What's a radio good for anyway?

[LeoG]

My wife is heading up to NYs to babysit our 2 grandsons while my boy does his bowling tournament thing.  I came home for lunch to see her off.  After she got settled into the car I took off and by the time I got to the shop she's calling me on the radio.  She doesn't have a radio in her car so she was in the house.

Turns out she couldn't find her phone and radioed me to call it so she could hear where it was.  I did, she found it LOL.

 

And that's why a radio is better than a phone, in this case LOL.

[TrikeRadio]

Radios for the win!   

[WRYZ926]

I kept my land line phone for a while since my youngest son was always misplacing his cell phone. He would use the land line to find his cell phone.

[tcp2525]

Yeah, back in the day of the old 3-watt analog "mobile phone" the wife would get into her car and call me to say she's on her way home from work. After a while I asked her why don't you call me from the phone on your desk before you leave? I told her that I love her, but you're costing me $0.25-cents each time you call from that damn phone. I'm glad the novelty wore off after a few weeks or I would be in the poor house.

[LeoG]

You know how women like to talk.....

[amaff]

1 hour ago, LeoG said:

You know how women like to talk.....

They must all be using voice modifiers on the repeaters around here 

 

[LeoG]

We have 4 or 5 that semi regularly use the repeater.  My wife isn't one of them but on rare occasions she'll chime into a conversation.  She has no problem contacting me though our repeater though.  I still think she thinks it's our private frequency.  I know it's not.

[WRUE951]

i love the radio when RV'ing the highways with friends..  Defiantly would be lost without it 

[nokones]

I always thought it was for impressing the chicks!

[hxpx]

My kid likes running around outside with an FRS radio and talking to me, which is fun for both of us.

He also likes kerchunking and hitting the call/alarm button until I take the radio away, which is only fun for one of us. But we all start somewhere.

[dosw]

16 minutes ago, hxpx said:

My kid likes running around outside with an FRS radio and talking to me, which is fun for both of us.

He also likes kerchunking and hitting the call/alarm button until I take the radio away, which is only fun for one of us. But we all start somewhere.

Set his radio to channel 8-14.

 

[WRYZ926]

3 hours ago, LeoG said:

You know how women like to talk.....

As much as my wife likes to talk, I still can't get her to talk on the radio.

[hxpx]

2 hours ago, dosw said:

Set his radio to channel 8-14.

Me: I set our radios to channel 9 and locked the controls. Just use the side button, you don't need to touch anything else.
KId: Okay, thanks dad!

[fifteen minutes later]

Kid: I pushed a bunch of buttons and now I can't talk to you.
Me: Well, you unlocked the controls, set the radio to channel 3, set a PL tone, turned the volume all the way down, and... turned the roger beep back on.

 

Little man loves his roger beep.

They're FRS radios with a .5W TX max - we did a test and I can't pick them up outside the neighborhood. He did turn it to CH 15 (462.550) once and freaked out when it picked up local repeater traffic. That was fun. Couple of older guys talking about lunch and sports.

[WRDJ205]

Over the weekend my son’s phone was dead so he put in his Sonic order to me over the repeater.   Oh well…. 

[NCJeb]

I must admit I’m enjoying this thread—and a few years down the road, I look forward to the “kid misadventures of radio” all mentioned. I own 15 acres of woods on the side of a mountain, and my wife and I have taken to using HTs if I go for a walk and want to leave the cell phone (and the rest of the world) behind. But I totally see in the future, when we have a couple munchkins of our own, using said radios to call them when supper is ready…and all the fun that will come with little explorers chit-chatting through the woods…

[WRHS218]

My granddaughter is at the age where she enjoys talking to me on GMRS using her parents radio or sometimes her grandmother's handheld. Good times.

[Jaay]

I'm all over the place lol! Local Gmrs repeaters, Simplex and Repaters on Ham radio, and on Murs as well, And on Brandmeister 3100 and 93 on Dmr. 

[amaff]

A friend of the family works for Northrop, and invited us and a few others to go out and watch the SLS booster test at their test range north of SLC yesterday.

Of course, being out in the middle of nowhere means spotty cell service, which means "I packed a bunch of radios to hand out to the drivers in our group when we rendezvoused in town" a ways before the launch site.

And as always, they did exactly what we needed them to, to coordinate as we went through the huge amount of traffic and people who were out there for the test.

[SteveShannon]

They released a press statement saying their engine failure was due to a stray radio transmission.

 

 

[amaff]

16 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

They released a press statement saying their engine failure was due to a stray radio transmission.

Hey hey hey, it only failed, like, a little bit!

It ran fine for 100 seconds out of a 120 second burn. 83%'s still a passing grade in my book! 

 

I know, not ideal, but it kinda made it more memorable for us watching. Definitely for the group of kids we had with us.

[SteveShannon]

1 minute ago, amaff said:

Hey hey hey, it only failed, like, a little bit!

It ran fine for 100 seconds out of a 120 second burn. 83%'s still a passing grade in my book! 

 

I know, not ideal, but it kinda made it more memorable for us watching. Definitely for the group of kids we had with us.

I have wanted to go to Promontory to watch some of these tests for years.  I’m envious.  Good for you taking your kids!!!  It’s never too early to get them interested in science.

[amaff]

Speaking of that "anomaly" (...blowing the nozzle off the back is a hell of an anomaly, but anyway...), it looks like I accidentally captured at least part of it going sideways. Not the very big, not rocket-exhaust shaped flame in this shot:

Vs 'nominal' a few seconds prior:

1 minute ago, SteveShannon said:

I have wanted to go to Promontory to watch some of these tests for years.  I’m envious.  Good for you taking your kids!!!  It’s never too early to get them interested in science.

It was SO worth the trip. If you get the chance, do it.
Just, you know, bring plenty of water and be prepared for delays.

[Davichko5650]

On 6/23/2025 at 3:28 PM, nokones said:

I always thought it was for impressing the chicks!

When the first brick sized Cellphones came out, a buddy got one for work. He'd call us when he was down at the lake and ask us to call back in 5 minutes. He would walk by the sunbathing girls on the beach and take that call trying to impress them.

 

Didn't really work...

[WRDJ205]

2 hours ago, Davichko5650 said:

He would walk by the sunbathing girls on the beach and take that call trying to impress them.

Maybe try it with a Baofeng?

[TrikeRadio]

26 minutes ago, WRDJ205 said:

Maybe try it with a Baofeng?

With a wrist lanyard strap!