36 Miles is Fantasy, License Required, September 11, 2011

I am going to give a qualified review - I took my Ham radio exam 20 years ago. I bought the 3689's on my visit to Florida - at $64 it blows the local Best Buy / Walmart offerings out of the water. They said waterproof - I used them at Blizzard Beach Water Park - plunged into water on the biggest slide in the world, did all the rides, swam for an hour with them under water, let my 5 year old throw it in the pool and take a shower with it! The mike on on of them stopped working, but after 30 mins (give it a shake) - good as new. We all know they won't do 36 miles, that just tells you they are the max allowed power of about 5 watts, so you can get about 3 miles or so. If you are in an open area of course more. They are really well made and nice to hold and the features are good. You have group call so you can call one or all units, you can also make all units switch channel. The lock button is good and the PTT button is high power at the top and full 5 watts at the bottom - a good idea...

Be warned, Amazon is combining reviews for all Uniden 2-way radios.Despite being drastically different models, Amazon has classified them as different "styles" of the same product. Use caution when reading reviews, the specific model shows at the top of each review.Hope this helps other confused people.

I'm an electrical engineer with many years experience specifically in RF (that's Radio Frequency).This review is meant as a heads up to the ordinary consumer who is probably not an RF engineer.These radio's "channels" actually span the Family Radio Service (FRS) and General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS).In the US you are required to get a license from the FCC to use GMRS. It costs $75. The FRS requires no license, but is restricted to 1/2 a watt of power. GMRS can use up to 5 full watts, but if you're unlucky enough to get caught (which is unlikely) you can get a huge fine, which will ruin any trip. This information is easily googled and will also be in the instruction manual for the radio. Just search for "GMRS license". Or go to the FCC's website...Also, these units transmit in the 450MHz range. At best the rubber duck antenna MIGHT give unity (as in zero) gain, but will probably exhibit a loss, which means you'll actually be...