I got some at Best Buy. I think they were about $60 for a pair and work great. Last summer I had a shoot in New Mexico and had to direct people in cars out on mountain roads. I had planned on just using cell phones but got there and discovered that a couple of miles off the interstate, there is no cell phone service. So a trip to Best Buy solved the problem. I believe the range of the ones I got is something like 7 miles under ideal conditions.

Hey Bill,

Can you tell me the model numbers by chance? I have a $100 gift Ccertificate to Best Buy, so I can purchase the one you're talking about!

Thanks!

Murph

Sorry, I don't have them with me now. The Best Buy I went to has a great selection, from about 30 bucks up to about 100 per pair. I remember wanting the ones that used AA batteries instead of AAA. I'm pretty sure the ones I got were either $59.95 or $69.95, and the quality of reception is amazingly good for such a low price.

Walkies take lots of abuse and need big power stores in order to go all day--making the bad ones really bad (they get broken easily and run out of power fast) and the good ones really good (a night in the charger and they're good the whole next day). And since you usually need a lot of them for the shoot (but they're useless when production is idle), this is precisely the sort of item that's best to rent rather than buy. (My two cents.)

Mine usually ran all day on a set of AA batteries. I think they hold either 4 or 6. I used to use the expensive professional walkie talkies years ago, but with the good quality cheapo ones available today, I don't see any need to spend that kind of money.

The Motorola Talkabouts can be excellent if you want to keep your costs down. They are the main use for Airsoft players (kind of like paintball). They are rugged enough, don't break easily, AAA batteries can last most of the day but are easy and cheap to change and can be used with earbud/mic combinations. Multi-channels and vox, if you need it. Highly recommended.