My brother and I take a fishing vacation on the St. Lawrence River each year. We take two 14-ft aluminum boats with 10-15 hp outboards and range about 3 miles up and down river from the fishing camp, so we could be as much as 6 miles apart but most of the time would be closer to each other than that. There is a large island in the middle of that range, about 4 miles by 500 feet. We've been using CB walkie-talkies, one 4-watt and one 2-watt, to stay in touch for years, to alert the other person on how they're biting and on what, when to come in for lunch, just general chit-chat. They worked OK most of the time, but not all. Skip from the Carolinas is always a big, annoying problem, and range is never what you'd think it ought to be. But now they are aging and not working so well. We're looking into getting replacements. I'm wondering if some of the FRS/GMRS radios that are optimistically labelled as having ranges from 24 to 30 miles (Yeah, I know that's a pipe dream) would do the job. Maybe some that include the weather channels, too.
