Keith McCafferty good article and subject to talk about 2 way communications.

Through snowflakes I could make out my brother working down the opposite ridge less than 200 yards away, and I still couldn't raise him on the radio.

Answer: Most probable cause is called TROPOSHPERIC DUCTING or BENDING. Picture this, as you enter a lake and dive down, you notice a few feet down a dramatic change in temperature and now imagine the atmosphere around you being the same, a cold layer and a warmer layer above or in reverse. As light is reflected by heat and cold waves in the air, so does your radio transmission being reflected by the deference in air temperature.

At Eielson AFB, we can see the maintenance truck on the other end of the flight line. Even with 50 watt radio’s we still could not raise them due to TROPOSHPERIC DUCTING. We had to setup a repeater on the other end to talk to our flight line maintenance.

I've hunted 3 season's now carrying two-way's in my pack. I must admit that they are growing on me. It's my camp so I pretty much have written the rules. Don't call me every half hour wanting to know what I'm seeing. We can talk about that back in camp. Where we hunt is isolated and we have to ourselves. A rifle shot is either my hunting partner or me. Then we talk. We pre-arrange times to call and stick to them. My last bull was late in the day and I'm glad to have had the radio's to direct him to me with the meat/saw packs. Without the radio's I would never have had the bull skinned,quarted,and bagged by nightfall without getting my partner to me and helping. We were able to make camp that night without a bivouac in the timber thanks to the help of the two-way.

How many times have you been setting there and things are starting to ripen up! You got out there in the freezing cold an hour before the butt crack of dawn and been on the stand all day and now there is only 30 minutes of daylight left and does a small buck start working around you and still waiting for that Big Buck to step out. Then all of a sudden two guys start playing Marco Polo yelling Hey I’m over here, did you see anything or start firing shots trying to locate the other group. Doesn’t that make your blood boil!!

As for using 2 ways for illegal use, the problem is very remote. I have the abilities to transmit and receive frequencies below and above the GMRS bands and FRS bands and into the Government and Ham bands and yes I do have an FCC License for those transceivers! And when you think you’re all alone on that radio, someone is listening!!!! They monitor with a oscilloscope that reads out the frequency in wide band and the instantly tune in, BUSTED!!

Having the ability to broadcast live and living colors with 50 watts and come up on Law Enforcement repeaters in case of emergency like I have in the past, I prefer my “SPOT”!

I have used the GMRS portables (and I did get the $75 license; I'm on my second 5 years) and here on the coastal plains of NC they work OK but as been stated previously, far from the claims of the advertising. If I'm going remote, which means swamp here, I usually rely on my cell phone. Always check to insure you have a good signal first before relying on your cell. To keep from potentially spooking game I can set it to vibrate and if I have to call or talk to my buddy I can text him quietly. If I hunt a remote area that has no cell coverage, I always hunt with a buddy and will use the GMRS radio if necessary.

I started fishing for crappie two weeks ago. Used my old Lew`S speed stick lt. action, and I had a blast tossing Rebel and Rapala crankbaits... caught thirty four crappie keepers and threw back five largemouth..

Consider Amateur (HAM) Radio -
- Many hand-held, portable and mobile radio options.
- The license is less than $20 for 10 years, but each individual does have to license and take a fairly easy test for Technician class.

you know i never really thought of radios like that but i guess you learn something new everyday and did today thats for sure

"By law, hunters aren't allowed to use radios to discuss strategy-not even to report the location of game."

I write quite a few articles a year on update hunting regulations and have never seen this in any state's regulation. Any chance we can get a source on this claim?

Use 'em if you got 'em but remember to not call for help for something that isn't really an emergency.

I think that walkie talkies are often highly over rated, even the more expensive ones that you can get. i have been using motorola mobile phones and puish to talk, over using walkie talkies