FRS/GMRS Two-ways

I bought a pair of Cobra PR-560WX 1 watt radios at Walmart for $49 w/charger and ni-clad rechargables early this spring for pit use on my home range. I had in mind to buy the Motorola "Talk-Abouts" but a geek CB'ing buddy of mine said to buy the Cobra's instead, so I did.

They are the first set of FRS/GMRS radio's I have used and I'm pretty darn impressed with them. They are rated for 6 miles and actually work well at that distance on the high plains. They are clear, have good using features, pretty easy on batteries, 22 channels with 38 "privacy" codes on each channel. They even have an emergency weather channel reciever that gives me a running weather report. They come with an earphone and have an hands free feature, makes it easy to have the earphone under muffs and still communicate with the "pits" without breaking position.

I still can't believe they where only $49 a pair and folks still think trading with China is a bad idea.

I had my wife marking my target one afternoon and she decided they would be just the thing for horse shows. Now we have 4 of them and two chargers LOL. We now find ourselves using them around the place and outdoors, they are proving rugged enough.

I have since found that Cobra has a set of 3 watt FRS/GMRS radios that are rated at 10 miles for $90 a pair w/chrger ect. The ones I have are powered by 4 AAA's, the 3 watt radio's run on AA's. I'm set up good with rechargable AA's and a solar charger. It would be good to stick with AA's if I can for SHTF considerations.

Anyone using the more powerfull of these radio's, keeping thier limitations in mind these radio's have some obvious tactical applications.

I'm pretty green with these radio's in general, what should I know about using these things? What about Motorola's, Whats avaliable out there?

Teuf,