CantBarsed Review: Motorola Talkabout TA288 2 Way Radio
 My 10 year old son wanted to go out and play by himself and this was the next best thing to electronic tagging I could come up with.
At around £100 each they're not a casual purchase but apart from being stylish and well made they're a one-off cost 'cos the calls are free. We bought two, one blue, one burgundyalso available in black.
We use them to keep in touch while he's out on his bike, out of sight shopping in the town centre, or when his dinner is ready. In common with the other two-way radios the big disadvantage is having to push to talk which leads to seemingly endless frustrating "say again, over" stilted conversation. However, with a bit of perseverance you'll improve and learn to cope with people sniggering behind your back and enjoy the fun and peace of mind these gadgets provide to worried parents.
If you ever travel in convoy by car with friends they provide an excellent lifeline when one car gets stranded at traffic lights and also helps entertain the kids chatting with each other.
The TA288 claims a range of 3km, depending on terrain and the weather, but in practice from house to outside the signal starts to break up between 1-2km. Each unit comes with a Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery which gives 1 hour continuous talk time and 14 hours standby time along with a mains charger which takes around three hours to reach full charge. There's also a nifty durable black plastic snap-on belt-clip which keeps them handy while not actually in use.
Optional extras include an battery pack to enable the use of standard AA batteries and a hands free earphone/mic which can be used in voice activated hands free mode (Ivox)
There are five ring tones which can be used to identify each caller and with 8 Channels and 38 codes to choose between you should be able to find somewhere to chat amongst yourselves. We're never experienced any interference or other traffic and have only ever used the channel/code combination we first set up but do remember your calls are not private.
Here comes the science. The units operate between 446.00625 and 446.09375MHz at temperatures from -20ºC to +55ºC and features a back lit Liquid Crystal Display, Auto Power off, Audible low battery alert, Lock, Scan function (enables automatic detection of incoming calls), Channel/Code Indicator and Battery Level Meter, so now you know.
The TA288 supercedes the bigger and heavier Motorola TA200 and comes recommended for kids of all ages.
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