Gadget Review: Cobra 310WX [ascii]

Author:: Me
Date:: 20001114

I purchased a pair of microTALK FRS-310WXTransceivers from Outpost.com. Outpost's price was154.95; then subtract the $40 Cobra Rebate and the 5% ebates.com discount and I ended up paying $109.20. That includes overnight shipping and delivery!

The features are great (scan, memory, filter codes, privacy, vibro-ring, VOX headset capable, water-resistant, etc.) and very easy to access. Just press function until your feature blinks, toggle it, then press enter. Though this unfortunately means oft used features can take some time to access.

I tested the range in three instances and pretty much confirmed the common understanding.

Neighborhood: I live in a densely populated urban area in Cambridge with most building being 3-6 stories high.
1. I positioned a transceiver in my bedroom (2nd floor) and placed my minidisc in front of it, turned on sync record and headed towards Harvard Square. Upon return (and expecting to hear a whole series of gleeful range tests made at various points) I realized my reception dropped within 400 ft of my apartment. However, the unit was in my bedroom, and my radio path intersected my apartments interior wall, exterior wall, and about 14 other houses (the length of that block.)
2. I positioned a transceiver in my living room window overlooking a small park and walked towards Central Square (opposite direction). This time my range doubled: 800 ft. This test was not obscured by my apartment and had some "breathing room" with respect to the park.
Beach
- I tested this with a friend at a beach, I had one unit and she had the other in a car. She drove about half a mile away from me, then turned left and drove 2.2 miles along a sand bar at which point she was starting to break up. The "almost can't hear you" position was about 2.7 miles away (as the crows flies) behind a hilly part of the island with many houses on it. I was very pleased with this. Note, the security feature (adding an audile wave-form to our transmission) had no affect on transmission and actually tended to make it clearer as it isolated the speech from background static. However, I could not make a connection with her using CTCSS tones on our channel.
Work
- At the Laboratory for Computer Science I could talk to a colleague in the basement from the 9th floor! This surprised me given the poor (but acceptable) cellular service given the construction of this building and all its equipment.

In conclusion, FRS has its constraints, but within those constraints the feature-laden Cobra device works very well and I'm very happy with the price I paid for a pair.