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hpr_transcripts/hpr0156.txt

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+Episode: 156
+Title: HPR0156: FRS/GMRS Walkie Talkie Review
+Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0156/hpr0156.mp3
+Transcribed: 2025-10-07 12:30:58
+
+---
+
+.
+Hello and welcome to an episode of Hacker Public Radio
+I'll be your host for today Deep Geek
+Today on Hacker Public Radio this show
+a product review of FRS GMRS Walkie Talkies
+A Reload Radio Shack
+Perhaps you've seen these Walkie Talkies at Radio Shack
+Now I'm going to talk to you about today that I recently purchased
+They're like hang on a peg and there's a plastic package
+and there's a pair of walkie talkies
+And the packaging says FRS GMRS Walkie Talkies
+Up to a 10 mile range
+And these units retail for about $40 for the pair
+Which comes $20 a piece
+So there are pair of walkie talkies there
+I got to mention that they are a good looking pair of walkie talkies
+Back when I was a kid and it was CB radios
+And the walkie talkies were big clunky
+They looked more like something out of a World War II movie
+These things are small sexy units
+With a tiny built-in antenna
+They have a gold faceplate
+Looks good
+You know
+The kiddie walkie talkies
+I looked at them recently
+And preparation for this episode of HPR
+And the kiddie walkie talkies
+A thousand feet
+Yes feet
+Range
+So the kiddie talkies
+One channel
+You're not going to get out
+You're not going to get any distance out of them
+Certainly because
+The range in the real world test
+Is only a fraction of what they say
+That's what they say up to
+But I'd like to talk about that later
+Want to get a little bit more technical
+About these units
+Okay walkie talkies
+What's the big deal? You know
+You push the button
+You're talking to it
+The other one pops alive
+Well these things are a little bit more functional
+Than what I expected
+First of all, they have a built-in scanner
+So they come with 22 channels
+You push the scanner button
+It scans all 22 channels
+And you can pick up some interesting things
+Out there
+You can pick up a couple of powerful base stations
+In the distance
+I can tell because I can hear the static
+You know as they broadcast
+I also found a
+What appears to be a
+Spanish language taxi dispatcher
+Operating
+And closer to the city
+It's been a lot of fun
+What can I say?
+Picking up all these things out there
+In my neighborhood where I'm at
+There's not a lot of use of these
+Point to channels, getting a free channel
+Isn't a big deal at all
+However, from reading the web
+About these I can see that
+A very popular usage is
+Family outings
+And going to theme parks
+And I understand that using these
+In a theme park
+It can get quite busy on these frequencies
+Which is the second
+Really interesting feature I didn't expect
+Is that there's a thing called
+Privacy codes
+Like the range
+Instead of just telling you how powerful something is
+Off the bat
+They're a little zealous about
+Simplifying things from marketing
+It's not really privacy
+What it is is there's a code you set
+And that code
+Will only activate
+Other units
+They're listening for the same code
+So it really should be called
+The screen out other units
+Function but that would sound really bad
+They call privacy codes
+And the ones I got you know
+Had a hundred of these
+So even if the channels were getting crowded
+You know you could say okay
+Use channel 22 on privacy code
+14 and then only
+When I used it
+Only people listening for privacy code
+14 would pick up
+Provide they had the privacy code set
+Eavesdropping is still a big issue
+So
+These little units
+Will is up to 10 miles
+Well
+You know maybe if you have
+Two people staying on a mountain top
+To 10 miles of distance between them
+And nothing in between
+You can get 10 miles
+Inactuality testing these
+Driving around from Cauticore
+I got one mile
+And in really bad terrain on foot
+I got a half a mile
+So
+You know
+They're really
+I'm going to when I talk technical
+A little bit more technical about these things
+I'll talk about the power involved
+It's an issue
+But before I get to that
+I do want to talk about licensing
+Because there's a very good chance
+That if you're listening to this program
+You're listening in the states
+In the United States of America
+And here two way conversations
+By radio governed by the Federal Communications Commission
+FCC.gov
+These walkie talkies are supposed to be licensed
+The license cost $80
+Requires no test
+And applies to your whole family
+So for $80 for five years
+You and everyone in your family
+Can use these walkie talkies
+Nice and legal like
+So I highly recommend getting the license
+Of being official about it
+However I do note from reading the
+Statistics on the web pages
+That there are a lot more sales
+There are license applications
+There are a few slight restrictions
+On the use near Canada
+Apparently a few of the frequencies
+Are being used from other services
+And Canadian jurisdictions
+But that's all in the manual
+So read the manual
+So let's get a little bit more technical
+Let's talk about that range
+Now these walkie talkies they say
+Up to 10 mile range
+And I said that I got in a real world
+About a mile
+In a car
+Well they're really
+One watt walkie talkies
+So
+If you were interested in these
+I would definitely look online
+And get a pair of five watt
+Five watt walkie talkies
+In this class
+Other
+Most powerful walkie talkies you can get
+That will
+Actually effectively triple your range
+So you should be able to get
+Three miles in a car
+And I can really bad
+Train on foot maybe
+Mile into half
+Which could be really useful
+So I would recommend
+Going paying the few extra dollars
+You know maybe you end up paying twice as much
+Be much more useful
+You know I have a rather large family
+That I'm married into
+And we can actually use the extra units
+So I don't mind
+But that might not be your situation
+Half a watt to five watts
+Now
+The walkie talkies that I'm particularly talking about
+The 10 mile range radio shacks
+There's eight channels
+For family radio service that do not require licensing
+And if you switch to one of those channels
+It cuts back to a half a watt
+And then you can use it
+Without license sure
+As much as you want
+For whatever you want
+And it's not like amateur radio
+Businesses forbidden
+You're allowed to discuss your family business
+So if your family owns a business
+And you're delivering stuff
+Use these to your heart's content
+But the other channels
+The other
+Fourteen channels
+Are more powerful in this unit
+Progressive one watt
+Need the licensing
+And if you get the more powerful one
+The five watts
+So you need the licensing for those
+And they broadcast in the
+Four hundred
+Megahertz band
+Do you guys remember
+The old UHF channels
+You know you like
+There used to be a dial on a TV set
+Between two and 13
+You would have these other
+Fourteen through 83
+That puts it about
+The old channel 80
+And they got rid of that
+That's where these are
+You know the public does get a few
+Channels out of the deal
+Instead of the FCC just
+Making money at an auction of
+Frequencies
+And that band is known
+For its line of site communication
+So the licensing used to be
+A lot stricter
+And the CB systems band
+Radio service days
+When those were a fed
+And a fashion
+You used to have to license
+To operate around 27 megahertz
+Not 200 megahertz
+And at 27 megahertz
+During the right
+Weather conditions
+Or meteorological conditions
+Would be more correct
+Can increase the range
+But this frequency
+It's strictly line of site
+Where the conditions show
+And affect it too much
+What this frequency does
+Effect very nicely
+And not radio enthusiasts
+Don't understand this
+But radio frequency affects antenna size
+And so
+This very high frequency means
+That you have a very small built-in antenna
+Whereas the old
+You know 27 megahertz units
+Used to have an antenna
+That would
+Untell a scope and be
+You know maybe six feet above your head
+So
+For the bank for your buck
+Not use cell minutes
+Go back and forth
+You got to move cars around
+Or stuff like that
+I would recommend getting units
+Just like these
+Okay, today's gig tidbit
+I was actually considering doing
+I talked about CB radio a lot in this episode
+And I was actually considering
+Doing a CB radio retrospective
+And talk about the
+Wild and woolly days of CB radio
+And I said you know what
+So I decided to spare you
+So but the best anecdote
+And to give you a
+Concept of the change of
+Technology because we are
+Interest in technology here
+In the time to have one good story
+One really good story
+It has to do with
+What's known as free banding
+Which is a word that
+The amateur radio scene uses
+For to mean operating
+And frequencies you aren't supposed to be on
+Now the old days of CB radio
+You know you might remember
+There were 23 channels
+And we didn't have microcontrollers
+Yet in those days
+I'm going way back to the 70s now
+You know
+Someone nicknamed me Gramps
+At the Hope conference
+But then pull up a chair
+And that grandpa tell you a story
+You know
+CB radio used to be
+All solid state electronics
+This came after tubes and before chips
+So if you opened up your CB radio
+You would see 23 pairs of crystals
+Standing in a row
+And each pair was for
+Each channel that you could select on the far the radio
+And one was a transmit crystal
+That controlled the frequency you transmitted on
+One was the received crystal
+And the transmit crystals
+Were cut a little bit above
+Or a little bit below the received crystals
+And CB radio was big in the 70s
+I mean you know there's a bunch of movies
+I'm sure you all seen Smoky and the Bandit
+You know
+A lot of people for a lot of people
+What that meant was that we had to pretend to be truck drivers
+For a while
+But for
+Hacker types
+For people who were interested in technology and experimenting
+There was a whole scene of
+Pushing radios in directions
+They weren't meant to be pushed in
+And CB radios were particularly vulnerable to this
+You know
+Pushing radios very
+They don't mean to go
+You know one technique
+Involved in hacking in general
+Is to just try switching things around
+Or mixing and matching things
+Case in point
+Amateur radio operators in this country
+Often use which knows a linear amplifier
+So if they're in a car
+And their car radio you know
+They might put through an amplifier
+That would multiply it by 300 times
+And they would go up to a legal
+1500 watt
+Limit for amateur radio operators
+The limit for CB radios is 4 watts
+Alright
+So like one of the things people used to do
+You know
+To get out further with the radio
+Is they would take a ham radios
+Ham radio operators
+And then you amplify it
+Plug into the CB radio
+And have you know
+The equivalent of your local
+AM news station
+In a car you know
+And then they would wonder why the paint melted
+Where the antenna was mounted on the car
+These things happened
+But you know
+The country wasn't to CB radio
+It was a fashion they were making movies about
+Involving CB radios
+They were making TV shows that featured CB radios
+And creating each other
+What we're driving talking about
+Work hops were a crap
+It was crowded
+And we all wanted to use it
+So some people sought to alleviate the crowdingness
+So what some people did
+Is they used the old hacker technique
+Of you know
+Pulling apart components
+And stitching things around
+And if you opened up your CB radio
+And took the last one
+Channel 23
+All of a sudden you had a really really quiet channel
+Where you, your friends
+And maybe a few people around you
+Who were as clever as you
+Hung out
+Well this was all fine and good
+After CB radio died down
+We found out the truth of the matter
+Which was
+That this practice event
+Effectively put you on a frequency
+Reserved for the Central Intelligence Agency
+Of America
+If I can imagine a list of
+Federal agencies
+I don't want to screw with
+They're on it
+So you know
+Back in those days
+We were hijacking the CIA's frequencies
+Nice to find out later
+Oh well
+That's my gig tip it for today
+Have a great day
+You've been listening to hacker public radio
+Thank you for listening to hacker public radio
+HPR is sponsored by caro.net
+So head on over to CARO.18
+For all of us in need
+Thanks for watching
+Thanks for watching