and I would imagine if it was open terrain we would have had better range, but for this test we ended up 1 mile apart before we totally lost contact, and the radio was breaking up at 3/4 of a mile

Testing them in my neighborhood which has no large trees and for the most part pretty level terrain, less than 1/2 mile from my home I lost all contact with the other party.

In the city i lost contact after 1 1/2 mile

Other than the cheap-o earpiece and mic attachment - these little babies pack a punch, feel excellent in the hand, great sound, long battery life with rechargeable batt-pack, multi-function, FRS/GMRS with incredible range in urban setting.

Highly recommend A++++++

It's not as flexible or soft as you'd hope considering not all ears are created equal

Radios worked as or better than expected

a waysI don't know about the 36 miles range, but they sure work well at 3-4 miles range in the woods, as well as in a big concrete and steel building in a metropolitan area.

They helped to facilitate intermittent conversation between my wife and I as we travelled across the great expanses that makeup our great country.

I use our radios at our cabin in the mountains as well as on job sites.

but these are not to bad as we have gotten use to then

They won't work nearly as well as much more expensive HAM hand held radios but they generally allowed communication when we tried.

We have 2 with extra batteries, highly recommended as they work great for what they were designed to do.