In the real world (including open flat urban areas in perfect weather with no interference) unless you're on a mountain you have to take the stated "36" mile range and divide that by 15 to get the actual range of this radio

Kept the group in contact and saved the day when severe weather broke and got everybody safely back to camp in time.

Great product, but don't trust the battery life indicator, especially in cold weather

I did get use out of the weather alert feature as it was able to alert us of a tornado warning and we were able to get to safety before the weather got really nasty.

Don't get me wrong, the battery life is excellent, but they'll go from a half charge indicated to dead in about 45min in cold weather.

the only thing I pick up is the weather station, 5his is just an expensive weather radio.

Great weather reports.

Also these have weather channels built in and you can set them to auto broadcast emergency weather info regardless of what channel you are on.

In a hilly forest, I can usually get around 1-2 miles (3-4 if I turn the auto squelch off), but while I'm flying, I can stay in contact for around 20 miles (when the weather is good)

Was a clear day so weather was not a issue.

All Hazard/Weather Alert, are "Currently Unavailable".

NOAA/All Hazard Weather Channels with Alert and Weather Scan- Meets the JIS4 Standard of exposure to heavy rain for 30 minutesCheck out the rest of the Top 5: http://boldlist.net/top-5-two-way-radios-under-100.php

I can be in the middle of nowhere and still get the weather loud and clear

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.