Motorola T9500XLR 25-Mile Two-Way Radios

I looked forward to receiving these radios because my husband and I were soon to attend a large outdoor event held each summer at our state fairgrounds. This four-day event features more than 11,000 classic cars as well as large indoor exhibits, so there is a lot of area to cover and we like to go our separate ways at times. In years past, we used our cell phones to keep in touch. This year, we saved our minutes and used these radios very successfully, including communicating while my husband was deep in the parking area, surrounded by noisy cars, and I was deep inside a building surrounded by the echoes you get from large crowds of people in cavernous buildings.

I liked that I could push a button to send an attention-getting beep when I wanted to talk, rather then just starting up a conversation and hoping I wasn't talking to myself.

I was especially interested in the weather alert feature of these radios, which I plan to use anytime we're away from home, but I knew from experience that they may be a life saver when we attended the event I mentioned above. You would think you could count on being warned of severe weather when you're at a large state-operated facility, where you know a public address system is available because you hear frequent announcements that a car needs to be moved, somebody left their lights on, or who is in concert. But one recent year we were among the tens of thousands out in the open parking lot who were never warned of 70 mph winds. Fortunately the weather was excellent this year, so I'm happy to say I can't review the weather warning option. It's just one of those things you're glad to have and even more glad to not need.

These walkie talkie's are ok if you don't read the front of the package or the descripion.

The good things about these radio's are that they are well built and they feel good in my hand and they even come with a spare pair of bright yellow faceplates.

Second, they have a nice clip on the back to clip onto your pants or where ever you want and comes off with a push of a button so that you can slip it into your pocket easily.

They also have the NOAA weather radio station where that guy with the monotone voice can tell you if you need to put the awning in on your RV before you go to bed.

From what I can tell that's about the extent of the good things. Right on the front of the package they claim that these radio's will work 25 miles from each other. In the directions it also explains why the radio's might NOT work. In fact it goes into great detail about towers and signals interferring. I live in a rural community of about 18,000 and my husband and I tried it in several places in town just to give the radio's a fair chance. There are no skyscrapers here. We also tried to get the radio's to work in the mall in Dallas and around the corner at my parent's house. No go. 2 miles was about as far as it would transmit. We even tried them out at our farm and it's so far out in the country we can't even get cable. 2 miles.

If all you want to do is talk to your spouse while he's backing the RV up then these are the radio's for you. That's about all I want them for.

We have been testing these T9500XLR 2 way radios from Motorola for 2 weeks now from my law office in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. This review is based on those tests. Bottom line is we award 3 stars.

I start with range. The longest range we could get for these units in downtown Louisville was just over 2 miles. Anything over 2 miles and the transmission quality was seriously degraded (breaking up, etc). To get the 2 mile range downtown we used 1 of the GMRS (not FRS) channels. Channels 1 thru 14 are FRS (Family Radio Service) channels and you will never get any serious range on an FRS channel as federal law limits broadcast power on those channels (1 thru 14) to just 1/2 watt. No FCC license is required to use an FRS channel. The GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) channels are channels 15 thru 22. The units use their maximum broadcast power on these GMRS channels, which do require an FCC license to use (yes I have one, they cost $85 for a 5 year license). We got our maximum range using GMRS channel 16, with interferance code 52 and QT (Quiet Technology) turned on. Another trick with these units is that you must press the transmit (PTT) button down from the top not the bottom to get max range (this push to talk button is actually a rocker switch, and if you push it from bottom you are telling the unit to use low power to save batteries, pushing from top tells the unit to use high power). Although all manufacturers overstate range on these types of products, I suspect that many of the range complaints in other reviews actually result from users not knowing the tricks to get maximum range (e.g., use a GMRS channel, not an FRS channel, have QT on, push talk button from top not bottom, and have both units keyed to the same interference code (codes higher than 38 are digital, we used 52).

We were actually impressed to get slightly over a 2 mile range in downtown Louisville as most other units we have tested over the years have gotten only 2 to 4 blocks. We are pleased with the range given the environment (multiple skyscrapers, metal buildings etc).

We were not pleased with the speaker quality. We found it average, not as bad as some other reviewers, but certainly nothing to brag about. The units do have an earphone jack and we recommend you use it if in normal to noisey environments. Battery life between charges is close to what Motorola claims.

Two things we did not like are the fragile (cheap plastic) nature of these things and the belt clips. Drop one on a sidewalk and you can probably kiss it goodbye. As for belt clips, we had difficulty once on getting them unfastened. I would recommend these for purchase not because they are great, but because they are better than over half we have tested over the years. For communication between office buildings a few blocks apart these are your answer. There are better and worse units available.

These are great radios. I have owned 3 different versions of Motorola TalkAbout "walkie talkies". These are easily the best. However, reviewing them is difficult. It requires some basic understanding of 2-way radios, which is actually pretty concisely detailed in the manual included with this product.

Basically, there are 2 types of radio signal for 2-way radios like this. FRS and GMRS. Both are public but GMRS requires an FCC license which may cost you $75. FRS does not have as good of a range as GMRS, which is what makes reviewing this product difficult. FRS is usually channels 1-14 and GMRS is 15-22. However, this radio has some overlap where 8 of the channels (I think 8-16) broadcast on FRS/GMRS hybrid or something. I'm not totally familiar quite yet.

With these TalkAbout radios, there are privacy channels that work to eliminate noise from other radios. Basically they work so that you don't hear other people talking on the same channel. However, if those people on the same channel do not have privacy-enabled walkies, they will be able to hear you. That shouldn't be a big deal though because it's all public airwaves anyway. Anyway, these radios have an amazing 121 privacy codes per channel. So the potential to find a quiet channel for your party is very great.

This radio also has some other great features. Of note is a feature that allows equipped Motorola radios to eliminate interference in high-activity zones like theme parks and concerts. That is a great feature, though I have not been able to test it extensively. All I know is that previous TalkAbout radios I have used have had problems with interference like this. At least it's nice to see that Motorola has attempted to tackle the problem.

Another great feature is the boost mode. The Push-to-talk button has 2 states. If you push at the bottom it uses a normal amount of power. If you put at the top, it boosts the power to increase the range at the cost of battery life. Again, it is not easy to test these features though my experience has shown that this does seem to work fairly well.

There are other less notable features like ring tones, paging, and a little tone that lets the person on the other end know that you are done with your message. This replaces saying "over" so it's convenient. There is the ability to hook up a headset and hands-free activation. So whenever you speak, it detects it and sends it over. You can also enable this feature without a headset, but I don't see that being very useful.

The batteries are rechargeable NiMH, and the package contains a docking station / charger for the devices. The battery life is decent. NiMH batteries are great though some have a short shelf life. So basically if you leave the radios sitting around for a while, don't expect them to have juice when you go to use them. You'll need to charge them as soon as you know you're going to need them for the best duration. The battery pack is basically 3 AA batteries taped and sealed together. So you can replace it with 3 AA alkaline batteries if you are in the field and do not have the ability to charge.

The devices themselves are built pretty well and the package even comes with replacement face plates of yellow color.

Ok, so onto the range. I don't know where they got that 25 mile # from, but I didn't get anything close to that in my test. On channel 4 in my suburban town in NJ, I got around 1 mile range. The boost gives you a little more, but it was clearly straining. I will need to do some more testing on the GMRS channels in order to make a definitive conclusion as to the range of these. However, the back of the box even states that you'll only get that 25 mile range in the desert or very open spaces. And that's probably with boost on GMRS channels. On FRS channels with boost in the desert you could probably get 3-5 miles. In suburbs or the city, you'll be lucky to get 1 mile on FRS channels and 3 miles on GMRS channels.

Still, despite the outrageous range claims, these are great radios and easily worth the price.

As I use and test these radios more, I will return to this review if my initial conclusions of the ranges change.

Motorola says these radios have a range of up to 2 miles in a dense urban setting. I'd say that's true if "up to 2 miles" means anything from one inch to 2 miles. We tested this in a variety of situations. First we used our home area, a typical suburban neighborhood with no structure taller than 2 stories. The signal was strong at one-tenth of a mile. At two-tenths of a mile, the signal started breaking up but was usable. By three-tenths of a mile the signal was gone.

Then we tested it at a small lake here in beautiful upstate New York. Motorola claims up to 10 miles on a flat, unobstructed surface like a lake. One of us stood on the lakefront and the other drove around to the other side of the lake, which is about eight-tenths of a mile across. The signal was clear and strong. We then tried the wide ends of the lake, two miles across. The signal was still clear and just a little less strong. I can't vouch for the 10-mile range, but I can give a strong thumbs up for 2 miles. We thought about trying the 25-mile test (illustrated as one on a mountaintop and the other down in a valley with no obstructions between them), but we would have had to drive to a location more than 50 miles away and we're trying to conserve gasoline.

As others have written, the interface leaves a little to be desired. Most but the simplest controls were not intuitive. I had to read the instructions, but that's not the worst thing in the world.

Others here have suggested favorable settings for good reception. The radios serve their purpose in those settings, I guess. I'd have to give this a mixed result--any kind of obstruction seems to cause a severe decrease in range.