Motorola T5522 Talkabout Radios

Motorola T552 Talkabout Radios

Price: £99.99

Weight: Not a lot, but we lost the piece of paper we wrote this down on...

Features: Set includes two radios, rechargeable batteries and desktop recharger, will also run on AA cells, 3 km range, 8 channels, 36 codes, battery meter, swivel belt clip, keypad lock, timeout timer, no call charges, high-impact polycarbonate construction, 'tested to withstand the equivalent of five years useage'.

Dead handy in certain situations Range is variable, 14 hours to recharge.

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The Concept Motorola's T552 radios are basically souped up walkie talkies. The basic set for just under £100 includes two handset units and a recharger - you can also buy a waterproof bag, a hands-free set up and a nylon carry case for easier stowage. Range is claimed to be 3 km, but that's line of sight and heavy foliage and / or big chunks of landscape can reduce that considerably.

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Features You get as many features as you can manage really - all the electrickery seems present and correct with a choice of eight channels, various interference suppressors, a scanning option so you can find your dim mate who's changed channel without telling you, a key pad lock etc.

The units come with rechargeable batteries and a charger, which is great, though you can use AAs if you want. Life based on an estimated 90- per-cent standby time use is around12 hours with the rechargeables or a more useful 30 hours with alkaline AAs. The one snag with the rechargeables is that it takes up to 14 hours to get back to full charge. The display does include a battery meter though, so you have an idea of what's going down.

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In Action We found the Motorolas straightforward to use, though like any electrical device with an LCD menu - think mobile phones - it takes a while to work out what does what.

Probably the best use we found for them was on long mountain climbing and scrambling routes, where your partner disappears round corners, the wind whistles and belay calls get really confused. With the Motorolas you can use your normal calls, but with the luxury of actually being able to hear them. Potentially a life saver in fact.

We found the best place to mount them was on the shoulder strap of a pack, close to your head, so you could hear the incoming bleep more easily. Incidentally, you have to leave a pause before speaking or the bleep buries your first word, but you soon get used to it.

With distances of only 50 metres involved, there were no range problems at all and we reckon they'd be great for climbing instructors or for club use. You'd want a waterproof case though - we've heard from people who say they don't like water - and possibly a handsfree kit.

They can also some in handy for walking or mountain biking groups. One at the front and one at the back means that if something goes wrong, the tail end charlie can call ahead to the front man and minimise confusion. That's particularly the case with groups of mountain bikers when a simple mechanical at the back of the group can throw things into confusion with a load of shall we / shan't we go on / back debates as everyone tries to work out what's happened.

They're not going to replace mobile phones though, the range is too limited and subject to interference by hills, large shrubberies etc. They might work well on high mountains though, where there's line of sight communication between camps.

More specifically we found them easy to use and we didn't manage to break them...

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Verdict

We haven't given the Motorolas a mark since we don't really have anything to compare them with. However they feel well made and are easy to use and Motorola is an established electrical manufacturer so we'd expect them to be as good or better than anything else out there. It's also a big plus that you get a fully functioning pair plus batteries and charger in one pack for around 100 quid, or £99.99 if you're going to be anal.

We suspect the main market for these is with professional guides and instructors and possibly mountain rescue teams, but if you climb a lot of mountain routes or get out mountain biking in groups, they could make your life easier and, potentially safer. Not quite mobile phones without tarifs as the range is limited and variable, but within those limitations these are easy to use, seem tough and work well.

Drawbacks? The belt swivel mounts supplied aren't great on rucksac shoulder straps and the 14-hour recharge is slow, plus for multi-day trips you'll either need a fag socket recharger or to use AA cells instead of the rechargeables supplied.

Overall, dead useful in the right situations, whether they're worth buying depends on you and the sort of stuff you're getting up to. If it's long mountain routes or fragmented group days out, they could make your life easier.

More information or phone 01926 339388

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