mock exercise we used them to coordinate neighbor safety checks up to a range of two miles. They worked quite well.
Cobra is a well made radio. My only dislikes in the 225's are:
#1the volume control button. I prefer the kind with a volume knob on the top to turn the volume up and down with a twist of a knob, like my first and third pair have, and these radios are a little small for my big hands. Other than that, they are as good as any other I have had.
#2Cobra has downsized the batteries from AA to AAA making battery change-outs more frequent than before.
#3The rechargeable batteries are useless, in my opinion, especially in the field where recharging is not an option. First, they take way too long to charge in-radio, and they die quickly. I use alkaline batteries exclusively. I buy a brick of batteries at Costco. Much better in my opinion. If you insist on rechargeables, then buy another set and a charger for them to keep on charge while you wear down the current set in less than 8 hrs (standby time).
#4Unlike some (much) more expensive hand held radios, you cannot use your Cobras while they are on the charger. That's too bad because these radios make excellent VOX operated "baby" monitors. Our ten year old granddaughter recently had back surgery requiring her to stay in bed upstairs for several days. The batteries always died overnight, so she had to wake up and send her little sister downstairs to get her mother or dad. Plugging them in renders them useless, so again we resorted to high quality alkalines.
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Edit after 1 week of use: I've upped my rating from 2 stars to 3. Read on for details...
As others have mentioned, these radios, like all other FRS radios, won't communicate further than 2-3 miles in hilly terrain when used in FRS mode (note that these radios do have a more powerful "GMRS" mode that will probably allow communication over greater distances, but which requires an FCC license to use!)
The rechargeable batteries (300 mAh each) included with these radios are pitifully weak they do not last a full day when the radio is used continuously. I have ordered a set of Eneloop Batteries (800 mAh each almost 3 TIMES the capacity of the originals!) to replace them, but suspect the radio's charger probably won't work with the eneloops, due to a sensor contact in the battery compartment to sense only the ORIGINAL batteries. I will update this review once I find out for sure.
Setting these radios up to work with other FRS radios is not as complex as I had originally thought, PROVIDED YOU READ THE MANUAL IN DETAIL! The trick is understanding that there are TWO DIFFERENT TYPES of privacy codes (CTCSS codes and DCS codes)! Setting up channel 11 to use digital code 27 is not enough; you have to be sure the 27 you've selected is the same privacy code TYPE used on your other radios!
The squelch on these units should be adjustable. Granted there's a way to manually disable the squelch, but it's clunky and a squelch adjustment would be much better.
I don't like the fact that the charger plugs into the headphone jack! So you cannot use/listen to these radios while they are charging!
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I have two pretty significant gripes with these radios for use on the FRS band that you'll definitely want to consider before you make your purchase. Note that I did NOT use the radios on the more powerful GMRS band.
I bought these radios to use while skiing with my parents and brothers families. We like to be able to ski separate trails, then hook up back at the bottom, and FRS radios are GREAT for this. Both brothers and my Dad already had various other FRS radios, so I bought these assuming they'd be easy to set up to the same channel and code as everyone else's. Bad assumption. The instructions are not super-clear, and there's a single "Mode" button that forces you to cycle through every setting just to make a change to the setting you're interested in. Add to that the fact that the instructions are very brief, and there's nothing explaining how to match these radios to other FRS radios and you can plan for this to take at least an hour and probably more time than that (if you're ever able to get them to talk to the other brand radios)!
After much frustration I finally managed to get them working with everyone else's. I then plugged the radios in and charged them overnight (about 12 hours). In the morning when I left to ski, my radio indicated a full charge. By 3 PM the radio was nearly dead. But not quite dead... I could still receive, but could not transmit; instead of transmitting, the radio double-beeped at me whenever I pressed the transmit key. As a result, I was unable to hook back up with my ride at the end of the day, and had to resort to paying $11 at the base lodge ski shop for 4 AAA Duracels with which I was able to connect back up and get a ride home.
One other annoyance is that when the radios are in "Locked" mode (which prevent accidentally changing the settings) you can't tune to the weather band you have to "unlock" the radio to listen to the weather.
I'm charging these radios again tonight, this time with them turned off (I think they were on while charging last night)... so we'll see if they last any longer... but until I find out for sure, I'm carrying my $11 spare Duracell AAA batteries with me...
Honest reviews on Cobra MicroTalk CXT225 20-Mile 22-Channel FRS/GMRS Two-Way Radio
I have been using this product for a while, and it is working fine, except for the range is no where near the 20 miles. I would say it works within 1 mile, and that's about it. Otherwise, it is a good product with no other problems.
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I received these only yesterday, and tried them out right away. I'm impressed by their look and feel. They're very compact, the buttons are all rubber, and the screen is clear and easy to read, especially when its' display light is on. This radio is very easy to figure out. The mode/power and channel buttons are used to change almost all of the settings. When broadcasting, a volume setting of about 6 (out of 8 max) is loud enough to hear my broadcasts from other radios very well. The wx band has MUCH higher volume than communication bands. Do yourself a favor, and before switching to the weather band, TURN THE VOLUME DOWN. I almost broke my eardrums by leaving the volume on 8 while switching to wx.
After 10 seconds of no communication, these go into battery saver mode. The manual says they go 8 hrs on a full charge. I read 10 hours on a review posted by an owner. The only thing I don't like about these radios, is the fact that there is no battery life indicator. The only thing it has is a low battery level indicator. So until the included rechargeable AAA batteries hit that low power, you have no idea where they're at. The batteries take 15hrs to fully recharge.
I tested the range of these only slightly. I communicated to someone in my house while i walked approximately .4 of a mile on a winding road down a very steep hill , with tall trees, terrain, and apartment buildings as obstacles. In other words, in no way was it line of sight. My voice was clear for the person all the way on both frs and gmrs channels.
Finally, the length, including the antenna, is about 5.75 inches. The body alone is about 3.90 inches, and the width at its' widest point is 2.50 inches. I would definitely recommend these radios, as they are inexpensive, and surpass my expectations. I plan on using these for shopping trips with family, and while caravanning.
