The other day I ran down a mope who had just tried to steal a car. He had a walkie in his pocket, more than likely to keep comms with his drop off/pick up guy. I decided not to make a big deal about it in an effort to play Columbo. Maybe they would keep it up and I could get some good Intel on them. I had a fifty dollar academy card to burn so I went to see what I could find. Some great features on this unit are the ability to recharge it's nicad batteries or swap them out for alkalines. Secondary to that the charger cord is USB. So it will plug in to my solar panel charged. The reviews were pretty decent on them as well, citing a mile to a mile and a half in urban terrain and holds its charge for days even while on for excess periods of time. I had a set of Cobras, not sure on model, "over there" we used to keep tabs on haj early in the game. (Once they started getting frequent 556's to their cranium they wised up, only took a year) Anyways, they proved themselves rugged then. I'll bust them out of the packing and run them thru some tests when I go back to work. If nothing else they will be a good scanning tool and a weather radio.