The Bottom Line: You're a gimmick freak, this is your radio. The NOAA feature is nice if you have the patience to use it. Avoid this radio if you have children.

Audiovox tried too hard to pack too many features into one two-way radio with too few buttons. More about this later.

I had hoped for a radio with more range. I thought the advertised 7 mile range might reach 4 miles and found that 2 miles on flat terrain is pushing it. Standing on one hill top I succeeded in talking line-of-sight to the other radio at a distance of just over 3-1/2 miles.

The sound quality is good with adequate volume. The units have back-lighting which allows for night operation. The push to talk button is located just below the antenna and allows for accidental transmissions when placed in pockets or rubbing against clothing.

The recharging rack that is available in the more expensive package is a MUST. Trying to dig out and recharge five AAA batteries from each radio is a headache.

The radio is packed with features (10 in all) which are accessible only by pushing one MODE button. Getting to learn all the features and then using them takes one over 45 minutes before the selections become familiar. The control lock feature is combined with the power button. This feature is inconvenient at best because you end up locking and unlocking the mode switch while turning the radios on and off.

The NOAA weather band is also hidden in the mode switch and usually rewards the operator with a blast of static if buttons are pushed out of sequence. One radio would not get out of the weather band and required the removal of a battery to shut off the radio. Guess what: dead radio, you get to reset all the desired features, channel and volume all over again.

The two-way radio is child unfriendly. I spent far too much time resetting the radios and trying to get two ten-year-olds to understand why they shouldn't play with the power button. Remember, the control lock is located there.