Customer Reviews

MURS Hand Held Two-Way Radio, M538-HT

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

We currently use three of these handheld units and plan to purchase a fourth. Here in rural southwestern Ohio, where there are lots of hills and woods, the 1 watt output of these radios provide a one mile range reliably. While traveling in convoy on long and unobstructed stretches of highway, the range is greater. They are used infrequently and have provided communications for five weekend long events over the past two months. For well under one hundred dollars, I did not expect much. These units exceeded my expectations.
While the manual that comes with the radio is not very detailed, vender support is outstanding. I had a question regarding charging the batteries and received a reply within one business day. They recommended charging for 24 hours when new or totally depleted and overnight for normal daily use. These radios use commonly available rechargeable AA batteries and not the expensive type found on many amateur and commercial handheld radios. In other words, no special order for replacement rechargeable batteries. Also, at need, regular alkaline batteries may be used. (Attempting to charge the alkaline type batteries will damage the unit) The rechargeable batteries supplied work surprisingly well. We keep our transmissions short and to the point and regularly operate for two days and more per charge, especially if we turn them off for the night. These radios are extremely easy on the batteries while receiving and only draw the batteries down appreciably while transmitting.
I hope to acquire the matching Dakota Alert MURS transmitters to provide wireless and portable security at remote locations. Allowing us to monitor the area around the vehicles or camp while in the woods etc.
These radios are not water resistant nor do they provide military grade shock resistance. These radios are not "industrial strength", but neither is the price. They do provide all five of the unlicensed MURS frequencies while many others only provide one or two operating frequencies. They are affordably priced with great customer support from the vendor, Home Controls / Home Security 4 Less. In summary, good value for the money.

I receive the M.U.R.S radio on September 30th, 2011. I notice that there is no seal on the box like any other electronic product. When I open the box I found everything that was advertised. I notice bar code was stick n the side of the box like it was sold to someone else before but, everything was clean inside, battery was wrap. In order to try the radio, I use my own industrial battery and the battery indicator mention full charge. Take note that this unit will not send message only with ac adaptor but only when battery is in the unit.

First impression when I unwrap the radio, there was cheap no brand battery. You don't get value for what you pay

First impression, CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP, made in CHINA radio (no proud in USA manufacturer). At least, they should deal with Japanese manufacturer for better quality.

It is not the feeling of a commercial Motorola radio, not even a good FRS or GRMS radio, really CHEAP.

Now, the RANGE. At the best one kilometer between the base and the radio with bad reception. Without external antenna like a Firestick 45, I think this unit will not be suitable for our property of 150 acres. I decide to return the unit and exchange it for Commercial Motorola for the reason that the range is not at all what advertised. don't live in city and there is almost no obstruction except couple of trees.

I have had this unit in operation for about 4 weeks and it works great. The nice thing about this hand held is you are able to communicate to the base and you also get all alarms sent to the Hand Held. The service was great. Received the units in record time. I would do business with this seller again.

This thing get's very good range. I've received the alarm and the base station up to 3/4 mile consistently and often much further.

While researching MURS radios a few years ago, I bought a variety of models, including a pair of these since they had just come onto the market relatively recently.

What really irked me the most was that the radio comes with 6 AA NiMH batteries, but they're bottom-of-the-barrel quality batteries (1600mAh?). They don't hold a charge. They get super hot in most rapid chargers. And with the built-in charger, they take forever to charge. (12 hours?)

The antenna is detachable, but I'm not sure what kind of replacement you can use with it. The volume control was decent, but everything else about the radio felt kinda shoddy. Even the transmit range of this radio vs. the other MURS radios I have is much worse.

The radio hasn't fallen apart on me and it's generally usable, so I can't give it only 1 star. So 2 stars it is.

Trash.

Arrived with mode up-selection button inoperative - it is *possible* (but in my opinion *highly* unlikely based on the nature of the failure and the condition of other equipment received the same shipment) that this defect was created post manufacture, it seems to me to be much more likely the result of poor or nonexistent post-manufacture QC at the factory and/or the US distribution facility (it's made in China).

And even if this portion of the unit (which is obviously going to be operated frequently, and for example by people wearing gloves) *was* damaged in shipping, what does that say about the overall design and build quality?

I realize that I'm not paying $500 for a commercial quality unit, on the other hand this is too much to pay for something that apparently isn't even built or tested to standards I consider minimally acceptable for a consumer grade product.

And... this experience was especially frustrating as I had paid $26 ( never to be recovered, of course) for Saturday delivery and hoped to use this unit on a job Monday.

Other posters here talk about the excellent customer service of this company - to me *excellence* is building your product so I don't *need* customer service, at least not because things are so poorly designed or built they can't survive shipment to my doorstep.

I just received the handset from the third party seller DollarRite. It arrived on time, but the handset box had been opened, the handset has scratches on it and the AC plug was sloppily re-wrapped. The handset was obviously used and re-packaged, which was very disapponting since I was purchasing a product listed as NEW. I have yet to hook it up and make sure it works properly since I am waiting for the base station from a different seller.

good units, thanks, do they work with the 3000 model and what freq??
channel and ccts