Two way radios

[mfeliciano]

were can I get a good and reasonably priced two way radio that would work great at the parks? I'm not a high tech person, so I'm not looking for a fancy gadget, just a good one whith a great price tag, let's say under $50.00:confused:

[Fortgoofy97]

We picked the Motorola Talkabouts a few years ago. They worked pretty good throughout WDW. We picked ours up at BestBuy. They were not that expensive, if I recall about $25-35. You do not need any fancy features on the phones, the biggest decision would be to get phones with rechargeable batteries and chargers already with the phones or get individual batteries. Ours had 10 channels and then 30 subchannels. We had a main channel but sometimes others were using the same channels so we always had backups, usually birthdates and always said "Switch to Mom's date" or whomevers date. You should definitely be able to find some for less than $50. Try looking online at Walmart, Bestbuy, Circuit City, Target or even Radio Schack. We no longer use ours since everyone has a cell phone!

[wendy*darling]

You should be able to get them just about anywhere these days- Target, Walmart, etc. or online (search google).

If you use them, be aware they will only work within a park- not throughout all of WDW. So plan to be in the same park when you want to communicate. There is always the problem of interference- but just have a list of backup channels to use.
If one of you is inside a ride or building, you probably will not be able to get through.

We find cell phones to be so much more convenient. If one person is inside, at least we can leave a message. And you can set them to vibrate, so they don't make so much noise.

[Bruegge]

I posted a similar question a month ago.. Most people said they use their cell phones to stay in touch.

I asked how sprint works in the parks and all responses were positive. If you feel you must go with 2-ways MAKE SURE they have the "quiet codes" or "sub frequencies" a straight 10 or 13 "Family Channnel" 2 way will have too many people on the same channel ... You will be constantly picking up other people and thinking it's your party calling you.

Quiet codes offer (usually 30) different "channels" off of each main Freq. So if you pick channel 7 with Quiet code 19 ..... you will have a much higher degree of privacy

Scott

[vamaggie]

We have found that cell phones work much better than the 2 ways.(we may even buy one of the throw away cells for DS10 just for our trip so he can wander the resort w/o us if he wants) If you don't all have cell phones, make sure the radios you get have enough channels to switch to so you don't get cross talk. When we use our 2 ways, we try to pick a channel & frequency that is not too common.

[2Epcot]

We used 8 radios on my last visit. As others have said you need to get a radio with several channels and sub channels/quiet codes. Avoid the most common frequencies. Try to think of something you think most people wouldn't use. We had very little interference during our week, but we were not using codes like channel 1, code 0 either. I have various Motorola Talkabout series radios I've purchased at different times over the last 10 years.

[Brenle]

I agree. Everyone and their mother has a two-way and you constantly hear someone else's conversation. I always use a cell phone. You can be secure in knowing your call will get through - to the person you're trying to reach. We have Nextel/Spring and had a perfect signal the whole time.

[MsMin]

We've switched from radios to cell phones too. Even when the crowds are down and there is little interference the problem we had was that you couldn't leave a msg and we often missed the call b/c we were in a show or ride. While you could "buzz" the other party there is nothing like leaving a msg. With a cell phone you can text or leave a voice mail and you know they will get the msg (most of the time). We use sprint and have free sprint to sprint so it works well for us.