******
- Verified Buyer
Crap antennas 3 broke when screwing on replaced them with factory uv5r antennas and now they work way better. Just replace the antennas retivus with oem 5r onesFor the money there okay. The seller is great to work with I'd give them 5 stars.The range on these are about 100 yards, and if you are out of site, forget about it. I bought these to use in Logging Country in Northern Maine and could not talk the the vehicle directly in front of me unless we were stopped and hanging out of the window. JUNK. I had a better set as a todler to play with around the house.If you are looking for a set of radios that you can use to connect up to 6 people (more if you get additional sets), the Retevis RT21V Business MURS radio might be a good option for you. I say might because the value you derive from these radios will depend on how you plan to use them.Here is what I like about this particular product:The radios come with a factory charge that will allow you to get up and running right out of the box. The charge on mine allowed for a good few hours of communication and testing before needing to charge (more on charging later).There is room for expansion on these radios. You can buy additional parts like earpieces, longer-range antennae, etc. That's nice as it allows users to customize their experience a bit.Usage is also quite simple. Two knobs on the top allow you to select the channel you want to be on, power on/off the devices and adjust the volume. It's all very straightforward.Clarity is also quite good, although some issues exist depending on where you are.Here is what I didn't like:Almost right out of the box, one of the plastic covers for the antenna coil fell off due to a poor glue job. While it only happened to one of them, it makes me wonder about the durability of the rest. Now that the cover has fallen off, removing the antenna is more difficult and the cover doesn't stay on long when put back. I will need to find a way to glue it back on without fixing it to the radio itself. Not the end of the world, of course, but it is an annoying problem.Another thing I don't like is that this 'set of six' is just a box with three other boxes containing 'pairs'. It is fine if you plan on giving a radio to a few different people and having them deal with the charging and maintenance, but if you plan to do it yourself, you will be charging six radios individually. There is no charging dock for the set. Each radio comes with a dock for the removable battery and a USB adapter to plug into the wall. So, for six radios, you need to dedicate an entire powerstrip and a good deal of space just to get them all charged at once. For me, it is not practical to do that and I won't be using these very much as a result.The final thing that I wasn't too impressed with was the range. For me, these had a city range of about two blocks. I was expecting a longer range, but maybe these weren't made to be long-range radios. I will need to go back and read the documentation one more time.In summary, I'd say that there are some situations where these could be a good solution. I can imagine these being good for workplace applications, neighborhood watch scenarios, or communication within an apartment building.This is a decent set at a reasonable cost. Crisp sound and a good range. User friendly. Ear piece is comfortable to wear. A really great range. Charges up efficiently. A dependable set so far. Simple to tune and no problems with excessive distortion. I ca adjust volume quickly as needed. A rugged design that should last for years. Belt clip stays secure. Nice gift idea. Quality technology.These Rechargeable Long Range Walkies came in Very Handy on our Motorcycle Ride for Disabled Veterans, They were fully charged and never ran down with as much as we used them. very easy to operate and ease of use. light weight so you don't feel like you have it on your person.got a bit of rain and they held up in that,, easily able to hear over the roar of the bikes, can also add headphones as well if you choose to do so. the chargers that came with it are easy to plug in and charge them as well.this is much better than the ones we have tried to use in the past.Please note that the RT-21V is a VHF radio (hence the "V" at the end). They do sell a UHF version of the RT-21 (has no "V"). MURS is akin to the 900Mhz ISM band in that you need no license to operate legally. Don't expect to talk across town with these. They are perfect for 97% of all small businesses (think hardware stores, open-air lumber yards, warehouses, etc.). These only output 2-watts power and have shorter antennas; you can install larger antennae if you want. There are a few informative YouTube videos that thoroughly test this radio. Their results confirm the stated specifications from Retevis. Being VHF, these are most likely not compatible with FRS (which operates on UHF). After testing these OUTDOORS (not inside of a vehicle or inside of a room), their range is excellent; expect that behaviour with VHF. I personally want to test out the Retevis RT10 ISM 900Mhz portable radios - they have excellent range and work well in crowed rooms. I did dabble with the factory programming software and it allows you to activate "scramble" which is not encoded; its just voice inversion (and not legal to use on the MURS bands?). The factory software DOES NOT allow you to change the frequencies to whatever VHF one you want -- I confirmed with this Retevis support. Note that this could **possibly** work with an unpublished workaround (as it has been done with some other frequency-locked Retevis radios...). In summary, this is a great MURS radio for those that use MURS (which A LOT of businesses use.) It will be 100% compatible with other MURS radios even if they use CTCSS/DCS squelch; that will be to be programmed with the software.I purchased this set of walkie talkies for our school. They've got excellent range and easy to use.One thing I found most useful are numbers on the channel dial. Most walkie talkies in this price range announce the channel as you move up and down. This does as well, but the numbers on the dial make it easier to find the channel - especially for students.It gets 5 stars from me.
