The Midland GXT1000VP4 2-Way Compact Communication Radio (Pair)
As a single mother of four boys, there’s never a dull moment. Keeping an eye on all of them at once is almost impossible at times. On our last trip to the Catskill mountains my youngest wandered off, and we spent almost half the day trying to track him down. It was only a few hours, but I didn’t sleep for a week after that.
When we got back to the city I decided we needed some sort of walkie-talkie so I headed over to B and H Photo and spoke with the sales clerk, Brian, who’s always so helpful to me and my family. Brian whipped out two pairs of Midland GXT1000VP4 2-Way Compact Communication Radios. And, I’m happy to report that we haven’t had an incident hiking or camping since. These work great as an intercom in the woods, and now we even use them in our neighborhood watch, and my new boyfriend uses them whenever he and his friend go hunting.
If you’re using these in a busy urban area you’ll obviously get more static and interference. I’ve heard the GXT1000 can communicate up to 36 miles away but I’ve never had to do more than two or three miles. There are five buttons which, except for the monitor, have secondary features that activate after they’ve been pressed for more than three seconds. You press ‘Call’ to call another radio or group of radios, and you hold it to lock it. The ‘Up’ button for channel surfing can be held down to activate an SOS signal that will emit a loud pulse; The ‘Down’ button can be held so you can surf channel by channel, and you can hold down the ‘Menu’ for the weather.
The radio has 50 channels – 22 FRS (Family Radio Service) channels and 28 GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) channels. People can listen in on conversations that are taking place on FRS channels. However, GMRS requires a license. On Family Radio Service people can possibly tune into your conversation and listen in.
If you do decide to do a neighborhood watch I highly recommend getting a GMRS license so you can use those channels too, and you can buy special antennas that will extend the range of the walkie-talkies. I had some questions about how to use all the different features on these things, and B&H live-chat was on call whenever I needed them.
The GXT1000s also come with a car adapter, two nickel-hydrate batteries that are rechargeable, a charging base, and two headsets that plug into the ports on the right side, so you can communicate while driving. The radios also take AA batteries, but the nickel-hydrate batteries last way longer since each call is 5 watts every time you push the call button. The radios also have a whisper feature, a group call option. They’re also water resistant, which I really appreciate when I’m out in the middle of nowhere and it starts to rain. So now whether we hike through the Catskills, or explore the Adirondacks, I won’t lose track of boys. Thanks, B&H Photo!
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