FRS is Family Radio Service. No license, 460-some odd MHz that is UHF mentioned above. Nearly all the inexpensive radios are FRS: Cobra, Midland, Motorola (actually designed by a company called "Giant" and made in China People's Radio Factory No 46, the only Motorola employee to have any contact with those radios is the accountant who cashes the royalty check for the use of the name).
usually sold as a pair for $60
the "range" is just a marketing slogan. You will get much much less range in flat treed terrain, much much less to nothing in steep canyons and mountains and longer range mountain top to mountain top line of sight. but a mile or so is pretty realistic nearly all the time.
There are 22 "channels" (individual frequencies) assigned to FRS (used to be 14) and nearly all of them have a "code", I would never buy one that did not have this code. If two user groups pick the same "channel" but different code they will almost never hear each other, but rarely will interfere with the other group. Learn how to program them and don't use the default channel/code it has when its first powered on.
We use FRS in some of our local clubs for Line to Pits communications in High Power Rifle Competition (200 to 1000 yards).... channel 2, code 23 of course!
Ham radio could be even better, Baofeng handheld ham radios are better than and cost less ($30 each) than FRS radios. But every person using the radio must have a ham license.
if the area you hunt has a ham radio repeater, you quite possibly will have clear communications for tens of miles in every direction, except for the steep canyons and areas shaded by mountains from the mountain/tower the repeater is on. I wish my hunting partners would all get ham licenses. But we typically never get so far away that FRS doesn't work, well one trip we did, but climbing a hill got me back in range....
FRS are notoriously cheaply built and the batteries die at annoying times. I usually have several spare radios in the truck and everyone hunting partner I give a radio to gets spare batteries. (if they come with chargeable batteries, those will have a terrible usable life, plan on using Alkaline batteries on hunts.)
MURS (Multi-Use Radio Service) is 5 channels in the 150 MHz range (VHF High) no license but very hard to find radios for that band.
GMRS radios require a license that is good for the whole family and only the family, not all your friends and hunting buddies, they need their own $65 license. Radios tend to cost more >$100 also in the 460 MHz UHF band like FRS. but the range is likely to be a bit better due to power level and radio quality. There are GMRS repeaters but not nearly as many as ham repeaters.
Marine radios 150 MHz VHF range are priced like GMRS but are only legal on boats on water.
Most other "commercial" type radios require some kind of business (or as mentioned agricultural) license, which likely limits their use to the business geographical area and perhaps business use, so they might not be legal for hunting.
Poole
