This was amazing tech for me in the mid 90's. A CB radio that I could carry in my hand that was crystal clear when talking to peeps? I could use it inside buildings without any interference? If someone was 5 car lengths behind, they could still hear me without an external antenna? What kind of mystery machine (You Can Do) magic is this? The FRS radio! (Family Radio Service)

Motorola was pretty much the go-too radio when these first came out. Although Radio Shack helped FRS come along. When I went to fan conventions,  these could broadcast in a hotel and you could hear someone 10 floors up with perfect clarity. HOLY S**T! We're standing on the F**King MOON! Plus, unlike CB's in the 70's, you didn't need a federal license to own one of these magic Star Trek communicators. Of course, I think the use of foul language or the picking up of lot lizards for a "cuppa coffee" was frowned upon.

After seeing how good these could be, I broke out $40 at a K-Mart somewhere on the way home from Memphis, Tenn. (Maybe in Nashville.) It took 3 AA batteries. Damn, why not 4? Please? 6V rather than 4.5V? Can anybody hear me? Oh yeah, now they are all lithium and recharged by plugging it into your computer. Of course, try and replace those...

Certainly rides too and from conventions became a better amusement when you could constantly chatter with the other vehicles with the help of these. Tell your friends you are stopping for a squirt, or getting some eats, or doing both. (Wash hands after use.) This Motorola was a pretty damn good radio but trouble started after I dropped it. Then the antenna became sort of loose. Ahh, but when the on/off knob started making noise and then crapped out every now and then, it was time to replace it.

3 AA batteries. (grumble) See above. You see, it was about three years when we really got a lot of use out of these at conventions. I'd wake in the morning and turn it on and have fun with the 14 other people that were on the same channel. Being a broadcaster at heart, it was always fun to fart or burp or fake *censored* for the unexpecting listeners. They seemed to be used for "Where you at? We're going for food".  Sometimes the were used to announce on every channel "Star Trek Duckman will be showing for the 47th time in the movie room in 5 minutes..."

Prices on these radios were dropping quite a bit so when my Motorola started to spew, I spent $30 for a pair of "Bell South" FRS. 2 radios cheaper than the one radio I had bought a few years previous. Amazing.  This way, if you didn't have your own FRS for our trek, I could loan you one.

Look! It's Mr. Fat Hand. Wave hello Mr. Fat Hand! These worked really well but lacked the overall quality of the Motorola. Yeah, I'm sure when they design any hand held device, they suppose that the user will always have a firm grip on the device and NEVER drop it. Geeze, only now have some cell phones started to become more rugged. If you want a laptop that can withstand Armageddon, you'll pay $3000 for the Panasonic Toughbook. If you want a cam that goes underwater, you'll pay $300-500 for it. Cell phone companies have made the glass front of their cell phones so much better, but I can't tell you how many I've seen with their smart phones with a cracked screen. Hell, I even broke the screen on my first Kodak digicam and in 2006, it was still pretty expensive to replace the screen, so I bought the same model.  So, I can't fault Motorola for my first FRS going POO POO after a little BOO BOO.

FOUR "AAA" batteries. At least it was a little better, but still, AAA batteries don't have much life... I did like the ease of popping off the belt clip. On the Motorola, you needed to take off the belt clip to change the batteries. It was a pain to take off. Motorola designs did that well. You wore it on your waist and it didn't come off. These Bell units has a little push button latch to take off the battery cover, and you didn't need to take it off to change the batteries. (Likely because you had too change the AAA batteries three times as much.) Plus, the antenna was more sturdy and there was no rotary switch to turn these on/off and adjust the volume. Push button bay-bee.

Just three or four years later after FRS made a huge splash in the convention world, everybody got cell phones. That was that. It seemed overnight, nobody was using these anymore. Of course, I'm a cheapdog. I got a cell phone, but it's prepaid and plays Tetris. Still have it. Still use it. No smart phone nonsense for me. One of these FRS radios got dropped and started acting "funny" so I now have 1 1/2 FRS radios that I never use, but I did use them once in the last five years. Boomer's car blew an alternator, so we got him a new battery and we limped his car home from Cleveland to Pitt. Other than that? Junk.  A brief piece of history that faded. Sure they have radios now with more channels and some that can get five miles... Junk. Don't leave a message on my cell, I forgot the password and they wouldn't reset it.

Arf! -Ricochet