Prep Comms - FRS Mini-Series: The Gear That Works (and What to Avoid)

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

FRS radios aren’t all created equal. Some blister-pack sets are cheap toys that break in a weekend, while others are solid enough to trust on family trips or in an emergency. In this third episode of the FRS Mini-Series, Caleb Nelson (K4CDN) takes a practical look at the gear: What really matters in an FRS radio (durability, batteries, usability) Why you shouldn’t believe the “35-mile range” marketing The difference between throwaway blister packs and quality FRS options Caleb’s go-to pick for a reliable family radio This isn’t about buying the most expensive radio on the shelf — it’s about choosing gear that works when your family needs it. And with September being National Preparedness Month, there’s no better time to make sure your radios are ready. Want the bigger picture? The Family Connect System webinar replay is available now. Watch here: www.familyconnectsystem.com Mentioned in this episode: BTECH FRS-A1 (Caleb’s pick): https://amzn.to/3UTnjgK Retevis RT15: https://amzn.to/3UTedki Retevis RB66P: https://amzn.to/4mIRbZt Retevis RB48: https://amzn.to/47HOP8T Motorola Waterproof FRS: https://amzn.to/4g5oV0Q Blog recap: hamradionetwork.com/ Family Connect System Webinar Replay: www.familyconnectsystem.com

All right, welcome back in to the prepcoms podcast. Hello. I'm Caleb Nelson K4 CD and we're going to continue our very short miniseries here regarding FRS Radio. That's the family radio service. We've talked about a couple of shows. You know, this is a service that we've mentioned before. The federal government allowed, air quotes, for the populace, the general populace to use,

kind of like CB, but not nearly as robust as CB radio for this. but works really good close in so like your neighborhoods your backyard parties the park maybe going to the shopping malls we've used them at theme parks all sorts of places so it's not the end-all be-all but really I mean guys if if you're a family and you're looking for something you're listening and you're just like oh this is so confusing I just want to be able to talk to my kids when they're not inside the house or I just want to start somewhere Well, this is it. I mean, sincerely, these things can be had for so little money.

It's really like a no-brainer not to have a couple at your house. So we're going to talk about that today. Like, what works, what doesn't, and what you can trust. And I'll default at the beginning to remind you that this is a mechanical device. It operates with electricity and batteries and whatnot. So they're going to fail. They're not bulletproof by any stretch of the imagination. And they're not meant to be.

That's why they're so affordable and most everybody can afford at least one or two sets. So let's talk about it for just a few minutes here. Again, I'm Caleb. Thank you for coming by the Prepcoms podcast. If you're on social media, if you know this or not, I'm most active on Instagram and would like to have you join us over there. We post a lot during the day and have a pretty good time. We've got a lot of great friends on Instagram. That's air quotes, but there's some good dudes and gals over there.

Come check us out. so these FRS radios are everywhere speaking of I sent an email maybe last week when you're listening to this in the present time where I showed FRS radios at our local hobby megastore you know like we have a hobby lobby in town we have two actually and they're kind of like Michaels or whatever you may have you know just painting and decor and whatever in the stem aisle they had you know model rockets and paints and magnet kits and robot building sets and FRS radios for 15 bucks a set. Now you had to buy additional batteries that they required four apiece, four double a piece, but the thing is you can find these radios anywhere. We're going to talk about that as we progress today. So you've got to kind of think about what's your goal with these radios? Why are you buying them? A lot of times you'll find that the ones at Hobby Lobby are the ones that may be a discount dollar type store that you find. maybe even the ones at Walmart in the kids section, you'll find them maybe Buzz Light

Year or, I don't know, Lego or somebody. They're going to be very cute and fun looking, maybe they're Barbie or whatever, but they're not going to be very durable. So, like, you can buy them for your kids and your kids can play with them for a while, and they may last years, depending on your kids. But if they were, you know, rough and tumble kids, more than likely, they're going to beat them to death in about two hours. So the ones that are kind of made cute.

and Chintsey for kids, they're going to be less reliable down the road. Now, I get it. Everybody wants to buy the fun one, right? Everybody wants the branded one that goes with their favorite action figure or gamer or whatever the kids like now. But just so, you know, they're worth buying if you want them. But down the road, the durability may not be there. Another thing in regard, especially of those, is the batteries.

Those usually come with a fitted for a double A battery, and most of them take about three to four AA batteries, which is not a big deal until your kids leave them on in the drawer. And next time they go to use them, now they're digging through your battery cache. So it may be that you buy the cheaper radios and invest in some rechargeable batteries. You just have to teach your kids this stuff. I mean, I did. And down the road, they got it. It took a little while.

But just make sure they don't throw the rechargeable batteries away. Don't ask me how I know. They're not the same. Mark them. Make them look different. Buy them a different color. Don't buy the same brand batteries so that they stand out to your kids. That's just a little dad tip there.

Here's the thing with kids radios. They're going to be really easy to use. They're going to have a power button. They're going to transmit button and usually a volume channel knob. Most of them will all have that. Some will be set up differently where the button will be on the front or the button will be on the side. If these are for your kids, make sure they're easy to use. You don't make it any harder on them to contact you.

than whatever. But again, if they're branded for kids, if they look like their favorite action hero, they're going to be easy enough to use. One of the other things that you'll notice in these kid style radios is sometimes the audio clarity is just not there. I mean, it might be that one of them sounds great and the other sounds like Charlie Brown's schoolteacher. And it's just because, again, the quality is not there and the focus was built on the design, the aesthetic, versus the actual use the radio internals. Okay, so bear that in mind. I'm not trying to talk you out of buying the buzz light, your walkie talkies. I'm just saying, um, buy those. Let your kids use them. Let them get used to having them around, but don't focus on those as a family. Like if you're a parent,

a grandparent, this fun to have those at your house, but buy your set a nice set, by yourself a nice set of radios and, um, and have those around too so that you and pop-paw can use them and that, you know, keep up with the kids. All right. So also on these packages, if they're branded for kids, or even if you'll find them in the sporting good sections, you'll see. Some of them will say these will talk 20, 30, 40 miles. Realistically, okay? This is UHF, 440 type megahertz in there. You're going to get about a half a mile, maybe in the woods, maybe. In a neighborhood, depending on the topography of your neighborhood, you'll get a mile. all maybe if you're lucky now if you're out in the middle of the desert where there's no

you know nothing in the way these things are so low powered maybe a couple of miles right and that's with nothing in between either of you now again that's not to knock on the frs radios that's just to tell you hey these are not ultra performer radios that are going to talk across the country those don't exist in reality but that's another story down the road listen they're not going to talk forever. They're not made to talk forever. They're made for family use. And most people think family use is the nuclear family, the mom, the dad, and 1.5 kids, I think it is nowadays. I don't know how that works. And generally, they're in the same neighborhood, the same house, the same yard, the same whatever. So that's what these radios are really meant for. And they work great in that

application. So you're going to find, again, you're going to find them everywhere and you're going to have to make a decision on what you want to buy. Do you want to buy them cute for the kids or you want to buy them to last? I say both, especially if you have kids or grandkids, maybe nieces and nephews. That way they don't think, oh, this is some hokey looking pawpaw radio. You know, this is, this is cool. This is, I don't even know what's cool anymore, but this is it. This Star Wars. Okay, so you got Grogu and the Mandalorian walkie-talkies for the kids to play with, and then you have some Motorola's or some Redovus or some B-Tex, something like that for yourself. You're immediately going to be able to tell the difference.

When you pick the toy one up versus a better quality, you'll be able to tell that they way different. You'll be able to see that the belt clips are going to hold better. Again, most toy sets are double A-powered, and then the better ends, sets or you're going to find a rechargeable battery option sometimes they come with battery packs built in and you can even buy and i encourage you to if you can find them by the additional spare battery pack so you always have something to fall back and remember if you have one rechargeable battery pack and it fails then you may as well throw your radio in the garbage if you have a spare now you're talking bad pun all right let's keep going you'll also find uh that the the toy ones are going to

break easier, which is, I know it's nonsensical, but they do that, so you'll go buy some more. And the better quality sets, you know, the $40, $50 sets, they're going to last longer. They're going to be able to take the beating that the toy ones can't. So my family and I work in a summer camp in Nashville, Tennessee, a couple of weeks out of the year, every year. They ask, hey, what are some radios we could use? I gave some suggestions. They decided on the BTX-FRS Alpha-1.

It's linked in the show notes, by the way. And this is my, like, primary pick for these radios. And the reason being is because they're using at the camp, they're using this particular radio to run the zip line. And that means they've got between two and four people working, talking to each other with these radios. And they're, you know, college age, older high school kids. And they're not, not rough on this stuff.

I mean, it's, you know, 100 degrees outside. You've got 30 kids. of time running the zip line. You're talking clear, go, sin, whatever. And they're not taking them and laying them down nicely or anything like that. And so I say all that to say this. They bought them before camp started. They lasted the entire camp season, which unto itself is a miracle. And they're still going. Literally, I talked to John the other day. The radios are still going. And that's awesome because that tells you that these radios can take a beating. The USB charge, you can replace the battery packs,

BTK FRS Alpha 1, link in the show notes. I've got some other suggestions in our blog post in the show notes as well. And they go anywhere from the, not necessarily the Lego toy brand or, you know, the Walmart blister pack radios. A little tougher, but in the same price range,

and I encourage you to check those out, especially if you've got kids. Now, here we are in September of 2025 to date the show. September every month. some people don't know this is national preparedness month and this is the time where the federal government says hey you know what everything may not stay the same so we want to encourage you to um you know maybe think about buying some stuff or preparing for something maybe doing something in advance and then they want you to forget about it for the other 11 months out of the year for some

reason but that's okay that's okay it is national preparedness month on instagram we're sharing stuff every day that may be a hint or a suggestion or whatever we'll be blogging a little bit more this month as well so make sure you check that out and we finally got the replay the family connect webinar up so if you are here and you're looking for a system for your family we've talked about these little entry level radios over the last couple of shows and now you're looking for some help to put a plan together to keep up with your kids with the radio or whatever uh family connect webinar, the system webinar is up and playing. There's a link in the share notes as well as our blog. Make sure you check it out. Really excited about that. That's the actual sponsor of the program

now. That is a online training that I've developed that is video, audio, all sorts of different mediums to help you and your family build a plan. You can check it out at family connect system.com. That's the commercial, by the way. So FRS radio is really, some are toys, some are not some are really well built like good little radios that you can get your hands on and you just have to decide what you want you can't look at the package to make oh this one says 30 miles and this one says 37 no buy the quality by this is funny buy one that you that's from a reputable dealer or if you don't know a reputable dealer in your own amazon check the one check the reviews it may have five stars but if it's only one review it doesn't matter

but if it's got four and a half stars with 3,000 reviews, this is probably a pretty good radio. I put some of those in the show notes. One of the things that I found with these radios is it's, you know, it's everything. People want cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap. They want the lowest price they can get. I understand that. Five kids, one income.

Totally understand it. But sometimes you need to spend. And if you really want something that's going to last, maybe you guys hike a lot. Maybe you, you know, you spend time at the racetrack. And you need something that's going to be able to take a, a beating or, you know, be able to put up with something outside. Motorola makes some really great waterproof FRS radios linked in the show notes. I mean, they're $100 a set, but, you know, I mean, they'll last.

They will last. And they're built like in an almost industrial type quality. They're not very sexy and they're not very cool. Well, that depends on who's looking at it. But the fact is, they'll last. So I want to encourage you to check those out. Anyway, here's the deal. We're going to continue one more show about FRS coming up next week.

but here's the thing. FRS radios are the best place to start for a family who needs a two-way radio solution. There you go. I've said it. Now, we're going to talk about some better solutions in the future episodes, but if you don't have anything and you don't want a big CB radio and you don't make that investment for the antennas and whatnot for the MERS radios, or maybe you want something that's a little easier to obtain when your family goes to target this weekend, FRS radios. You'll see them listed as FRS. You'll sometimes see them as family radios. Sometimes low power radio. You know what a walkie talkie looks like. So I was at Target yesterday. They've got them. I had to pick up a mouse pad, but they've got them. So don't fret. Amazon is full of options. We have them in our

store. We have them on our links. They're everywhere. They're easy to find and they're very inexpensive. So if you and your family need a two-way radio alternative method to communicate with each other, this right here is where to start. You don't have to go blow a bunch of money. No reason to spend a lot of money on this to start, okay? Get your feet wet with something that's affordable and get the understanding. And I know that sounds kind of funny to some of us listening to this program, but guys, there are people out there who didn't grow up with walkie talkies in their hands. They didn't grow up with dads who would go to Radio Shack and buy them stuff. They might not have grown up with a radio shack. So, you know, everybody's in a different

spot. And I'm just trying to convey that this is a really good place to start. All right, I'm going to go, but I'll be back next time. Remember the show notes. We're also on YouTube. You guys know you can watch or listen to the show on YouTube, so make sure you check that out. I know a lot of people like to get information over there. So thank you again for being here. It's always fun.

Remember the Family Connect webinar is playing right now, and the link is in the show notes. I'll be back next time. We'll finish up with FRS, and we're getting ever so close to the new CB Radio, GMRS. We'll see you next time, guys. God bless 73, y'all. You know,