Reach Out and Touch Someone…Sort Of

When I was a kid, my dad built a CB radio from a kit and spent endless evenings chatting with strangers. I suppose it was the 1950s equivalent of instant messaging. I was not as fascinated with the technology as he was and to this day eschew instant messaging and cell phones. But when planning a move across the country, a move in which we would be driving two separate cars in caravan, my fiancee suggested that we find a way to communicate along the way, so I needed to revisit my ideas about communications technology.

So here’s the scenario: we’re crawling in rush-hour traffic through some sprawling Midwest city when a truck carrying plumbing fixtures merges between our two cars, and at a critical juncture, one car makes an exit while the other misses it. A disaster! If only we had some way to stay in touch. I remembered a trip last summer when two groups of friends used two-way radios (what’s wrong with calling them “walkie-talkies”?) to communicate between a caravan of three cars, so that’s the solution I proposed to my mate.

But which one? Have you searched the Internet for information on two-way radios? It’s nearly impossible to find unbiased opinions. And the model numbers change so frequently – and for no apparent reason – that the reviews you find are generally for obsolete products. At the risk of having this review fall into that category, let me tell you my experience with the Motorola Talkabout 5720 two-way radio set with rechargeable NiCad batteries.

We chose the 5720 because after many hours browsing the Net, we were no more certain of which model to buy than before; we were running out of time; and the 5720 was on the shelf in the store we went to. Not the best of reasons to choose a product, yet we ended up happy with our purchase. We never had to test out the “disaster” scenario, since neither of us got lost, but we used the radios every day on our trip across the country. Our conversations were mostly of the sort, “Can we stop at the next rest stop, please?” and “McDonald’s or Burger King?”, but sometimes we had something more interesting to say to each other. We usually talked at a distance of less than a mile, though once we tested the radios to 2 miles. And we always used just FRS.

FRS? This was our first confrontation with government acronyms in the two-way radio world. FRS, or Family Radio Service, are frequencies set up by the FCC specifically for low-powered two-way radio communication. The FCC presumably envisions parents keeping track of their kids at the mall or the lake. All modern two-way radios have channels 8 through 14 for FRS. In addition, many newer radios also have channels for GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) transmissions. GMRS uses slightly more power (1 watt versus 0.5 watt) to get a greater range. While FRS communications are limited to about two miles, GMRS is said to give you 5-7 miles. (In practice, those numbers are for perfect conditions “in line of sight”, and you should expect to get less performance.) So why wouldn’t everyone use GMRS? Here’s the kicker. To use GMRS, you’re supposed to have an FCC license, which costs 75 bucks for five years. Obviously, the radio manufacturers and stores are going to play down this little hidden expense. Most sales associates I talked with wouldn’t bring up the license until I specifically asked about it, and then they mumbled something about using FRS. One bold rogue suggested that we ignore the license and just use GMRS. “How are they going to catch you?” he asked. I wonder that myself. I picture squads of FCC agents in camouflage patrolling the roads and ski slopes ready to pounce on illicit GMRS transmissions. I don’t know. As I said, we used FRS and didn’t deal with it. But I will say that our contingency plan – remember our disaster scenario – called for switching to our own pre-agreed emergency channel: GMRS 21.

So the 5720 comes with a full complement of 22 channels: 1-7 and 15-22 are 1 watt and 8-14 are 0.5 watt. You can set your two radios to any of these and talk to each other. Since other people might have the same idea, in a crowded area you might run into other traffic on the airwaves. So this radio has a bunch of “interference eliminator codes”, essentially a sub-channel that you can choose to try to get some free airspace for the pair of you. Note that if you set the interference code to 0, you can communicate with older radios that don’t use these codes.

You set the channel and interference code with a menu on the small LCD screen, and this is my major complaint about this radio: I have trouble reading the screen. But my eyes are great, so other people might not have this problem. The menu is reasonably easy to use, but the owner’s manual is really quite poorly written, so you might spend some time figuring out how everything works. Here’s a nice feature: once you get the radio set up with the channel and code and such, you can lock the menu so that you don’t accidentally change the settings.

After all this preamble, let’s talk about actual performance. I think audio quality is a subjective measurement, and that’s why we see widely disparate reviews of two-way radios. I had no problems with the audio performance of the 5720. In my noisy car, I could still understand my partner most of the time, and when I missed a word or two, I could ask her to repeat. The large volume control right on top was handy for adjusting the set; I ended up cranking up the volume most of the time. I’ve seen some reviews of Motorola products suggesting that the NiCad versions of the radios have poorer audio performance than the ones that use three AA batteries, and that’s just plain bizarre. I wish someone would examine this claim.

One feature I particularly liked was the “call tone”. Normally, the radio sat on the seat beside me. If my partner wanted to talk, she’d first press a button on her radio to send a call tone, basically like a telephone ringing. (This radio has 10 different call tones you can choose from, if you’re that kind of person.) I would acknowledge the call, and we’d have our conversation. If she’d just started talking, I might not have heard the first part of the conversation over the background noise. The radios also transmit an “end of message” tone, so you don’t get to say “over” after you’re finished talking. We’ve come a long way from those 1950s CB days.

I was concerned about battery life. We were often on the road 10-12 hours, and I didn’t want to run out of power at the end of the day (right at the disaster scenario). But the radios never let us down. Though we usually recharged the batteries at night, a few times we went two days without recharging and had no problems. I didn’t test the maximum endurance of the NiCad batteries. Apparently, there’s a low-battery indicator on the LCD screen, but of course I can’t see it. I thought the flashing LED light meant the battery was low, but I think it just means the radio is on. Such are the mysteries that could be solved by a better manual. One complaint about the batteries: it’s hard to fit them into the case. I hope I never had to get them out.

Other features I never use:

* QT Noise Filtering. This is like a squelch that blocks all transmissions from radios other than your partner’s. I never heard any other transmissions, so this wasn’t an issue.

* Voice Activation. You can buy optional accessories that lets you use the radio hands-free. I didn’t want to be wired to a headset all day.

* Sensitivity settings. If you use voice activation, you don’t want random noises turning on the radio, so you can set the sensitivity of the activation. This is getting too esoteric for me.

* Belt clip. I don’t wear a belt.

* Interchangeable face plate. I don’t need my radio to match my skiis.


Please note: This review is for the 5720 radio with rechargeable NiCad batteries, which costs about $20 more than the same radio that runs on three AA batteries.