Hi Tweets:
Amazon (I have no business interest in their company) is doing a one-day sale on good Motorola walkie-talkies. The kind I have, as do many birders is the Motorola Talkabout. On sale is Talkabout model MJ27OR, 22-mile FRS-GMRS, on sale for $43.19 per pair. You can read the customer reviews for the various models (so don't buy the little, bright-blue cheaper Motorolas). Here is a link to the Amazon sale page.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=amb_link_355037382_3?ie=UTF8&node=172654&hidden-keywords=B000CNAEEW%7CB00365E1H4%7CB001RHS8IQ%7CB001WMFYH4%7CB001UE6MJ8%7CB0039YON5C%7CB000065DQ1%7CB001UE6MIY&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=0QZ59CF15WWTW9PJSERG&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1286143922&pf_rd_i=172526
Since you need a licence to use the longer-range GMRS, most of us use FRS w/ range of about 2 miles, provided you don't have a mountain between cars, or something. You can talk car-to-car on the road, "sharpie at 9 o'clock", or person to persons in the field. For longer distance than 2 miles, we use cell phones.
These radios have 22 channels, with 38 codes (sub-channels), giving hundreds of possible channels to use. The universal Birders' Code in the USA is chan. 11, code 22. Sometimes you can go to an area where people are looking for a sought-after bird, turn on your radio to the birders' code, listen in, and find out where the bird is being seen.
I use alkaline batteries, not rechargeables. The alkaline batteries last longer, about 2.5 days of steady use at 12 hours per day. Folks who use rechargeables get less time than this, and always seem to be fishing for batteries. The radios tell you when the batteries are low. I have a $10. Radioshack battery tester at home, and can get more use from the batteries that way.
The sale is supposed to be just this morning, 10AM-2PM for free shipping. Don't ask for speeded-up shipping, or you will pay more. This price is good all day at least. Earlier in the month I noticed these radios were the same price on Amazon as this sale price.
Yours, Carol Schulz
Des Moines
carol.schulz50 at gmail