UHF Hand-Helds

as you said above.. if your only using them a couple of times a year.. $85 is cheap alternative for easy way of communicating between two boats...
also a good safety measure too....
as long as you are within the 'limits' .. these UHF units are fine.
we use them at work (large building site) and i've noticed they take a bit more of a battering then the more expensive ones too.. well worth their money.. keep them charged and clean and you'll have no worries...

are these the ones that come with the desktop chargers ?..

I got a pair for around the same price. Used for car-car communication until I got a 5W unit, and I definitely found limits (volume, distance), but overall worked great and was good value. Can't see any problems for what you said your requirements are. Carry a spare set of AA batteries with you might be an idea too.

I bought 2 packs of 2 radios ( ie: 4 in all) last year from Tandy. The packs were $59- each and the radios use 3 x AAA's. I thought the kids might be able to use them for entertainment (as long as I policed them to not use a channel that others are using!!!!)
The batteries don't last very long (about 4 hours if the radios are being left on and used). The are around the place at home gathering dust.
I must advertise them in the Trader soon. There's nothing wrong with the way they operate and I can sell you a pair for $40-; ideal for you if you only want to use them infrequently and are prepared to put new batteries in each time you go out.
Cheers
Roachie

We bought a pair last year, great value for money. We use them when positioning the caravan, as well as convoy communications. HAven't found a better priced package.

Have had trouble with the NiCad batteries going south after a couple of uses. Be careful to do the initial charge in accordance with the user manual and don't remove from charger when the light says to. Ours are now cactus as a result of not doing the first charge proprerly. We now carry good quality disposables as back up.

Wizard
Gold Coast

We've got a couple of Uniden UH-036 I think they are. I didn't bother with the desktop charger version. Just use rechargeable AAA Energizer's if you want to.

They are really small, great for short range comms and cost me I think $30-odd for the pair. Really handy. Work car-to-car for up to about 1,000m or therabouts.

I don't think the Uniden's are any dearer and mine are really well made for the price.

Smocky.

For anyone else - Scotty will no doubt take up Roachie's offer - i got 2 Unidens new from eBay quite a bit cheaper than Dick Smith's price. I just need the rechargable AAAs now.

All of the radios that use AAA batteries are will keep you digging into your pocket for another set of batteries if you use the radio very much.

The fewer the number of batteries the greater the battery consumption for any given power output. The small the battery the less charg it can hold.

So, fewer smaller batteries is not the way to go for battery life (or opertaing expense).

BUT, if you use them twice a year for a short time, and have a bulk battery pack purchase I guess they are OK.

Another thing, the smaller lower cost (ie sub $99) usually dont have provision for external aker and microphone. These are great if you are out of the car & need to be in comunitcation with the vehicle recovery team but need to keep your hands substancially free.

Dave