Customer Reviews

Midland LXT490VP3 26-Mile 36-Channel FRS/GMRS Two-Way Radio (Pair)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Got these for paintball / airsoft in the woods. Good clarity. Haven't tested the limits of the range. The battery packs that came with it are NiMH which is perfect for me and my partial charge behaviors. Also the fact you can swap in regular batteries if needed was a good selling point for me. The beeps are annoying but they can be turned off (essential when sneaking around in the bushes).

Please note it really only has 22 channels like all FRS/GMRS radios. The additional 14 channels they boast are just preset sub-channels (privacy codes).

Great but for the price.

We purchased these Midland radios for our manufacturing plant. Bought 4 of them on the same day. The radios are just as described and works well in a concrete
building going thru numerous walls. Would certainly recommend and re-purchase this product.

Picked up these radios along with the Midland AVPH3 security-style headsets before hitting the slopes of Tahoe for some skiing/snowboarding. The radios functioned better than I was expecting, carrying the signal from one side of the mountain to the other in "Low" signal power. We paired up with others in our group who were using Motorola radios (just put them on the same channel and sub-channel). Also, I recommend those AVPH3 headsets (already reviewed), and would recommend them to pair with these radios if you need your hands free (think sporting activities).

Likes:
-Size; these guys are small enough to throw in a pocket
-Removable clips; for our needs, we removed the belt clips so they had a lower profile and slipped into pockets better
-Range of features; turned off "Roger beep" because it was getting annoying on the slopes. Also liked the VOX sensitivity settings
-Fairly intuitive menus once you've taken a moment to go through what each means in the booklet
-Distance/range; I don't think we ever switched over to GMRS, yet still had pretty clear transmissions across different parts of the mountains
-Ease of use; turn them on, match up the channels and sub-channels (or "privacy codes") and they work. Simple as that.
-Rechargeable batteries OR AAA batteries; Love that I don't have to buy new batteries all the time because of the rechargeable pack that comes with these radios, yet can throw 4x AAA batteries in each if the rechargeable batteries die.

Dislikes:
-So far, few dislikes!
-Rechargeable battery was decent, not great (as mentioned by others), but the battery level indicator gave no warning before the batteries totally died. Power said full toward the end of the first day on the slopes, then suddenly died. Turning the power back on would give 30 seconds of juice, still showing full power, then died.
-Wish there were rubber seals over the optional headset jacks (weather seals)

Overall, so far I'm quite happy with these, and the price is great. Can't wait to try them out while on long bike rides or playing paintball. Actively seeking out new uses for these because I love them!

This radios are great. First thing that on the FRS channel i managed to get around 2 miles in the city comparing that uniden 26 miles radios game me not even half of that. Radios really nice, small in the hand, am gonna be using them for paintball. Only thing i dont like is little pain in the butt weather channel thing. Otherwise these are the best. I had motorolla, few unidens, i had trisquare....So far midland is on the top shelf.

Great for the price, and range is good. Do wish they'd incorporated a more accurate power monitor and an easier way to change channels, but overall, they're pretty functional.

These are great radios for the price. the FRS picked up about 1.5 miles in wooded flat areas and about 1 mile when the two radios were in valleys separated by one hill ( hill elevation is 900 ft, valley floor at 500 ft). I bought four and sent one out to the 1.5 mile marker and 3 at home base. The only issue was radio hopping at home base where one of the three would pick up a piece of the conversation, and the other two would pick up other pieces of the conversation. In other words, in a six word sentence one would get two of the words, stop, the next would get the next two words, stop, and the third would get the rest of the sentence. The home base radios were about 15 feet apart. I don't think this is a problem had we separated those three but we didn't work on the distance of separation needed to stop the hopping. Also, you can only use channels 8-14 (maybe 8-15...can't remember) without paying the expensive FCC charge. Also the advertised NOAA weather is only available on the GMRS channels. I thought we might have one frequency available on the FRS but you couldn't pick-up anything. This is why I gave it a 4 star instead of 5. I believe the advertising of 26 mile is misleading (even for GMRS) but it appears all the radio manu's do it.

I am an electrical contractor. I use these to keep in contact with employess whike working at various job site. Will transmit through cement walls, building floors, ect. They work great, and are easy to opperate.

I obtained these for work for use inside a builing. They work good and decent sound quality. However the batteries dont last that long if you need to talk alot. (about 5 hours).

Very good product, long battery life and range. I ordered 4 pairs for security work. Also I ordered 3 more sets but they are on back order.

Easy setup and good call alert system. No real long distance test but units have clear voice channels and weather channel in the area was pretty decent.