Cobra 23mile two way weather radio review.

[Crabber85]

I've had a set of these model CXT-395, I bought them at Wal*Mart back around October of 2013 and have used them pretty extensively and so feel pretty comfortable doing a product review now.I've always been a two way radio geek since I got my first set of Batman toy two way's back in the 90's and my enthusiasm grew from there.I've had four different sets of consumer grade two way radios, 2004 Audio-Vox 5mile radios, 2007 8mile Unidens, 2010 19mile Midlands and now the 23mile Cobra Micro Talks.The battery life on any one of the above mentioned brands of two way radios is typically about six hours with constant use even with the battery saver feature turned on and using the hand sets in low power mode.The Cobras cost the most about fifty dollars but I got mine on sale for thirty due to hunting season discounts at the time.These radios are the only ones I've owned so far that had NOAA weather radio built in which is what sold me because I needed that feature because we use the built in digital converters on our T.V's to get free T.V so our reception isn't always the best especially during bad storms and because our power has a tendency to go out during these storms I figured having a good quality cheaper weather radio on hand wouldn't be such a bad idea.Any consumer two way radio is only going to get between a half mile to a mile reception range in regular two way mode but if they include a weather radio feature they can get up to a sixty mile reception range due to the wattage used by the transmitter tower.The mile rating for possible reception listed on the packaging for these handsets is actually completely misleading because these units use such low power typically less than half a watt that even in a perfect line of sight scenario they still wont get anywhere near the range that the manufacturer claims.I don't think that there is one consumer grade two way radio available on the market that doesn't use the FRS/GMRS radio bandwidths and GMRS is supposed to have a greater range due to the fact that it uses higher wattage power on to transmit.GMRS stands for General Mobile Radio Service and is used by law enforcement and other government agencies which is why the FCC is of now still requiring that you be licensed to broadcast on these frequencies and it costs around $100 for a five year license, the FCC is currently thinking about doing away with the licensing requirement for consumer grade two way radios since these units don't transmit on a high even power level and because the vast majority of two way radio users don't ever obtain the license and therefor don't pay the fee they just operate the GMRS channels illegally for the simple reason that the licensing fee is ridiculously high and the FCC is not currently enforcing the regulation because they have much bigger fish to fry.There was a myth making the rounds out there on the wide wide world of the web that the FCC had agents in the field using sniffer units that could track and triangulate your position while you were broadcasting so that they could find you and bust you and this is absolutely false the only way you could possibly be busted is if another radio user who is operating on a particular channel legally with the proper call sign hears you and you tell him/her where you are.There are a few hard nosed radio operators out their that will do whatever it takes to stop bubble pack radio users ie somebody like me who only uses low wattage cheaper two ways from transmitting on their precious frequencies, these are the guys and gals who are into operating ham radios and CB setups and can broadcast for hundreds of miles in large part they can't stand us because they consider us to a nuisance problem.I was doing a daily radio scan on both the FRS and GMRS channels just to see what kind of radio chatter was going on and I picked up two farmers on their ham radios across the county and we are talking a range in excess of five miles so they were transmitting with enough power that I was able to pick them up on a GMRS channel and yes you can legally listen on GMRS channels with no license you just can't transmit back so I just listened and the conversation they were having was hilarious then a really bad thunder storm swept in driving in a lot of static interference and I lost reception though I did make a note of the particular channel for future reference.I only ever operate on the FRS or Family Radio Service which uses frequencies that transmit at a very low wattage less than half a watt so the range is literally a half mile in the best conditions line of sight and best of all its free no license is required and it serves my needs when I need to use the radios to communicate between cars or if I'm out camping and need to keep in contact with the other members of the party.The Cobra line of two way radios is pretty high quality and very rugged and durable they feel good in the hand easy to use and they are not overly complicated to setup and use even though they are jammed packed with extra features.The audio quality is comparable to that of a two or three hundred dollar handset very clear and easy to transmit on whether your using the PTT or Press To Talk button or the Vox/ voice activated feature.The unit I have has a power save feature that reduces the units power consumption when its in standby which allows you to continue to monitor the channel but saves on battery usage.The screen has a nice green back light which makes it easy to read and the unit even has a range extender feature which pushes the max range of reception to another mile or mile and half depending on the transmit conditions which is nice when you need to squeeze a little more range out of the unit in an emergency situation.The model I have is weather proofed so wet weather is not so big an issue though they are not water proofed taking them kayaking or boating may not be the best idea.lolThe battery life is the only con I have with these radios Cobra choose to use a lighter weight rechargeable AA battery that doesn't quiet seem to hold the charge as long or as well as I'd like though six hours isn't bad I would have loved to have seen this battery life time extended another tow or three hours.All in all I'm pretty happy with the purchase and if anybody is looking into getting a good quality cheaper set of two way radios that have NOAA weather radio you definitely can't go wrong with the Cobra brand.I forgot to mention that the belt clips that come with this radio aren't the best design I ended up breaking mine early on because they are proprietary slip and lock I would have rather seen a universal clip mount so that any two way radio belt clip could have been used but unfortunately they chose to use a proprietary design which means getting replacements isn't going to be very easy as you'd have to go through the manufacturer to obtain them.

[Crabber85]

You can get up to ten hours of use out these units if you use standard Alkaline AA batteries and I prefer the Energizer Lithium AA because they last a lot longer in the device and can be stored for up to ten years before they start to loose charge of course they are a bit more expensive but the price is far outweighed by the benefits.I should also like to mention that over seas FRS/GMRS two way radios are illegal to own or operate as the governments over there have set aside a different set of frequencies for two way radio use so using FRS/GMRS enabled radios is against the law as they interfere with local law enforcement and government agency radio communications.You can however use certain FRS/GMRS channels in Canada for free as they don't have the same licensing requirements.