Dakota AlertMURS Radio - M538-HT MURS Wireless VHF Transceiver - Handheld 2-Way Radio License Free - Multi-Use Radio Service, MURS Walkie Talkie

We currently use three of these handheld units and plan to purchase a fourth. Here in rural southwestern Ohio, where there are lots of hills and woods, the 1 watt output of these radios provide a one mile range reliably. While traveling in convoy on long and unobstructed stretches of highway, the range is greater. They are used infrequently and have provided communications for five weekend long events over the past two months. For well under one hundred dollars, I did not expect much. These units exceeded my expectations.While the manual that comes with the radio is not very detailed, vender support is outstanding. I had a question regarding charging the batteries and received a reply within one business day. They recommended charging for 24 hours when new or totally depleted and overnight for normal daily use. These radios use commonly available rechargeable AA batteries and not the expensive type found on many amateur and commercial handheld radios. In other words, no special order for replacement rechargeable batteries. Also, at need, regular alkaline batteries may be used. (Attempting to charge the alkaline type batteries will damage the unit) The rechargeable batteries supplied work surprisingly well. We keep our transmissions short and to the point and regularly operate for two days and more per charge, especially if we turn them off for the night. These radios are extremely easy on the batteries while receiving and only draw the batteries down appreciably while transmitting.I hope to acquire the matching Dakota Alert MURS transmitters to provide wireless and portable security at remote locations. Allowing us to monitor the area around the vehicles or camp while in the woods etc.These radios are not water resistant nor do they provide military grade shock resistance. These radios are not "industrial strength", but neither is the price. They do provide all five of the unlicensed MURS frequencies while many others only provide one or two operating frequencies. They are affordably priced with great customer support from the vendor, Home Controls / Home Security 4 Less. In summary, good value for the money.

These relatively inexpensive radios bridge the gap between FRS and more costly "business" radios, without requiring FCC licensing, which most folks don't bother with when using certain FRS frequencies, or so I'm given to understand. Or maybe it was just us...Anyway, back to the radio: pretty rugged, took a few good drops and one of ours being left out in the rain before showing only a little drop in the volume. Very useful that there is a desktop version of the same radio, a feature I couldn't find when we used FRS types. You have to unscrew both the belt clip and another screw for the battery cover to get to the batteries, but I haven't had a set of the supplied batteries fail to recharge yet. Reminds me: whereas with FRS radios you had to replace the OEM battery pack or equivalent if you want to recharge with the batteries in the unit, or use disposable batteries. The Dakota Alerts use a bank of rechargeable AA-size cells, so readily available replacements are all over the place, at any hardware store or rat shack!

Received used, previously returned unit - Bad Experience - waste of time to return. Too bad because these are OK radios and work well, if you can receive a new one from Amazon when you order.

We bought this hand held radio and 10 base stations for our children's ministry. I love that there is absolutely zero interference. It's easy to hear and very simple for any volunteer to use. Our 10 rooms are spread out over 3 floors and every unit works flawlessly. The units are sturdy and reliable - I'm certain they'll last for years.There are two reasons I didn't give it 5 stars. First, though it says there are many sub-channels, there is not a way to program one unit to receive more than one channel. For example, I thought we could give each classroom a different channel and let our central desk receive every classroom at once. That is not the case. Therefore, every room hears every communication every time - which is not ideal, but in our case isn't a showstopper. Secondly, the "call" button has five different tones, but they all sound so much alike that they aren't useful for announcing a major alarm. Again, I had planned to use different sounds for different messages (1: general announcement, 2: fire emergency, etc). Unfortunately, because they have similar sounds, we are just using one general sound to get everyone's attention.We used these units to replace walkie talkies and we are quite happy with the upgrade. Having a rechargeable battery is much simpler, and the base units plug into the wall (saving money on batteries!).You can buy these with confidence that they'll work without interference, but don't count on them being too high tech.

Great radios. I bought 2 of them. Been using almost 3 months on all day. Prior I used GMRS radios for over 10 years and I will never go going back once I tried these. These work on a different frequency and I have never heard any others talking on them. They also have privacy channels and they use cheap AAA rechargeable batteries that can be found anywhere with a 40-50 hour life on a single charge.. I also bought their base stations that can be plugged in 24 hours a day while being left on. This is the ticket for a farm or ranch so look no further. I just wish I could find a case for them.

The feature I like the most is replaceable battery power rather than rechargeable built-in batteries. This allows continued use in power out conditions where the electricity might be out for days. The MURS band is very quiet and requires no license. Two watts doesn't go a great distance if one of the units is inside a building, but should go a mile or so in open line of sight. Also, the antenna is replaceable so you could put an antenna on your roof or car. If you know a Ham Radio Club, they could shorten a 2 meter antenna slightly to get the SWR correct. (It's Not a 2 meter radio, but slightly higher in frequency.) I purchased two of these, to use with the desktop version made by the same company. One died about a year in with light use.