Just to give you some background, I have been an Amateur radio enthusiast for about 3 decades now. I collect radios and I am a member of a Disaster volunteer radio group. I have 2 Base Stations and dozens of professional and consumer radios of all brands spanning 3 decades.

Before I get to the radio review, I would first like to explain the advertised distances of any 2 way radio. In the packaging, it actually explains the estimated distances under optimal conditions where it is Mountain to valley, medium in a lake, and short distance of 2 miles in the city. Using this radio, I can reach the nearest repeater to me which is 36.8 miles away. They can hear me load and clear. In the city, my neighbor's son, to help with my testing, biked from our house and found a hill 2.9 miles away and I was able to speak to him when he stood at a specific spot.

The testing I did below was the same test I conduct every time and always following the same path so that it is constant for an accurate comparison. It does not mean you will get the same distance as I got below. You may get less, or you may get more, it really depends on the environmental factors. You should be happy when you can reliably get more than 0.5 miles in the city.

I cannot get more distance than these with any of my professional radios like Kenwood, Yaesu and ICOM. Unless of course I remove the antenna of those radios and mount an external antenna. I should know because I have an ICOM HT with me and I always use it to verify first before conducting each stage of the test.

Anyway, I really wanted to give you a very detailed comparison of these 2 radios, the Motorola MS350R and the MT352R. These radios are about the same size and are both the new radios from Motorola. So when I did my field test I was expecting the same performance out of both radios in terms of distance and clarity.

Here is my side by side comparison between them:

1. Menu Features - They have very similar features. The difference is MS350R has the Repeater Channels in the menu and the MT352R has the Dual channel monitor menu option. Otherwise almost identical.

2. Repeater functionality - The MS350 has the repeater function. I was able to communicate with 2 distant repeaters and they were able to hear me. I had to speak up a little but otherwise they said I sounded great.

3. Size - They are about the same size. The antenna of the MS350R is slightly longer though.

4. Weather resistant - The MT352R says that it is Weather resistant. It has an IP-54 rating. The "5" is the dust resistance and the "4" is the Water resistance. This just says it can withstand a dusty or rainy environment. Ingress of dust is not entirely prevented, but it must not enter in sufficient quantity to interfere with the satisfactory operation of the equipment; complete protection against contact. Water splashing against the enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effect. The MS350R has a higher water resistance than the MT352R because it has an IP-67 rating.

5. Emergency Features - They have identical emergency features. Emergency Alert, Flashlight and Weather stations.

6. Distance - see test below

******Range Comparison: MS350 vs MT352R********

Scenario: I had my daughter stand in the front of my house and she had an MS350 and a MT352R. I walked away from the house and would radio in every .1 miles. I also had an MS350 and a MT352R. I would transmit first on the MS350 which she will only use her MS350 to receive and transmit. Then we would try to transmit with the MT352R. I live in an LA neighborhood so there are many houses and trees. I believe this would be a typical scenario for most. We were also transmitting on a GMRS Channel pressing the High Power PTT button. I do have a GMRS license.

Test: 0.1 Mile
1. MS350 - Crystal clear on send and receive on both ends. Louder than the MT352R.
2. MT352R - Crystal clear on send and receive on both ends. Clearer than the MS350R.

Test: 0.2 Miles
1. MS350 - Crystal clear on send and receive on both ends.
2. MT352R - Crystal clear on send and receive on both ends.

Test: 0.3 Miles
1. MS350 - Crystal clear on send and receive on both ends.
2. MT352R - Crystal clear on send and receive on both ends.

Test: 0.4 Miles
1. MS350 - Crystal clear on send and receive on both ends.
2. MT352R - Crystal clear on send and receive on both ends.

Test: 0.5 Miles
1. MS350 - Crystal clear on send and receive on both ends.
2. MT352R - Crystal clear on send and receive on both ends.

Test: 0.6 Miles
1. MS350 - There was a little noise in the background but it was still very clear on send and receive on both ends. The MS350 was coming in louder than the MT352R.
2. MT352R - There was a little noise in the background but it was still very clear on send and receive on both ends.

Test: 0.7 Miles
1. MS350 - There was a little noise in the background but it was still very clear on send and receive on both ends. The MS350 was coming in louder than the MT352R.
2. MT352R - There was a little noise in the background but it was still very clear on send and receive on both ends.

Test: 0.8 Miles
1. MS350 - There was a little noise in the background but it was still very clear on send and receive on both ends. The MS350 was coming in louder than the MT352R.
2. MT352R - There was a little noise in the background but it was still very clear on send and receive on both ends.

Test: 0.9 Miles
1. MS350 - There was a little noise in the background but it was still very clear on send and receive on both ends. The MS350 was coming in louder than the MT352R.
2. MT352R - There was a little noise in the background but it was still very clear on send and receive on both ends.

Test: 1 Mile
1. MS350 - There was more noise in the background but we can still communicate. The MS350 was coming in louder than the MT352R.
2. MT352R - There was more noise in the background but we can still communicate.

Test: 1.2 Miles
1. MS350R - Her transmission was choppy. The transmission was very noisy. It was choppy on both sides. We both had to repeat ourselves several times in order to understand. I had to repeat myself fewer times with the MS350R.
2. MT352R - Her transmission was choppy. The transmission was very noisy. It was choppy on both sides. We both had to repeat ourselves several times in order to understand.

COMPARATIVE SUMMARY:
They are both the same size and the features are almost identical. The MS350R is louder than the MT352R but the MT352R is slightly clearer. I believe it has to do with the fact that the MS350R is sealed because it is supposedly waterproof. I like the fact that MT352R has the power switch on the volume knob on top of the radio. It is easier to turn on and off. It is really difficult to choose between the two since they are so similar. So if you need the Repeater and waterproof features, then I would suggest the MS350R.

NEXT TEST: Waterproof Testing

1. I took off the battery of the MS350R and applied Petroleum jelly to the seal on the battery case back and all the rubber seals. I usually do this on anything that has a gasket that I intend to immerse in water. I pushed the back down with my hand as I tightened the locking screw.

2. I got a pail of water and dropped the MS350R into the bucket and left it there for exactly one minute. I took it out and wiped it dry, and used compressed air to be sure there is no water. I opened the case back and I did not find any water or dampness. I blew the back with compressed air and then re-inserted the battery after 30 minutes(of course I was scared that something might have gotten in).

3. After 30 minutes, I turned on the radio and tested it. It powered on OK. Menus worked fine and I was able to send and receive without any problems.

What I did find that when I reinserted the battery is that if you do not push hard on the case back as you are tightening the locking screw, it will not have a watertight seal as I could see a very tiny gap on the side of the case back. That could cause water to seep in and damage the radio. I strongly recommend using some for of sealant or some petroleum jelly to make it water tight. I do that for my underwater flashlights as well.

Also, I noticed that if I use Alkaline Batteries instead of the Battery Pack, there is less outward pressure on the Case back. The Battery pack seems thicker than an Energizer so it pushes outward on the case back more. So, if I ever go fishing or kayaking, I will use Energizers just to be sure.

Well, I hope my testing and experiments has helped you. Please read my reviews of the MR350R and the MT352R as well since there have been lots of past cases throughout the years. Just like the MT352R, I highly recommend this radio. I will continue to update this review so that you will see the reliability of these radios.

I do hope you get into 2 way radios, whatever you decide to buy. These are emergency radios and they are a must have for any Emergency kit or Bug-out-bag.

********UPDATE April 1, 2015 - 3 years later*********
My how time flies. I can't believe it has been 3 years since I bought these radios. They still look and work like new. I just replaced the rechargeable batteries with a fresh set. That is all I have had to do with these. I use it when I go to the beach or when we go boating. I also use them when the company I founded has need for extra radios for the camera crew when they cover events. If the coverage is several miles, we use the repeater functionality.

They are still great radios and they have been serving me well. Please let me know if there is anything you would like to know about these radios.

This is a disappointing purchase. I purchased two sets of two for my river guides at california's Marble Mountain Dude Ranch - they are advertised as "waterproof"...NOT! If you submerse them even briefly in shallow water, they immediately fail. I previously gave them 5 stars, based on all the experienced handling I had given them. However, the primary reason for me to purchase these was because they are "WATERPROOF" Please see the attached photos of the failed units. They work great for keeping dust out of the works, but they clearly are not waterproof. The view screen fills with water, the battery compartment fills with water, and it ceases to function entirely when wet.

One of the two was not waterproof and had salty water in it. Broken after one week. Good aftersales from Amazon (refund) but main spec, (waterproof) failed.

Works great. I live near the beach and leave one at the house when I drop friends/family off so they don't have to take their phones. The range is about 1-2 miles when I am inside the house and the other walkie is at the beach. If I go outside the house it picks up about another 0.25-0.5 miles.

I also used these on a 1,200 mile road trip where we had two cars and we were expecting to go through an area with no cell service. The actual range while driving was about 1-4 miles before it was two hard to understand each other. The range depended on the surrounding area (mountains, twisty roads, vs straight interstate with no traffic).

The rechargeable batteries lasted about 10 hours of on time where they were in use for transmitting/receiving about 6 hours. When they died we just bought regular batteries at the next gas station. These have been dropped in the water at the beach multiple times and still work great.

They work pretty well but you HAVE to make sure you press the TX button, wait a second, THEN speak. Otherwise your first few words get cutoff. This is common with these kinds of radios but if you're used to professional quality radios which transmit instantly it takes a little getting used to.
These are a decent quality radio with ok range, definitely waterproof. I work I water resources and needed a waterproof radio. I 'tested' waterproofing on a couple of occasions and they still work!

I bought 4 of these for my vacation. Once I received them, I noticed two of the batteries sent were defective. They sent me two more right away, so that was good. While I was on my vacation, two of them stopped holding a charge. I'm not sure which ones they were, but so far I have a 33% success rate on the batteries. The good part about this is that you can use AA batteries instead. I switched to those and had no issues.

Overall I like the design and the features but the first set is going back to Amazon due to a defect on one of the radios: the squelch does not close unless a "code" is programmed. The other radio works just fine. Just as an anecdote, I have owned a Uniden set for 10 years and they are still working perfectly.

Features I like:

- NiMh pack but also accept AA batteries
- Both tone and digital codes (my Uniden set only has tones)
- Repeater option
- Two power mode (but the 2 PTT buttons are a bit hard to locate and get used to)
- Ability to decode incoming tones

Features I don't like:

- Opening the battery pack requires a coin (strangely enough, I don't go hiking with coins in my pockets)
- Poor quality (on a sample of one)
- The weather radio has an alert function but it does not use the more sophisticated, per county, digital warning (SAME)