By Bill Thorne
In this day and age of smart phones boasting limitless data capabilities, you may not think you need a set of walkie talkies. In the rural parts of the Ozarks, where I fish and hunt, I have found the Midland X-tra Talk, GXT Walkie Talkies to come in handy.
These “Mossy Oak” matte finish radios look great and have extremely good range of up to 36 miles but typically around two miles in the woods. The whisper mode is extremely useful in the deer woods when communicating with a hunting buddy.
When wade-fishing trout streams or running the Louisiana marsh chasing redfish, the Midland GXT, waterproof radios have not let me down yet. They work great in open water as well as navigating narrow channels and bayous. When our cell phones have let us down the walkie talkies have come thru with a great signal and long battery life.
These radios support a total of 42 channels and each standard channel supports 142 privacy codes. The GXT is also a weather radio, supporting both NOAA weather channels and NOAA weather alerts.
These retail under $100 and have a three-year warranty. If you enjoy the great outdoors and would appreciate the security of a good set of walkie talkies, I recommend the Midland GXT.