Cobra Electronics MicroTalk LI5600-2DX (14 Channels) Two Way Radio

My husband got me involved in hunting, hiking and mushrooming years ago. We are fortunate to have our own property of 85 acres of woods to hunt and hike on. The terrain is hilly with ravines and gullies on it. You can easily loose sight of each other, and if your not familiar with the area, you can easily confuse your sense of direction.

For safety reasons a couple years ago, we felt the need to have a way to communicate with each other during hunting season. We have several friends that also hunt with us, and though everyone has their own blind and everything is prearranged about when and where anyone would go if they left their blind, there are many factors that you cannot predict.

Our initial purchase was some inexpensive handheld cb radios. They were big and clumsy, but did work somewhat. There was a lot of noise disturbance and a lot of chit chat going on. We found the only way to control the noise, was to leave them turned off and every half hour turn them on to check in with everyone. This worked but again, they were noisy and clumsy.

Last year we bought the Cobra family radio, we were fortunate to find them on sale, a pair of them were $49.00. They have two channels to select from, run on 4 AAA batteries that seem to have a long life, even in cold weather. They have an antenna that folds flat against the body, and a call signal or alert button.

The battery life is so good, that we leave the radios on all the time while hunting, and have constant communication.

The cobra radio is small enough to easily fit in a front pocket. They also have a cord wrist band, that I found was useful to slip in between a button and button hole on your shirt or top, this is to insure that it doesn't accidently fall out when you are moving around, but if it does, the band is buttoned down to your shirt or top and isn't going very far.

It covers approximately a two mile range, but this depends on the terrain. Your transmission or receiving will be blocked by hills or tall obstacles.

The voice transmission is crystal clear, even whispers come thru well.

You do pick up other family radio transmissions if the users are in your range, but you can easily switch to the other channel.

We went to Kmart and bought very inexpensive headphones, (in the two dollar range). They can be plugged into the radio and you can hear thru the headphones, for hunting this can be an important feature, plus it can free up your hands.

We also bought a set of just the ear plugs, it fits snugly into one ear and works as well as the headsets. This was purchased at Kmart also for $1.50.

There is no reason to buy expensive walkman type headsets in stereo, as the radios will not transmit in stereo. The cheapest ones you can find, will work as well as the more expensive ones.

I bought my husband the voice activated headset that is optional. It was somewhat pricey, it ran around $45.00 for the headset. I bought this separate from the radio, thru a online warehouse. It was the best price I could find. That was in Dec. of 1999

The voice activated is great for hunting or instances where you need use of both hands. It has a small thin bar that curves down in front of your mouth and works like any voice activated device.

The first time my husband used it, he was bundled up in heavy hunting clothes, carrying his gun and ammo pouch, thermos and whatever else you carry with you, every one else in our hunting group had the cobra radios, all on the same channel, but his was the only voice activated one. By the time the rest of us got to our blinds, we were all laughing as quietly as we could, for every step Bill, my husband took, we could hear him breathing louder and louder, occasionally he would give a sort of grunt or sigh, his breathing becoming more and more labored as he climbed the last hill to his blind....needless to say...everyone had jokes to crack on the air about the sounds he had made getting to his blind.

I also found a use for the radios with other events. We even take them to the grocery store. The store we shop at is a super store, it is huge, with grocery items on one side and clothing and pharmacy etc on the other side. We often split up or lose track of each other. Finding each other now is a snap. I simply call and say.."hey what aisle are you in?"

I am a crafter and do craft shows, I take them with me to the craft show, and if my ten year old grand daughter wants to drift around a little, I can stay in touch with her, though she is usually just calling me on the radio to tell me she found something neat she thinks I might want to buy her!

I have a friend that his wife is a semi invalid, he has felt that he could not leave her alone to even visit with a neighbor across the street. I told him about the cobra radio, and he now has a set, it now allows him some freedom to work in the yard or visit with the neighbors, knowing she can easily reach him if she needs him.

I think they can be a asset to our life and are a great buy for the price.