Keeping in Contact at CP..

Gang,
I just bought a pair of Motorola FR50 Talkabouts for my CP trips there (car rides - following each other) and in the park itself for meeting times..etc...

I was just wondering how many on the list here have used them for car rides and in the park and how they work?? Is it truly a 2 mile range and is it pretty clear for talking in the park...Do you butt heads with other peoples conversations frequently on same channels..I mean there are 14..how common is this??

I seen on another thread someone mentioned using these "possibly" for a CP place meeting day tool...Neat idea...

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Jeffrey Spartan and Proud New PAPPA
ACE
MSU National Champs 2000
http://www.msu.edu/~armbrus9/cp

Last year I used them with a fair degree of success. CP is fairly flat, so that helps. Going in to restrooms or restaurants might make reception a little tough. This year I bet everyone will have these things, so people stepping all over each other might be a problem.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Guide to The Point
"And he says 'I'm goin' crazy up there at the lake...'"

I haven't used them at a park yet, but my travel club used 8 TalkAbout 101's (that's an older model) during the annual SkiFest.

Given the larger ranges involved, and the number of potential obstructions (trees, mountains, etc.), we were very impressed with them. I would say there would be NO problem using FRS radios at an amusement park. Crowded channels may be another story, though.

We also used them briefly while driving back down the mountain, and they worked pretty well for car-to-car communication as well.


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--Greg
http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/

I used a pair of Audiovox FRS radios last winter for the drive down to IAAPA between cars. Between cars they worked great, but watch the battery life. In the convention hall they were less useful, and at Dollywood they worked fairly welll, but did not give us full-park coverage.

Of course, Cedar Point is much flatter than Dollywood, which should help. I suggest doing some tests. If you have not bought your radios yet, I suggest you investigate the ones with the privacy codes (CTSC or whatever it is) as FRS radios are popular and becoming more so. Mine don't have the codes, and sometimes I find myself wishing they did...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

We used them a little last summer for one of our trips. However, I am not sure that they did expand to the full two mile coverage radius. We were not interrupted by others using them although we used them mainly for the car trip. It was senior skip day and we needed to take two cars... Anyway, I would recommend not keeping them on because they tend to drain the batteries and rather to turn them on every hour or two for a fifteen minute period or something. Just a suggestion!!!

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2000 Millennium Force Ride Operator!!!

On closing day last year I used a pair of Motorola's. I really didn't experience a problem with the reception (even when I went into the restroom...). I think Jeff is right when he said "everyone will have these things this year" because last week at PKI I noticed about 10 different guests carrying them.

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Brandon Sorc
www.spiritofthepoint.com

We used a pair of Memorex brand FRS radios on a recent trip to DisneyWorld. They worked great between the vehicles - often more than a mile apart - and in the parks, we only had minor interference one time for about two minutes. Ours have 14 channels and each channel has 38 security codes, so in effect you have like 532 channels available. The Memorex radios go into a battery-saving mode automatically after not being used for "X" minutes. We used them daily for almost two weeks, and only had to change batteries one time. Anxious to see how they work at CP when we visit in August.

We used them at the park with no problems mine radius on a good day is 2.5 miles we tested this up at my cottage and to my grandfathers house (2.5 miles away) and it was clear as a bell. The only problem i had was when i was on the lift hill of magnum my mom started talking to me and i almost lost the thing over the side going down the hill. They work GREAT-------------
magnum of MF now that is a real question. *** This post was edited by cplove on 4/18/2000. ***

Thanks for all the Input!!

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http://www.msu.edu/~armbrus9/cp.html
Jeffrey Spartan and Proud New PAPPA
MSU National Champs 2000

Your right Brandon, I think BillyBob had one there too.

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daniel j. haverlock
'99 Magnum Count: 801
www.spiritofthepoint.com

Yeah Dan he kept breaking up, but I think he was saying something about his rig on I-271 :)

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Brandon Sorc
www.spiritofthepoint.com