Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After finding myself yelling across the park like a crazed mother as my little one scooted down the path happily oblivious to the ever-growing distance between us... I realized I needed a better solution. My kiddo has always been 'independent' and I don't want to squash that tendency, but I also don't need to lose her at the mall or on a simple walk! I found these and they are P.E.R.F.E.C.T!!!! OMG!!! The fact they come with a lanyard or a wrist band is huge! She wears it as a watch (Like Penny from BOLT!) and I have it on a lanyard so I can also walk the dog or carry stuff. I turned hers to VOX mode (ie: she just has to talk into it and it transmits to me), I have mine on Push To Talk (PTT), so I can have a conversation with someone without activating. Eventually we just turned VOX off on hers as she actually likes to push the button... I also LOCKED the buttons on her walkie so she can't mess around with them or push the wrong one and change our Frequency by mistake... The instructions are pretty crap, but once you play around for a little bit, you will get it. Simple steps to setup: 1 - Plug them in and leave them alone to let them just fully charge (you should always do this with new electronics) for at least 6 hours. 2 - Turn them on - (small on/off button on top of unit between ears - hold it down for about 3 seconds) 3 - Turn on FM mode (optional) - (press the small FM button between the 'eyes' - (Personally, we turned on FM Mode - I think the sound quality is better, you can select a frequency and a corresponding encryption to negate interference (there is a chart, but we just made ours the same number) see next steps... 4 - Press the MENU button (the top right eyelid) - this is the most important button as you use it to scroll thru all the other options. (it is also the LOCK button to lock out all the keys except PTT - if you hold it down for 3 seconds) * Press menu ONCE to select the channel you want (between 1 and 22) (use the left eyelid (volume/up) and eyeball (volume/down) to change the channels) * Press menu TWICE to select the encryption channel you want (between 1 and 38) - again use the left eyelid/ball to choose the channel. ****NOTE!! Both Walkies need to be set to the SAME Channel and ENCRYPTION in order to work (and also FM if you selected that option). Once you have done the above 4 (.2) steps - the walkies will work great!! Volume buttons are the left eyelid/eyeball. and to LOCK the buttons except for PPT hold down the Menu (right eyelid) for 3 seconds. The rest of the options are just that... options: * Press menu THREE times to select VOX mode (ie: kid doesn't need to press PTT button)... I've had mixed results with this - it works if you have a lot to say, but not so much if you just say 1 word ... also it picks up a lot of false sounds so there is a lot of blurping for no reason... (there are 3 sensitivity settings)... try it but I've since turned it off. * Menu 4 Times is the 'call tone' - you can choose from 10 different tones... this only gets activated if you press the right eyeball on your device and then it makes a call tone to the other device... this may be good if you need to really get their attention!!! But it doesn't seem to activate speaking... you still need to then hit PTT... The rest are just whatever. These are great, and I also don't see why you couldn't add more devices, as long as you are all on the same frequency/encryption channel. and YES - there is a Headset Jack!!