Customer Reviews

Motorola MR350R 35-Mile Range 22-Channel FRS/GMRS Two-Way Radio (Pair)

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

First of all, all the distances advertised on any walkie talkie like this is based on mountain top to mountain top communication, where the valley increases the range, and no obstruction. That is where they based the 35 miles. For city use, in malls, house to house and areas with trees will be between .5 to 1 mile at most. Since I have been using Motorola Walkie talkies all my life so I knew what I was buying.

I experimented with 3 different models of Walkie talkies in the mall with my wife. First we tried the 5 mile Motorola. I was on one end of the mall inside Macy's and she was on the other side in Nordstrom. She could not even hear me.

We tried the 10 mile Motorola. This time she could hear me press the talk button and a few garbled words, but that was it. We could not communicate.

We tried these 35 mile ones last. We were able to hear each other just fine. Not bad considering the distance and the number of obstructions.

I have also tried this on the open road for car to car communication and it can reach the horizon. If you want more power, you will need to get a license and buy a 5 watt radio.

This Radio has many nice features you would normally find in Professional Radios 5 times the price of this.

UPDATE SEPT 25, 2009-
This radio has a really nice feature I just discovered. It has the hands free iVOX capability. It will broadcast when it hears a sound. There are 3 levels of sensitivity. I tried it as a baby monitor. I left my wife and baby while they were asleep and turned on the radio to High power on one of the GMRS channels(I have an FCC license by the way, so I can use this channel). I drove about 1 mile to my brother-in-laws house. The Radio worked as a long range baby monitor! It was impressive considering that the radio was indoors and I was not line-of-site, and it reached a mile. Very amusing.

I would advice getting an FCC license so that you can use the High power GMRS channels legally. With these radios, it is about 1.5 to 2 watts. If you use the FRS channels 8 to 14, all walkie talkies including this will only use 0.5 watts. Channels 1 to 7 are GMRS/FRS channels. You cannot legally use the high power PTT button if you do not have an FCC license. Channels 15 to 22 are GMRS channels where you can use the High power mode exclusive to GMRS radios. Go to the FCC website and pay the fee for a GMRS radio license, it is good for your immediate family for 5 years. It is worth it if you use it all the time.

****Update October 26, 2009****
I will now detail what I have found out about my Motorola:

Pros:
1. In door range - This is the mall slayer. Go to any mall and give your kids one and you will be able to talke to them pretty much anywhere they are.
2. Audio Quality - Very clear and very loud.
3. Outdoor Range - It has almost the same range as my Icom professional radio which has 3 times the power. That is basically because outdoor range is more about antenna height rather than power.
4. Flashlight - Very useful when you go camping. You dont have to bring an extra flashlight. It is bright. Excellent for emergencies.
5. iVox - Hands free operation. Very useful as a 1 mile baby monitor.
6. Call button - I can call the other radio so that they know I am trying to call them so they can pick up the radio.
7. Emergency button - It will send an alert so that the other person knows you are in trouble.
8. Weather channels - I use it to find out the weather, specially before going Kayaking.
9. Privacy Codes - it has so many Privacy codes so you will never be disturbed by other radios.
10. QT - You can restrict the radios that you hear to only Motorolas.
11. Scan - well most other radios have this too.
12. 2 power settings - You can either transmit on .5 watts or 1.5 watts, depending on the button you press. Unless you are using FRS channels 8 to 14 which are hardcoded to use .5 watts.
13. Vibrate feature - In case you are in a noisy place, this is useful.
14. Ease of use - It does not get easier. Instructions are clear and it is intuitive.

CONS:
1. I am still trying to find one.

********UPDATE December 27,2009*********

I conducted another Distance and clarity test:
Equipment:
1. My Icom F21 UHF 4 watt Professional Handheld Radio(same one Police/Sheriff use. $380 for a pair)
2. My Motorola MR350($59 a pair)

Parameters of the Test:
I have a 40 Watt GMRS Base Station at home. My Home is by the Beach Blvd. I will drive North on beach Blvd and at every quarter mile, I will get down from the car, and transmit. I will transmit first with the Icom, then the Motorola. I will also note down if I can hear a reply back and how clear the reply was.

Result of the test:
Distance
1. Icom- was able to transmit and receive clearly up till 3 1/4 miles. It then started to become choppy from that point.
2. Motorola - was able to transmit and receive clearly till 2 3/4 miles. It then started to become choppy from that point.

Clarity
1. Icom - There were times I had to ask my wife to repeat herself because it sounded a little muffled.

2. Motorola - Just like listening to an FM radio. Loud and crystal clear.

Conclusion
Although the extra power of the Icom gave it a slight advantage in range, about 20%, you can buy 8 pairs of these Motorolas for the price of the Icom. Let the result speak for itself.

Note: This test was meant to show that the Professional Radios only have a slight advantage over the Motorola. The distances were that far because I have a base station with a 10 foot mast and an external J-pole GMRS tuned antenna. Hand held to hand held still follows the laws of physics so it is the same as I mentioned at the beginning of the review, .5 to 1 mile in the city. Completely different story if you are on an elevated position. Distance in miles = Square root of the Height(in feet) x 1.4.

*****UPDATE FEB. 04,2010******
I would like to now discuss the Cost savings of this MR350 over Professional Radios.

My Motorola MR350 is still going strong. I have since bought more Professional Icoms and have had to go through the hassle of tweaking them and programming them manually to get them to function the way this Motorola does when you first take it out of the packaging. I had to buy these Icoms because I am a member of a GMRS Radio Group here in Orange County and Los Angeles and I need the repeater functionality and external antenna.

If you buy a professional radio, you will have to pay to have it programmed. It can cost from between $20 to $80 each time you need to have something programmed. I bought the software and equipment to program my Icoms and they were very expensive. Again, this is something you will never have to do with the MR350.

Batteries on my Icoms cost about $60. That is even more than the cost of this MOTOROLA!!! Not to mention that I had to buy an external battery pack for my Icoms costing $45 so that I can use Energizer AA batteries. The Motorola can use the included rechargeable battery, or you can use Energizer.

I have my Motorolas fully charged all the time so if ever the big earthquake hits LA, this will be my primary survival gear together with my Swiss Army Knife.

Conclusion:
In a cost perspective, the Motorola MR350 wins hands down. You will easily spend about $650-700(hardware and software) to equip a pair(2) of Professional Radios to have some(not all) of the features of this Motorola MR350. At the end of the day, cost will always be a factor when we purchase anything.

Hope to talk to you on the air.

******UPDATE APRIL 19,2010*******
I just bought another set of Motorola MR350 radios. I leave a pair in my car for emergencies where I cannot use my car mounted Mobile UHF radio. I still think these are the best deal on any UHF radio.

******UPDATE OCTOBER 26,2010*******

I just wanted to update all of you since it has been 1 year since my original post. The 4 Radios and the batteries are still working great. That being said, one of the nice people to comment, mentioned that one or both of his new units were defective. Unfortunately, that is not unique with Consumer radios. Once you receive your radio, whatever you buy, please test it right away. If you find that something is not right, tell Amazon that the unit is defective, then exchange it for a new set. That is the nice thing about Amazon. And if you have more issues, drop me a comment, and I can point you to other radios that you may like. I collect radios and I have tried most of them already so I can save you the trouble of deciding.

Also, he mentioned that there is a site that you can get a free replacement faceplate for the MR355 which has the Repeater capability and all of the features of the MR350. The catch is the original faceplate of the MR355 is camo. The free replacement faceplate will make the MR355 look much more discreet. Look into that radio as well. From what I hear, they are almost the same price. Oh, and I also have that MR355 radio, but never take it out because I have not replaced the faceplate yet. I will eventually.

Motorola MR350R vs Midland GXT1050--both products received good reviews on Amazon and I had a hard time initially deciding which one to buy since I could not find detailed comparison between the two. So, I will try to be more comprehensive in comparison here hoping to help you make a decision suitable for your purpose.

I bought MR350R two months ago from Costco at $55 (tax included) to monitor my baby sleeping upstairs and to use during road trips. A month later I also bought Midland GXT1050 from Amazon upon good reviews and my dissatisfaction with some silly design issue associated with the MR350 VOX feature (which is critical for monitoring purpose).

Size and weight: MR350 is lighter (6.2oz vs 7.3oz for each handset including rechargeable battery pack and belt clips) and has a noticeably more agronomical grip, especially for kids or someone with smaller hands.

Setup and Change Settings: MR350 has more intuitive LCD display and signs/symbols whereas GXT1050 took me a couple of hours to set up and memorize what each symbol/letter means (It would be tremendously helpful if Midland can add a full list of all symbols/letters and their meanings in a simple table instead of diving this information into chunks and burying it into each individual function/feature section). I think a 10 year old can be taught to change settings on MR350 without a manual but that most likely won't happen with GXT1050 (with or without the manual).

Features: These two share many useful key features like Weather Scan and Alert. GXT1050 has more channels (50 vs 22 for MR350R) which may be useful for using in populated areas although I never run into issues with MR350 on this one. MR350 has a built-in LED light for emergency use, which is nice. GXT1050 can produce a loud SOS siren which maybe useful in certain situations (although I never used it for any real purposes). Overall GXT1050 seems a bit more versatile with features such as direct call.

Range: GXT claimed 36 miles range and MR350 claimed 35 miles--both claims are meaningless since nobody would ever achieve the advertised range unless standing on two mountain peaks with perfect conditions. In actual use, the effective range is more like 1-2 miles in a flat suburban environment and a bit more in open field. Some reviewers here found a slightly better range with GXT1050 although my test twice showed MR350R lasted a slightly longer range while me driving away from home with each model broadcasting from my living room.

PPT Button is the one needing to be pressed down when transmitting. MR350R has the button designed in such way you can press the upper part for high power and lower part for low power--made switch power a much easier task. Using GXT1050's mechanism you will have to pre-configure power level in the settings and is not very easy to change in a hurry. The shape of MR350 PPT button is made in such a way though, you would end up using the high power most of the time since the upper part of the button protrudes further out. Nonetheless, I like the MR350R design on this one.

VOX: This is one of the most critical features if you want to monitor baby sleeping in a different room or just want to talk hand-free. I agree with C. Hayes' review here that MR350R's three sensitivity levels are not sensitive enough (Hayes's wording made me smile, though a bit exaggerated.). GXT1050 has 9 level of sensitivities and the most sensitive setting (level 1) is indeed more sensitive than that of MR350R (level 3), however, the difference it is not day and night--both detected my baby crying after waking up when placed about 1-2 feet away and both failed to detect my normal talk volume from 1-2 feet away unless I yell loudly or put the radio within 2-3 inches to my mouth. When put in front of a PC speaker, I did notice that GXT1050 started getting into the transmitting mode a bit earlier than MR305R as I turned up the volume knob of my speaker. However, if you want to talk to you handset placed on your shoulder (like policeman does) with your normal voice volume without bending your head to get close to the ratio--good luck no matter which set you use. I really think both companies should increase the sensitive level here.

The biggest turn-off of MR350R is that its VOX feature would be automatically cancelled if you press PPT button, intentionally or accidentally, even if when all settings are "locked"--my baby likes to play with radio and sometime the VOX setting is accidentally cancelled because he squeezed the PPT button. I found this a ridiculous under-thinking (or over-thinking) by Motorola's engineers--I understand the need to preserve power if pressing PPT means VOX may no longer be necessary, but auto-cancel even though settings are locked? Does the word "lock" mean anything? GXT has no problem on this one--kudos to their engineers. I would have returned MR350R for this reason alone (thanks to the great Costco return policy.) if not because my GXT1050 set had a quality issue.

The Wishper feature of GXT1050 does give much loud volume which is very useful for baby monitoring if you don't carry your ratio set on you or right next to you.

Battery life: Both are pretty good (for the good unit I have). I followed exact instructions to do the initial charge (important to battery life) and subsequent charges. However, one of my MR350R unit would run out juicy twice faster than the other handset would--this may be due to difference in batteries or the radio circuit parts. Even worse luck with GXT1050 I had-- sometimes one unit would lose power during use even though it was newly charged and it would not even charge after being placed on the charger. Swapping batteries solves the problem temporarily but this issue reappears later. This caused me to return the GXT1050 to Amazon (thanks to Amazon's 30 day return policy) after on two occasions my baby woke up and fell off bed but GXT1050 failed to give me any warning in advance because of this very issue.. I don't know whether this was caused by a faulty battery or circuit component but I do think this is probably an isolated quality issue since most reviewers here seems to be quite happy with their purchase. One small thing to comment on the rechargeable battery installation and removal--MR350 got this one right with a ribbon under the battery to help you remove the pack easily. The GXT1050 rechargeable battery pack fit in so tightly and there is no ribbon there to help--it would take a few minutes and possibly a fingernail or two (and believe me, I am not exaggerating here) to remove it, especially if you are in a hurry to put in some alkaline batteries in the field. Midland--please spend a nickel or a dime and put in a removal ribbon here.

Charger: Both models do NOT have smart charger--which means the charge light is still red even when fully charged. IBoth companies should make an improvement on this for better battery power and life.

Compatibility: I checked their frequency charts and found that first 22 channels are on exact frequencies so they are compatible. However, I found this to be true only when privacy code is not used. When both models are set on the same channel using the same privacy code--they were able to scan and found each other SOMETIMES, but not always. What a bummer since I would be happy to have both sets (if without quality issues mentioned earlier) and use them in a group to suit different needs.

Waterproof: GXT1050 is splash-proof (JIS4 as the fine print specified), not really waterproof in the sense you can submerge it in water but this is still better than MR350R.

Price: GXT1050 package costs about $20 more but it also includes two headsets and a car charger adaptor--I would call a tie on this one.

Overall, each model has its own strengths--buy what suits your purpose. I had experience in building electronics and know for a fact that individual difference in parts/components sometime impact significantly in power consumption and transmit/receiving sensitivity. So, each unit may vary somewhat from one another --your mileage may vary when coming down to range, sensitivity, etc. So, celebrate if you get a good pair but don't get too hung up if someone else claims a bit better range or clarity or whatsoever.

I would have given 4 stars to both models given their solid performance before noticing quality issues mentioned above but 3 stars here due to quality/reliability issues happened to the set I received in addition to some much desired improvement in design--I hope the manufacturers read my reviews and take some actions--those are not expensive changes at all but would be much more user friendly. I would buy the improved version of either brand in a heartbeat.

After purchasisng the Motorola MR-350 via Amazon, radios were tested in a residential area in my city.

To my surprise and amazement the MR-350 units were able to clearly communicate over a distance of one and one half miles, having to punch the signal clearly through homes, trees, steel, wood and many line of site obstructions.

Clearly, this is an amazing pair of radios, and the claim of an unobstructed range of many miles is highly likely.

Delighted with the Amazon purchase and this is an excellent value, demonstrating a lot of radio muscle power in a tiny package.

Richard - Denver.

I would URGE you to read WILFREDO M VIRAY'S ("Wally") EXCELLENT, THOROUGH and THOUGHTFUL review. There's not much more I can say.

However, a few friends have asked "why would anyone use a two-way radio when cell phones do the 'same' thing?" I live direcly under a bluff in the midwest. Cross country ski, walking and bike trails, and one of our country clubs are there as well. Cell phones don't work very well in these areas.

This can also be true when you're traveling. A two-way radio can put you in touch with a LOT of sources you cannot reach with a cell phone... truckers, for example. Forget the stereotype - these guys can be lifesavers on the open road. Two way radios are free of roaming charges, and they'll work ANYWHERE - NO cell phone network can make that claim.

We also use these radios (and their "predecessor," the Motorola T9500XLR) EXTENSIVELY at work. (We now have TEN pair.) The building is concrete and steel, and no matter where you are, you can communicate CLEARLY with these radios. (Incidentally, we're talking about a 200,000+ square foot... that's a fairly large building.) Using two-way radios is a VAST time saver compared to paging someone on the intercom, then waiting for the "callee" to find a phone and get back to you!

Another NICE feature: Although these radios are supplied with a comparatively expensive 3.6 volt rechargeable battery, YOU CAN USE (3) AA's INSTEAD.

Again, I refer you to Wilfredo "Wally" Viray's excellent review for some non-biased technical data.

Good job, Motorola!

I recently bought the MR350 Two-way radios and also bought the optional Motorola Talkabout Remote Speaker Microphones. We mainly use them for snow skiing and they usually get great coverage on the entire resort. For example, Mammoth Mountain, our family can be inside our hotel room (Mammoth Mountain Main Inn) and we can clearly talk from nearly every lift on the mountain.

Of course the 35 mile range is unrealistic, but 2 miles in mountain terrain is pretty good.

The Motorola remote speaker microphones are the only way to go for skiing. You can keep the radio inside your jacket while the mic is firmly clipped on your jacket lapel. The mic is very loud and clear. Loud enough that I can clearly hear the call alert tone while wearing my helmet and ipod headphones.

Customer complaints of garbled sound quality are usually a result of talking to closely to the mic... Try holding the mic a few more inches away from your mouth while speaking. Wind noise can be a problem, but that will happen with with even the highest quality mic/radios.

Another tip that will help with reception... Try to keep the radios upright (antenna straight up) while communicating at longer distances. Holding the radio sideways causes the range to be significantly diminished.

I purchased 3 sets of these. They are the most powerful units I was able to find in the "for general public consumption" category. What I mean by that is these are not commercial or military grade units, and so their reception will not be quite as powerful as those, but as far as commercially available, relatively low-cost units go, these are probably the best out there.

The radios are excellent in just about every way. I've owned them now for over 9 months, and my children use them daily to keep in touch with us in the home. The children are 8 and 10 years old, and radios are our way of knowing where they are, and staying in touch with them as they play in the neighborhood. When we need them to come home we can call them home. If there is trouble, or a "stranger" nearby, my children can call home to tell us about it. In such a way, we keep tabs on our kids and we gain enormous peace of mind from knowing they can reach us with the push of a button.


We live in Central Florida (which is basically flat land) and we can get about 1 to 1.5 miles out of them in suburban areas. In one case, I was able to get a signal out to about 2 miles in a clear cut area. The key to remember is these radios are "line of sight", which means if there are trees between you and the receiver, it degrades the signal strength substantially. My neighborhood has many trees, so the reception is limited to 1 to 1.5 miles. In open areas, you can get substantially longer range (for example in a desert area, or from a mountain top. Also, weather plays with the range. Heavy rain will degrade the reception.

My advice is don't look at the published range on the box. I doubt 30 miles (or whatever) will ever be do-able, except on a perfectly clear, calm day on the Bonneville Salt Flats from an elevated platform. We thoroughly tested these radios under all kinds of circumstances. You get 2 miles out in a regular suburban middle class neighborhood, and you hear nothing. If your area is filled with hills, peaks and valleys, then this will also limit reception. When my kids dip down a small hill, and there are land formations between the reciever and the sender, the signal goes to zero. Around houses and trees on otherwise relatively flat terrain, the signal still reaches out to 1.5 miles. In one part of our neighborhood, there is a cul-de-sac that drops down 50 or 80 feet down (a lower part of the neighborhood) and the signal back there is zero. So just keep in mind this is LINE OF SIGHT. If you can draw a straight line between the sender and the reciever without any physical land mass or giant building obstructing your view, you can get several miles range out of it. If there are buildings and trees, the range is inside of 1 mile. Just trees, about 1.5 miles.


The other thing I love about these radios is the NOAA Weather Alert Service. At any time, if there is a weather alert in your area, the radio goes right to the NOAA radio station, and transmits the relevant data, no matter what you are doing, even if you are on a different station. As long as the radio has the power "on", the weather will interrupt and announce the alert. Even while we are at home during our normal routines, on nights when we are expecting bad weather, we keep the radio turned on by our bed, and if a tornado or other alert is being issued, the radio comes to life and wakes us up. Living in Central Florida, we get tornadoes from time to time, and the radio has woken us up to get informed about the situation. We get up turn on the news, and find out where the tornadoes are to see if we need to prepare. This NOAA radio feature is fantastic.


I would have given the radio a "5" star, but we lost a volume cap for one of our radios, and after a phone call to Motorola we discovered NO SPARE PARTS are being sold or shipped out to support these. The staff answering these calls were not professional, and poorly trained, generally disinterested, detached, and obviously bored with their careers as phone attendants/inbound customer service representatives. For such an otherwise respectable company, I was disappointed with the phone support on this product. The good thing is Motorola will replace the radio no questions asked through their warranty program. It is interesting to note the radio is made in China, and the poorly trained phone support people make a point to tell you about it repeatedly when they talk to you.

Quite the distance with these little guys. Crystal clear two way. Don't settle for any other brand, no matter the price, these are the ones to get. There is a normal talk button and a high power output button, which you can go the distance with. Ohh and the hands free option is a bonus.

I ordered a pair; put them thru very wet and hard conditions, battery lasts a lot, it has a very strong mile range, only problem is that one of the radios mic failed after a couple of day hiking, good thing I brought the other one as an emergency. I think all the sweat and rain damaged it.

Originally written on July 25th 2009.
Everybody knows that all GMRS/FRS Two-way radios do not work more then 2-3 miles. The 35 mile range works under best conditions like clear line of sight without any obstructions, no interferences etc.
I knew this before I purchased this set. I needed radios for indoor home use, or when I am riding my motorcycle with friends on the back seat or in a car nearby. (Don't fidget with the radios or the headset while driving or riding. Park in a safe place and then adjust it. These radios are not worth an accident).
The store I bought this from came with additional accessories included in the price. Some sets in other stores don't even include the rechargeable batteries(These radios can use 3 AA batteries each). I checked on other sites: Just the headset each costs $12.73 + shipping + tax. Here in the set I purchased from another store, I got all the accessories imaginable. Two rechargeable batteries, two headsets, two belt clips, dual desktop charger, car charger and power adapter.
The radios themselves are great. The LED screen with the red back-light works perfect. Some of the useful features are: Separate High & Low PTT buttons, Smooth On/Off.Volume Dial, Powerful LED Flash-Light, Tones, Ringers, Vibrate function, Long-Lasting Batteries, Battery Power Saving Functions, Weather Forecast, Weather Alert, Emergency Broadcast Button, Two Types of Hands-Free Voice Activated Talk Functions: (1) Without the headset(iVOX) and (2) With the headset(VOX).
We tested the radio's range. We got about 1.5 miles with buildings and other obstructions between us, using FRS only. I am sure we could have got better results if we would have tried more terrains and environments.
The weather forecast works perfectly. Here in northern NJ, I immediately got the Weather-Channel reception from NYC without browsing all the codes.
There are lots of functions and features in these radios. It takes a while to figure out all the functions and features with the help of the user manual. But once I tried out all of them, I don't need to go back to the manual unless I want to see the channel codes and charging instructions again.
Warning: Do not use GMRS channels without a GMRS-License. You can only use FRS channels if you do not have a GMRS license. GRMS-License costs about $89 per year, I read somewhere online. I also read that GMRS may work a little further range compared to FRS. Thats because FRS does not have the High-Power-Push-To-Talk option that GMRS has.
Remember, just as most other two-way radios, there is no privacy when you talk. Anyone with these type of radios can scan in and listen to your conversation. Now if you are saying "Turn right on Main Ave and left on Washington St" or "I am four cars behind you" or "Get my wrench, I think I see a leak" does not require privacy.
Read the manual carefully before using the radios. The batteries need to be charged for 16 hours before first use. After that, you have to be careful not to over charge the batteries. These are NOT Li-Ion batteries which come with cell phones, gps, laptops etc. Li-Ions can be charged anytime. But these Ni-Mh or Ni-Cd need to be monitored. The desktop charger has Red LED lights for each charging bay. They turn on when the radios are charging. But they DO NOT turn off when the charge is complete. You must watch how many hours they have been charging or you can check the battery bar on the screen to see if it has fully charged. All of this information and more is in the manual so read carefully.
For the price, these radios with all the accessories are great.
----October 25th 2010 Update----
I had recharged these radios in the summer at least four months ago. Yesterday when I turned them ON, they both showed two bars of battery charge remaining in them after all these months. These batteries hold the charge for pretty long.
----February 6th 2011 Update----
I turned them back on today for the first time since October 25th 2010. One of the radios still has battery charge of two bars and the second radio has one bar. Its incredible how these batteries are still holding charge since more than eight months.

We had been looking at talkabouts for a long time and finally decided to get some. We ordered 4 (2 sets) and after they charged, we tried them out in our town to see how far we could go. We didn't even get 2 blocks from home and you couldn't hear a thing. Then we went skiing up in the mountains, there we still couldn't get good range. When one of us was at the bottom of the hill and the other at the top, you couldn't hear a thing.

Bottom line is you need to spend a lot of money to get really good walkie-talkie's, these just won't do it for you. The kids like playing with these in the house, but not good for anything else.