Yesterday while at the Aurora Village Costco we made an impulse purchase of
a Motorola Talkabout twin-pack T5710 FRS/GMRS radios for $49.95. Not a real
impulse as we have looked at the FRS radios a bit. The T5710 has the same
specifications as the T5720 (below) except the T5710's twin pack comes with
a pair of earbud's with microphone and a second pair of different colored
faceplates. The spec's of the radios are the same so I don't know why the
different model number:

http://commerce.motorola.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=25535
3&prmenbr=126&twoway_cgrfnbr=9&zipcode=

We used the radios this morning and are quite happy with their performance
when just using the FRS channels so may not bother with getting a license to
use the GMRS channels. This appears to be a great buy for a starter set.

I had a link to a web site about FRS radios I believe I picked up from
Tweeters however, the web site no longer exists. Would someone that is into
amateur radio and/or know of radio clubs please email me? Would like to get
more information (like the birding channels) and the kids would like be able
to radio some other kids (like in a club). Thanks!

One of the features the radios have is scanning all the channels. Even
though our house is in a ravine (with no line-of-sight to anywhere) we were
picking up folks at the auction at Murphy's Auction, the Summer Brewfest at
St. Edwards Park, and boats going in and out of the Kenmore Marina.

I believe it was at St. Edwards Park but may have been Kenmore Park that a
couple of women (mom's) were discussing how many people were out and how the
kids were having fun on the climber. There was also some discussion of how
the eagles (at least three) were hanging out watching the activity in the
park. The kids were playing around at the top of the slide, then decided to
all shoot down the slide at once. The kids started screaming and were
attempting to stop and go back up the slide. The one mom went over and
discovered a couple of live fish wiggling on the slide. Since the eagles had
been seen periodically with fish during the day she was quite sure the
eagles dropped the fish. A little while later another fish fell next to the
slide. Apparently they were good sized fish and in good shape as the mom was
taking them home and talking (joking) about coming back to the park at a
later date in hopes to get more.

Bruce McKenzie
Kenmore, WA USA
mailto:bmsh.mckenzie at gte.net