Gadget Review: Cobra 310WX

   Author:
          Joseph Reagle <[email protected]>
   Date:
          20001114

   I purchased a pair of [3]microTALK FRS-310WX Transceivers from
   [4]Outpost.com. Outpost's price was154.95; then subtract the [5]$40
   Cobra Rebate and the 5% [6]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 [7]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.

      [7] http://popupcamping.tripod.com/frs.html

   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.


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Regards,          http://www.mit.edu/~reagle/
Joseph Reagle     E0 D5 B2 05 B6 12 DA 65  BE 4D E3 C1 6A 66 25 4E
MIT LCS Research Engineer at the World Wide Web Consortium.

* This email is from an independent academic account and is
not necessarily representative of my affiliations.