FRS Mini-Series: The Gear That Works (and What to Avoid)

[00:00:24] - [Speaker 0]
Alright. Welcome back into the PrepComms podcast. Hello. I'm Caleb Nelson, k four CDN. We're gonna continue our very short miniseries here regarding FRS radio.

[00:00:38] - [Speaker 0]
That's the family radio service we've talked about a couple of shows. You know, this is a service that we we've mentioned before. The federal government allowed, air quotes, for the populace, the general populace to use, kinda like CB, but not nearly as robust as CB radio for distance, but works really good close in. So, like, your neighborhoods, your backyard, parties, the park, maybe going to the shopping malls. We've used them at, theme parks, all sorts of places.

[00:01:12] - [Speaker 0]
So it's not the end all be all, but, really, I mean, guys, if if you're a family and you're looking for something, you're listening and you're just like, oh, this is so confusing. I just wanna be able to talk to my kids when they're not inside the house, or I just wanna start somewhere. Well, this is it. I mean, sincerely, these things can be had for so little money. So it's really like a no brainer not to have a couple at your house.

[00:01:37] - [Speaker 0]
So we're gonna talk about that today. Like, what works, what doesn't, and and what you can trust. And I'll I'll default at the beginning to to remind you that this is a mechanical device. It operates with electricity and batteries and whatnot, so they're gonna fail. They're not bulletproof by any stretch of the imagination, and they're not meant to be.

[00:01:57] - [Speaker 0]
That's why they're so affordable, and most everybody can afford at least one or two sets. So let's talk about it for just a few minutes here. Again, I'm Caleb. Thank you for coming by the Prep Comms podcast. If you're on social media, if you know this or not, I'm most active on Instagram and would like to, to have you join us over there.

[00:02:17] - [Speaker 0]
We we post a lot during the day and, have a pretty good time. We got a lot of lot of great friends on Instagram. That's air quotes, but there's some good dudes and gals over there. Come check us out. So these FRS radios are everywhere.

[00:02:29] - [Speaker 0]
Speaking of, I sent an email maybe last week, when you're listening to this in the, you know, present time, where I showed FRS radios at our local hobby megastore. You know, like, we have a Hobby Lobby in town. We have two, actually. And they're kinda like Michaels or or whatever you may have, you know, just painting and decor and and whatever. In the in the stem aisle, they had, you know, model rockets and paints and magnet kits and robot building sets and FRS radios for $15 a set.

[00:03:00] - [Speaker 0]
Now you had to buy additional batteries. They required four apiece, four double a's apiece, but the the thing is you can find these radios anywhere. We're gonna talk about that as we progress today. So you gotta kinda think about what's your goal with these radios? Why are you buying them?

[00:03:15] - [Speaker 0]
A lot of times, you'll find that the ones at Hobby Lobby are the ones that may be a a a discount dollar type store that you find. Maybe even the ones at Walmart in the kids section, you'll find them maybe Buzz Lightyear or, I don't know, Lego or somebody. They're gonna be very cute and fun looking. Maybe they're Barbie or whatever, but they're not gonna be very durable. So, like, you can buy them for your kids, and your kids can play with them for a while, and they may last years depending on your kids.

[00:03:44] - [Speaker 0]
But if they were, you know, rough and tumble kids, more than likely, they're gonna beat them to death in about two hours. So the ones that are kinda made cute and and chintzy for kids, they're gonna be less reliable down the road. Now I get it. Everybody wants to buy the fun one. Right?

[00:04:01] - [Speaker 0]
Everybody wants the the branded one that goes with their favorite action figure or gamer or whatever the kids like now. But just so you know, they're they're worth buying if you want them, but down the road, the durability may not be there. Another thing in regard, especially those, is the batteries. Those usually come with a fitted for a double a battery, and most of them take about three to four double a batteries, which is not a big deal until your kids leave them all in the drawer. And next time they go to use them, now they're digging through your battery cache.

[00:04:31] - [Speaker 0]
So it may be that you buy the cheaper radios and invest in some rechargeable batteries. You just have to teach your kids this stuff. I mean, I did. And and down the road, they got it. It took a little while, but, just make sure they don't throw the rechargeable batteries away.

[00:04:47] - [Speaker 0]
Don't ask me how I know. They're not the same. Mark them. Make them look different. Buy them a different color.

[00:04:54] - [Speaker 0]
Don't buy the same brand batteries so that they stand out to your kids. That that's just a little dad tip there. Here's the thing with kids' radios. They're gonna be really easy to use. They're gonna have a power button.

[00:05:05] - [Speaker 0]
They're gonna transmit button and usually a volume channel knob. Most of them will all have that. Some will be set up differently where the button will be on the front or the button will be on the side. If these are for your kids, make sure they're easy to use. You don't you don't make it any harder on them to contact you than whatever.

[00:05:22] - [Speaker 0]
But, again, if they're branded for kids, if they look like their favorite action hero, they're gonna be easy enough to use. One one of the other things that you'll notice in these kids style radios is sometimes the audio clarity is just not there. I mean, it might be that one of them sounds great and the other sounds like Charlie Brown's school teacher. And it's just because, again, the quality is not there, and the focus was built on the design, the aesthetic versus the actual use of the radio internals. Okay.

[00:05:53] - [Speaker 0]
So, bear that in mind. I I'm not trying to talk you out of buying the Buzz Lightyear walkie talkies. I'm just saying, buy those. Let your kids use them. Let them get used to having them around, but don't focus on those as a family.

[00:06:07] - [Speaker 0]
Like, if you're a parent, a grandparent, it's fun to have those at your house, but buy your set a nice set. Buy yourself a nice set of radios and, and have those around too so that you and papa can use them and and, you know, keep up with the kids. Alright. So, also, on these packages, if they're they're branded for kids or even if you'll find them in the sporting sporting goods sections, you'll see some of them will say these will talk twenty, thirty, 40 miles realistically. Okay?

[00:06:36] - [Speaker 0]
This is UHF, 440 type megahertz in there. You're gonna get about a half a mile maybe in the woods, maybe. In a neighborhood, depending on the topography of your neighborhood, you'll get a mile, maybe if you're lucky. Now if you're out in the middle of the desert where there's no, you know, nothing in the way, these things are so low powered, maybe a couple of miles. Right?

[00:07:02] - [Speaker 0]
And that's with nothing in between either of you. Now, again, that's not to knock on the FRS radios. That's just to tell you, hey. These are not ultra performer radios that are gonna talk across the country. Those don't exist in reality, but that's another story down the road.

[00:07:18] - [Speaker 0]
Listen. They're not gonna talk forever. They're not made to talk forever. They're made for family use, and most people think family use is the the nuclear family, the mom, the dad, and 1.5 kids, I think it is nowadays. I don't know how that works.

[00:07:37] - [Speaker 0]
And and, generally, they're in the same neighborhood, the same house, the same yard, the same whatever. So that's what these radios are really meant for, and they work great in that application. So you're gonna you're gonna find, again, these you're you're gonna find them everywhere, and you're gonna have to make a decision on what you wanna buy. Do you wanna buy them cute for the kids, or you wanna buy them to last? I say both, especially if you have kids or grandkids, maybe nieces and nephews.

[00:08:03] - [Speaker 0]
That way, they don't think, oh, this is some hokey looking papa radio. You know, this is this is cool. This is I don't even know what's cool anymore, but this is it. This is Star Wars. Okay?

[00:08:16] - [Speaker 0]
So you got Grogu and the Mandalorian walkie talkies for the kids to play with, and then you have some Motorola's or some Redevis or some some BTEC, something like that for yourself. You you're gonna you're immediately gonna be able to tell the difference when you pick the toy one up versus a better quality. You'll be able to tell that they weigh different. You'll be able to see see that the belt clips are gonna hold better. Again, most toy sets are double a powered, and then the better end sets are you're gonna find a rechargeable battery option.

[00:08:48] - [Speaker 0]
Sometimes they come with battery packs built in, and you can even buy, and I encourage you to, if you can find them, buy the additional spare battery pack. So you always have something to fall back. And remember, if you have one rechargeable battery pack and it fails, then you may as well throw your radio in the garbage. If you have a spare, now you're talking. Bad pun.

[00:09:11] - [Speaker 0]
Alright. Let's keep going. You'll also find, that the the toy ones are gonna break easier, which is I know it's nonsensical, but they do that so you'll go buy some more. And the the better quality sets, you know, the $40.50 dollar sets, they're gonna last longer. They're gonna be able to take the beating that the toy ones can't.

[00:09:28] - [Speaker 0]
So my family and I work in a summer camp in Nashville, Tennessee a couple of weeks out of the year every year. They ask, hey. What are some radios we could use? I gave some suggestions. They decided on the BTEC FRS alpha one.

[00:09:42] - [Speaker 0]
It's linked in the show notes, by the way. And this is my, like, primary pick for these radios. And the reason being is because they're using at the camp, they're using this particular radio to run the zip line, and that means they've got, between two and four people working, talking to each other with these radios. And they're, you know, college age, older high school kids, and they're not not rough on this stuff. I mean, it's, you know, 100 degrees outside.

[00:10:12] - [Speaker 0]
You got 30 kids at a time running the zip line. You're talking clear, go, send, whatever. And they're not taking them and laying them down nicely or anything like that. And so I say all that to say this. They bought them before camp started.

[00:10:25] - [Speaker 0]
They lasted the entire camp season, which unto itself is a miracle, and they're still going. Literally, I talked to John the other day. The radios are still going, and that that's awesome because, that tells you that these radios can take a beating. They they USB charge. You can replace the battery packs.

[00:10:44] - [Speaker 0]
BTech FRS alpha one. Link in the show notes. I've got some other suggestions in our blog post in the show notes as well. And and they go anywhere from the not necessarily the Lego Toy brand or, you know, the the the Walmart blister pack radios. A little tougher, but in the same price range, and I encourage you to check those out, especially if you got kids.

[00:11:05] - [Speaker 0]
Now, here we are in September 2025 to date the show. September every month, some people don't know this, is national preparedness month. And this is a time where the federal government says, hey. You know what? Everything may not stay the same.

[00:11:21] - [Speaker 0]
So we wanna encourage you to, you know, maybe think about buying some stuff or preparing for something, maybe doing something in advance. And then they want you to forget about it for the other eleven months out of the year for some reason. But that's okay. That's okay. It it is national preparedness month on Instagram.

[00:11:39] - [Speaker 0]
We're sharing stuff every day that may be a hint or a suggestion or whatever. We'll be blogging a little bit more this month as well, so make sure you check that out. And we finally got the replay, of the Family Connect webinar up. So if you are here and you're looking for a system for your family, we've talked about these little entry level radios over the last couple of shows, and now you're looking for some help to put a plan together to keep up with your kids with the radio or whatever. Family connect webinar, the system webinar is up and playing.

[00:12:10] - [Speaker 0]
There's a link in the share notes as well as our blog. Make sure you check it out. Really excited about that. That's the actual sponsor of the program now. That is a online training that I've developed that is, video, audio, all sorts of different mediums to help you and your family build a plan.

[00:12:28] - [Speaker 0]
You can check it out at Family Connect System dot com. That's the commercial, by the way. So FRS radio is really some are toys, some are not. Some are really well built, like, little radios that you can get your hands on, and you just have to decide what you want. You can't look at the package to make, oh, this one says 30 miles and this one says 37.

[00:12:50] - [Speaker 0]
No. Buy the quality. Buy this is funny. Buy one that you that's from a reputable dealer. Or if you don't know a reputable dealer and you're on Amazon, check the one check the reviews.

[00:13:02] - [Speaker 0]
It may have five stars, but if it's only one review, it doesn't matter. But if it's got four and a half stars with 3,000 reviews, that's probably a pretty good radio. I put some of those in the show notes. One of the things that I found with these radios is it's it was everything. People want cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap.

[00:13:20] - [Speaker 0]
They want the lowest price they can get. I understand it. Five kids, one income. Totally understand it. But sometimes you need to spend.

[00:13:26] - [Speaker 0]
And if you really want something that's gonna last, maybe you guys hike a lot. Maybe you, you know, you spend time at the racetrack, and you need something that's gonna be able to take a beating or, you know, be able to put up with something outside, Motorola makes some really great waterproof FRS radios linked in the show notes. I mean, they're a $100 a set, but, you know, I mean, they they'll last. They will last. And they're built, like, in a almost industrial type quality.

[00:13:53] - [Speaker 0]
They're not very sexy, and they're not very cool. Well, that depends on who's looking at it, but the the fact is they'll last. So I wanna encourage you check those out. Anyway, here's the deal. We're gonna continue one more show about FRS coming up next week.

[00:14:05] - [Speaker 0]
But here here's the thing. FRS radios are the best place to start for a family who needs a two way radio solution. There you go. I've said it. Now we're gonna talk about some better solutions in the future episodes.

[00:14:18] - [Speaker 0]
But if you don't have anything and you don't want a big CB radio and you don't wanna make that investment for the the antennas and whatnot, for the the Merge radios, or maybe you want something that's a little easier to obtain when your family goes to Target this weekend, FRS radios. You'll see them listed as FRS. You'll sometimes see them as family radios, sometimes low power radios. You know what a walkie talkie looks like. So I was at Target yesterday.

[00:14:44] - [Speaker 0]
They've got them. I had to pick up a mouse pad, but they've got them. So don't fret. Amazon is full of options. We have them in our store.

[00:14:51] - [Speaker 0]
We have them on our links. They're everywhere. They're easy to find, and they're very inexpensive. So if you and your family need a two way radio alternative method to communicate with each other, this right here is where to start. You don't have to go blow a bunch of money.

[00:15:05] - [Speaker 0]
No reason to spend a lot of money on this to start. Okay? Get your feet wet with something that's affordable and get the understanding. And and I know that sounds kinda funny to some of us listening to this program, But, guys, there are people out there who who didn't grow up with walkie talkies in their hands. They didn't grow up with dads who would go to Radio Shack and buy them stuff.

[00:15:24] - [Speaker 0]
They they they might not have grown up with a Radio Shack. So, you know, everybody's in a different spot, and I'm just trying to convey that this is a really good place to start. Alright? I'm gonna go, but I'll be back next time. Remember the show notes.

[00:15:35] - [Speaker 0]
We're also on YouTube. You guys know you can watch or listen to the show on YouTube, so make sure you check that out. I know a lot of people like to get information over there. So thank you again for being here. It's always fun.

[00:15:46] - [Speaker 0]
Remember, the family connect webinar is playing right now, and the link is in the show notes. I'll be back next time. We'll finish up with FRS, and we're getting ever so close to the new CB radio GMRS. We'll see you next time, guys. God bless seventy three y'all.