Ahah, sounds like a challange for my PIC board..

I can recommend the Midland GXT800 or GXT900 radios. Those are available from Amazon and other sources.
I have had a set of the GXT800 "2-way radios" for a couple of years, and have been happy with them.
For the price, they seem to have a lot of features, a few of which are: can operate on GMRS or FRS, receives NOAA Weather radio, charger stand included. One "backup" feature I really like is that you can use the rechargeable battery, or power the radios with standard AA batteries.
Pay no attention to the stated 26 mile range (or whatever the package claims). You might get that range on a lake, or under special circumstances. But, in most instances, if you hike to the other side of the ridge, or generally put too many obstacles between the 2 radios, your communication will be lost.

Man, I sold all my pic stuff a few years ago, should have kept it

About 9 years ago I did a true range test with Motorola Talkabout FRS radios. The comparison was against a handheld CB radio paired with a car CB radio.

I put my father on top of the local earthen dam then drove away from him using GPS to check distance.

The CB was unusable at 1/4 mi. (summer daytime)

The Talkabouts were still working full quieting at 7 miles.(True line of sight.)

Have also used it to stay in touch with him while I climbed a mountain. He stayed in the valley bottom and fished. Probably had 2 mile range.

Any obstructions such as trees or building materials would drastically reduce range.

I don't know the specifics of the brands but FRS is really convenient and quite efficient so long as you completely comprehend the limitations of Line Of Sight.
(It's what CB should have been all along.)

Well, I was referring to Motorola's Eavesdrop Reducer Technology, which is a very basic analog inversion scrambler of sorts available on their FRS/GMRS radios (like the T6220 model). Voice inversion is an archaic and simple form of encryption, but not entirely effective. The FCC concluded there was just enough intelligence in the transmission that it wouldn't be considered illegal, but a casual listener is not going to be able to follow the conversation that well. I know because I've tried. This form of inversion is quite old, simple, and can be found in many higher end FRS/GMRS radios. Let's make this quite clear, analog inversion of this nature is not the same thing as private tone, PL tone, CTCSS, or any other control tone or digital control tone scheme. It is a processing of the audio signal that alters the content of the audio intelligence, not just adding a low frequency tone to the mix. Digital filters and trunking are something entirely different also. There are also a whole host of public agencies that can and do use some form of encryption, usually digital. DES is supposed to be only for the Federal Government use, but you will find DES units at hamfests on a regular basis. There are also a number of industrial two way communications using DVP encryption, which is perfectly legal.

Here's a site that talks a bit about basic encryption. http://www.fordyce.org/scanning/scanning_info/encrypt.html

I used to do a lot of work on DES encrypted radios for the Feds, and we had some more complicated analog encryption add-ons for a couple of metro drug and undercover units that we put together for local police departments. I also recall adding a couple of split double inversion sweep tone encryption circuits to some industrial radios, but that was way back in the 80s. Stepping into the wayback machine, I saw some pretty interesting encrypted stuff in the Navy, but I was a spook back then, and the Russians were trying everything they could think of to keep our nose out of their business.

If I had my druthers, I would use spread spectrum transmissions for all my communication needs. Who needs encryption when your signal is bouncing over a 100 Mhz band unpredictably?

I've had four of the Kenwood UBZ-LF14 FRS radios for years and they have been great.

http://www.gearqueen.com/gear/comm/2004-04-kenwood-ubz-lf14.html

This model is no longer made, but I think the replacement is the LH14. I bought my FRS radios from here: http://www.bills2way.com/ that was many years ago, but I think they're still in business. Their website is still there.

Get a high mile rating 18 or higher. Sets of these are often available on ebay, too.

Thanks for the recommendation. I also found a great website that also provided a lot of really good detail. http://www.twowayradioforum.com/forum/index.php

I see they rate the Midland GTX900 as well as the Cobra LI72002WXVP and the Motorola TALKABOUT T9500XLR very highly. The Midland seems to have more features than the Cobra model and cheaper but the Cobra model has awesome battery life. The Midland is more flexible with its power options however and can use either 4-AA or the rechargeable battery pack. The 20 "extra" channels on the Midland are actually preset FRS/GMRS channels with preset codes. Nothing more than what you already have except the quick setting of these channels! A chart mapping the channels/codes has been published on the above website.

I've got a bit more price/feature shopping to do but I expect that with Christmas around the corner, that sales of these radios may be coming very soon.

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BTW, in Canada, we do not have the GMRS licensing restrictions you have in the States. GMRS radios up to 2 watts output (not input) do not require any licensing.

And yes, I don't believe the stated range for a moment! Not unless you are calling from mountain top to mountain top with clear line of sight!

Not exactly true - Mpst police CAN, but choose not to



There is some debate on this - IF you are using a "Known algorythem" and transmit the KEY in the clear, it seems that the FCC considers this to no longer be encrypted, but the average user is NOT capable of decoding - but, as I said, your ID and key have to go 'in the clear'



As I said, Police, Fire etc have no problem getting permission to go encrypted, it's just it's a hassle to do so, so they usually only do it for "tactical" police channels - I own at least for radios capable of AGIS encription, and folks wouldn't be buying a multi hundred dollar option if they weren't using it

Well I clearly stand corrected on the encryption component. Finding information on the web for PIC boards, NPV and AGIS is scarce, but I guess I've never been exposed to them before this. Sounds like something to read up on.