My wife & I keep an older Motorola Talkabout FRS radio in each vehicle, and a pair in one of them (sometimes mine, sometimes hers). That way, we can always talk car-to-car with each other, & if we're with a friend or family member who doesn't have a radio of their own (though almost all do now), we have one to loan them. We also use them in stores (WalMart & Sams are pretty big), and when one of is goes in while the other stays in the car with the kids. Works out quite well.

My son got a set of GMRS/FRS radios for Christmas (>$20 at WalMart). I've restricted him to FRS channels, because I think it's ridiculous to pay $80 (that's the fee I found on FCC site) to be able to use a $20 pair of radios. When I get around to getting a Ham license, I'll pursue GMRS then.

But, yes, they're a great tool to have. Have saved us much trouble, & been a great boon on many occasions. On those rare times when we've found someone else operating on "our" channel & CTSS setting, we simply change to another pair. Early on, we tried simply broadcasting the change we were making, trusting the outside users not to follow us, but after running into some smarta$$ teens who insisted on monopolizing the radios, so that we couldn't use ours, we decided to use a simple code for changes. We simply change to a code/CTSS pair based on a family member's birthday (e.g., "Michael", who's birthday is March 12, would be 3/12). We know the birthdays, & they're not something new to memorize, so we're not telling to which channel we're changing. Has worked well for us in those rare occasions we've needed it.

I second the comments about the lithium AA batteries & rechargables.

David