Customer Reviews

Motorola T5500AA 5-Mile 22-Channel FRS/GMRS Two-Way Radio (Pair)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

used them several times in the alps and the rockies. they worked great on the same sides of the mountain. if it was much more spread out, no workie. you can't beat it for the price and it came in handy when we lost my chic for 4 hours in a blizzard. we found her only by using them. however i might add battery life will only last a one week trip. pretty poor for that many batteries (3 AA's each).

In general, these two way radios work very well. We use them when we ski and for the most part we can communicate beter than using our older more simple radios. The privacy channels are great for when tons of others on the slope have radios too.
But we tried them out in town which is flat terrain and they only worked for two miles. Now that isn't bad, but they claim they work for 5 miles. If we lived in a desert in perfect conditions maybe they might live up to the hipe.

We use quite a few of the 5500 and 5400 series Motorola FRS radios. They all work together as long as everyone is on the same frequency (along with the sub-frequency). The AA and rechargeable battery versions are all compatible as well... you can buy the AA version and insert a rechargeable battery and it works fine. (Don't know if it works in reverse but it should). Sometimes the earbud jack gets broken inside (cheap weld) and the earbud won't work anymore. If looking for inexpensive accessories, look for generic aftermarket parts. Why pay $20 for a PTT Motorola earbud when you can get it for $5?

I recently bought a pair and I keep finding uses for them: they are great for constant communication when working on field surveys; or trail hiking; or mountain biking; or on a road trip, you can use them from car to car; or on the shopping center. Of course, good reception distance varies with the obstacles between you and your partners, but that's normal.

dont be fooled, this two-way radio doesnt exactly have a 5-mile range everywhere. its only 5 miles on open spaces, but in the mountains it gets pretty nasty. i used it when i went snowboarding in Colorado, and when my party split up to two sides of the mountain we couldnt hear each other anymore. its not a bad radio, but it doesnt have a 5-mile range as listed, but if you can get it for less than 35 bucks, then it might be worth it

I bought these radio's as an upgrade to the Cobra FRS only that I had before. The range did improve - I have had as much as 2-3 miles car to car on the freeway.

But the audio is poor. I normally place the radio in the center console and listen to the conversations from the caravan that I'm in. The Cobra was very good at this. But even with full volume, the Motorola needs to be held close to my ear and the audio quality is poor.

I have used other people's older model FRS only Motorola's in the past and they were superior to my Cobra's. These are not in the same league. The quality is poor enough that I'm again looking for FRS/GMRS radio's - NON-Motorola.

I second to the poor audio quality, less than 500 meters in city. I like the VOX option, but wish that I did look for vibrating alert option in other models. Will try to sell them, and get better ones ( I think it is going to be Motorola as well).

years ago I bought a motorola frs radio (fr 60?) and it worked great! I've purchased some recent radio and the sound quality (transmit and receive) is horrible. It's very hard for people to understand what's being said and much more difficult to communicate. People say the transmitter audio is too quiet and I have to speak up. And whether quiet or loud, it sounds garbled.

I'm looking for a better one, probably not motorola. Too bad, I loved the older ones.

Great product all around, except for one significant WARNING!

The T5500 and the T5200 both have an automatic cut off after 60 seconds of continuous transmission... For our uses, we can't do VOX due to the delay... We need the transmission "hot" from one radio, all the time.

I'm very frustrated at not learning this until I read the manual... This info is NOWHERE on the product descriptions, or on the Motorola web site... Their sales staff didn't even know when I called them directly, and it wasn't in their database.

Again, good product... But, this is a major oversight.

These talk-about style radios are small,light and easy to use. We use them primarily for skiing and hiking but they are also good for 2-car road trips, malls etc. They also work work great with our old talk-abouts which are 5yrs old and still work well.
We previously bought a pair of more expensive Midland radios with 25 mile range but they died on a cold day at the ski resort. The rechargable battery lost power halfway through the day. We returned the units and bought Motorola again with regular AA batteries.
Note that many rechargable batteries do not perform well in cold weather.