Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I decided to buy a pair of these. I tried them out 11/03/2012 ref'ing a paintball game on a 2 1/2 acre field (mostly trees - about 10% open space - about .2 miles from one end to the other) with no difficulty on a FRS channel (Channel 9, CTCSS Sub-Channel 11). They also communicated well with my uniden radios. The real test was yesterday (11/17/2012 [...]) when I was be ref'ing a much bigger event on a field that is almost 20 acres (mostly trees - about 5% open space - over 1/2 of a mile from one corner to the opposite corner) They worked great! On the field they reached cleanly from one side of the field to the other (on channel 9, no sub-channel)... the longest line of sight thru dense wood that I had a chance to test was over a 1/3 mile... but better than that i had to run an errand and on the way back i used one from inside the car on the way back... they worked great from inside the car across about 1/2 mile from the responder at our registration area. About 1/2 that distance was woods and a large church building line of sight between us (That is much better than the uniden I have). I have no doubt I would get at least a mile thru dense wood. I probably won't get a chance to try them on a larger field until January. (If I don't post an update by Feb. 2013, ask for an update) (If I remember, I'll post a video of part of our field.) Yes, I would buy another set. The reason for only 4 stars is I haven't tried them at a really long distance yet. The largest field I've played on is Wayne's World (about 1/2mile x 1/3mile)([...]) Review Update: January 19, 2013 I did order more radios. We liked them so much we ordered 2 more radios. They went into use today. I HUGE motivator for getting more of these radios is their battery life! When we use them they are on continuously from just before 9am until about 2pm The charge is lasting us 4 - 5 game days before they run out of a charge. If I could bump my rating up to 4.5 stars, I would. The reason for only 4 stars is still the same... I haven't tried them at a really long distance yet. Review Update: February 17, 2013 I now have 6 of these. I tested them for distance yesterday (2/16/2013). On channel 11 (no sub-channel this time), I got 1.2 miles away in a mostly open area with some trees, and a hill preventing line of sight. There was an elevation difference too... about 100 feet. from the downhill radio the hill went up 100 feet over a distance of a 1/2 mile. I traveled level for a distance of almost 3/4 of a mile beyond that. At that distance the communication had a lot of static, but it was still very usable. There's a picture of the test location (Fishhawk, Florida)in my facebook photos (facebook dot com /RickLiebespach)... The album titled "WFC Fields) (There is a thin blue line from radio to radio, so you can see what was between us at our most distant conversation) I suspect I could have gotten 1.5 miles, but I think my partner turned off his radio. This was using channel 11 (no sub-channel this time). This will serve my needs very well. (I play and referee paintball games on large fields) As a result of this test, I am now upping my rating to 5 stars.