Quote:
Originally Posted by MadMorbius
Sabers are GREAT radios because they're idiot proof, tough, and don't have all the useless shit on them that makes traditional FRS and GMRS a pain in the ass.
The Saber's have been discontinued however, and most of the commercial users have moved to Astro's or something more recent. They're old tech, but they serve our purposes very well. The problem is that accessories and programmers are hard to find. At least there's still plenty of batteries available for them though.
Remember that they're BIG and they're HEAVY. You won't lose the thing because you'll notice when a five pound brick tumbles out of your kit  |
+1
For someone who doesn't want to deal with having to program it though, look into the Chinese/Korean clones that allow for on-the-fly reprogramming.
My old radio (an FTG450a) lets me punch the channels in right on the keypad, removing the need use f*** with all the rib cables and programming.
Luckily, my equipment officer programmed my Motorola HT1250+ with our ERT's Trunk & Simplex channel, as well as a handful of GMRS and FRS channels.
I'm with Morb though. I hate dealing with all of those stupid beeps and shit that come along with using consumer FRS'es. People need to learn to TURN IT OFF. (also, owning permission to use a REAL frequency means that no one else will be on your frequency within 100km of you. It's the way the Canadian Government organizes it. If there's a conflict, they'll give you a new frequency.)
It's not too expensive. ~100$/year for a small handful of radios I think? and a one-time set-up fee.